When my brain needs a break, you will probably find me spending time with family and friends, hitting the gym, walking my dogs, cooking, reading, or playing Yu-Gi-Oh.
If I am killing time on the computer, I am usually fixing my Arch install, coding side projects like this, gaming, making 2D and 3D art, or attempting to create listenable music.
For Christmas of 2010, my mom took me to MicroCenter and let me pick out parts for a budget desktop. After days of watching YouTube videos on my iTouch, I finally assembled it myself! I was so proud that I got my rig (Athlon X4, Radeon HD 5770, 256GB HDD, lol) to successfully POST. Then, after purchasing and installing Windows 8, I realized my Steam library was empty... I had no games to play (thank God for TF2, but it was no Halo 3 or Reach).
I scoured the internet for the best games and stumbled upon World of Warcraft. I instantly fell in love with the idea of the game, but I needed money. Forty dollars upfront and fifteen per month was no small task at the time. I eventually joined an older schoolmate who was running a computer repair business. He originally focused on high-frequency repairs like MacBook batteries and iPhone screens. As his business expanded, he received more inquiries for and eventually offered services for hard drive recovery, software troubleshooting, SOHO network setups, home A/V installations, and virus removal. It was my first real job in IT, and it laid the foundation for everything that followed.
In 2018, while studying Computer Science at Missouri State, I landed an internship with Ameren, a Fortune 500 energy provider serving most of Missouri. I joined a team responsible for migrating users, their content, and their configurations from SharePoint 2016, an on-premises system, to SharePoint Online in the cloud, all while ensuring minimal disruption to users. While the job was straightforward, I knew I was not as experienced or trusted as the more senior programmers. Without realizing it at the time, I naturally took on more of a project management role: communicating with stakeholders, discovering and developing requirements, tracking project activities, updating project artifacts, and reporting progress. I still learned a lot about AD, Azure AD, and PowerShell though!
My internship was extended into the summer of 2019 after my graduation was postponed due to not completing a required research project. I continued on the same team, acting in largely the same capacity, with the goal of establishing Microsoft Teams as the only officially supported video conferencing platform. This involved ensuring user access, migrating meeting data, standardizing permissions, coordinating with the help desk, providing support, and removing or blocking other apps that served the same purpose.
At the end of my internship, I was told there were no openings on my current team for a full-time developer role. However, leadership recognized my strengths in areas that aligned with project management. They recommended me for an open position, and I was fortunate enough to accept an offer.
I worked as a project manager there for five years, where I met amazing people and gained extensive experience with Waterfall, Agile, and Hybrid project management methodologies. I led a wide variety of projects, including a Workday implementation, digitizing pen-and-paper processes, creating training materials, and managing hardware upgrades across data centers.
In total, I managed over twenty projects in five years. I enjoyed taking ownership of projects and their outcomes, advocating for customers and users, but above all else, I valued earning professional trust through hard work and stewardship.
I appreciated my time as a project manager, but I often felt like I was letting my passion for technology take a back seat.
_ __ ____/\__ _____ .__ __ __.__.__ (_) / _| / / /_/ / _ \ | | ____ ___ ___/ \ / \__| | __________ ____ _ _ __ | |_ ___ \__/ / \ / /_\ \| | _/ __ \\ \/ /\ \/\/ / | | / ___/ _ \ / \ | | '_ \| _/ _ \ / / / \/ | \ |_\ ___/ > < \ /| | |__\___ ( <_> ) | \ _ | | | | | || (_) | /_/ /__ /\____|__ /____/\___ >__/\_ \ \__/\ / |__|____/____ >____/|___| /(_)|_|_| |_|_| \___/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/
