Going beyond a resume, if you want to understand me as a person, understand that I *love* when people tell me something can’t be done (especially if they are willing to pay to be proven wrong), and I’ve made an effort over decades to work on my weak points.
My childhood exposed me to a wide variety of schools, living environments, and conflicts that couldn’t be avoided, so I learned to lean into a challenge when it was unavoidable, and be adept in to avoiding unnecessary conflict.
In high school I got into competitive speech and debate, winning some minor awards, and most importantly becoming confident in front of a room or presenting in general. Coming out of high school, my worst % placement on any subject on the ACT was in the 79th percentile, with most subjects in the 90s, and a 95th percentile composite rank. I had jobs, the loss of a parent, girlfriends, extracurriculars, and cars, lots besides school going on. I wasn’t purely an academic, but by that age enough work ethic had been instilled in me to expect to be at least highly functional in every area, and to be the best or near the best in most areas. I’m a bit of a perfectionist to be sure, I also know that you can do anything but you can’t do everything, and good isn’t necessarily the enemy of perfect.
While I did go to college (3 in fact, trying to find the right fit in terms of expenses and a worthwhile educational experience), I found it at best opulent (College of Idaho), and at worst stifling (BSU), and always a financial burden (WSU, all). I had a 3.something GPA but didn’t graduate due to the loans stacking up, and job I already had. Plus, Will Hunting is my spirit animal, and a wise man once said: “I hear and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do and I understand.”
Through my 20’s, my work was largely sales focused. Around age 25, I started to refocus on tech since it was opportune at the time, and I had some aptitude there. My first big break came when I found a contract retail rep job with Microsoft on craigslist. I was able to parlay that 1 year contract into a permanent “blue badge” role with Microsoft, and take advantage of a bunch of free trainings as a result.
Equipped with some certifications, I struck out on my own as a freelance tech consultant. I was lucky enough to find a couple of mentors in the business community, and work at a really unique very early stage bootstrapped hardware startup, and at a company that makes hospitality POS software for some large properties and clients.
By 30 I was well established in the IT space. In a couple of progressive roles at Tableau, over around 6 years, I grew from being a highly skilled IT technician, to a true DevOps/SRE engineer, and eventually seeing the Salesforce acquisition from the inside. My solid decade of career progression was interrupted by a foray into the nascent blockchain/crypto/web3 space, which I find fascinating and promising on some technical levels, but to say that overall ecosystem left a sour taste in my mouth would put it kindly.
After that interruption in my career progression and adjusting for where I am in life, I decided to take some time off, and enjoyed a ~18 month career break. Now I find myself in a place where I’m back to having full time work. I’m not trying to quit my day job, I enjoy it and want to keep it as a primary source of income, but on the other side of a layoff, I’m starting to look for the right contract engagements to take on the side.
At this stage of my technical career, I have a comprehensive understanding not just of modern service delivery and operational security, but of the software development and operational lifecycles. This means for most organizations and most technical use cases, I’m coming in with highly refined skillsets and knowledge of best practices and tooling that will be transformational for the right customers.
I have managed websites and software development processes and tooling at some of the “coolest” and most reputable tech organizations in the PNW and world, have advanced skills in terms of search optimization strategy and tooling. I can be a game changer for small and medium brands, companies, and property owners seeking to build refined, measurable, and profitable marketing funnels.
I’ve also helped large businesses with things like digital transformation and tools rationalization projects, major infrastructure migrations, and CI/CD/IaC standardization efforts. I can offer insights into gaps in tooling, security posture, and process opportunities, pinch hit as an engineer when necessary, and help organizations build teams that don’t need pinch hitters.
Every organization has weak points. I will find yours, and help make them strengths.