Curriculum Vitae

As I head into more technically slanted posts for a while, I feel that I should probably make clear what my qualifications and history are.  This will help readers to understand what a certain level of experience will yield when ramping up on various technologies.  It should also be noted that this is a very verbose curriculum vitae, but I believe it to be relevant.

I have a long history of network administration and general computing interest.  I have been dabbling in computers since the late 1980’s, where I started on my parent’s IBM PS/2.  Through the years we upgraded (most notably to Windows ‘95 - that was a memorable August for me) until in college I started writing Web sites in HTML and JavaScript (LiveScript).  I left college after a year and changed jobs rapidly for a while.  I swapped out hard drives and imaged computers for Underwriters Laboratories.  I worked as a PC/network tech for May & Speh (now Acxiom).  I installed computers, ISDN and other phones, and did more networking at The Northern Trust.  I did Y2K research for the Chicago Board of Trade.

While I was at The Northern Trust, I started studying for my MCSE.  I took the tests in rapid succession (mostly due to the fact that I knew the material inside and out) and achieved full MCSE status in the late 90’s.  After I completed my MCSE, I took a job teaching MCSE, CIW, and A+ curriculums while I went back to college.  This is really where a lot of my foundation was ingrained.  I knew the material when I was studying for my MCSE; I had it memorized by the time I completed my second year of teaching.

I taught for what was MicroTech Training Center in suburban Chicago.  Although I loved that job and they trusted me when I had no experience as a technical trainer, I left them due to some questionable business practices.  I’ll just say that if they had ever been audited by Microsoft, Adobe, or any other large software companies, they’d have been put out of business.  After MicroTech, I taught a class or two for random companies and then settled in for a while with I/Tech.  Through that job, I started teaching at Wilbur Wright Community College, where I stayed for the duration of my college education.

After graduating with my first bachelor’s degree, I went back to southwest Michigan to help my dad with some major construction on our family house.  I was tired of teaching, so I took a job at a local school district administering about 700 computers.  I stayed up on the latest technology and made it most of the way through my upgrade to MCSE 2000.

Two years later, I found myself writing software on and off for the school district, which I really loved.  I left that job and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where I completed a second bachelor’s (in computer science) and most of an MBA at Neumont University.  Through the school, I took on my current job at Extend Health, Inc.  My current job is leading a team of truly amazing software developers; most of them are smarter than I am.  I make architectural decisions when I’m not writing code, which is how I came to be involved in making decisions that bridge the IT-business divide.

All that to draw this conclusion: I have a solid 10 years worth of network administration, mostly focused in Microsoft technologies with a reasonable amount of Novell and Linux (stick with Gentoo, not Ubuntu!) mixed in.  I have a reasonable amount of experience with software development.  My strongest abilities are problems solving and narrowing potential culprits to determine the true cause of a problem.  This helps me to rapidly assess new technologies, perform pilot deployments, and draw conclusions.

One of the things I value most about being in IT is that there are so many brilliant people around me.  As I mentioned above, most of my team is better than I am at software development.  There are many, many people who are better at raw network troubleshooting than I am.  There are plenty of people who are more intelligent than I am.  What I bring to the table is a well-rounded and well-seasoned background.  Please bear that in mind as you read the more technical posts.