I’ve used this space for a lot of things over the years. I’ve had Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA gear reviews, video gaming, hardware hacking, and all kinds of other things. Throughout all of my side hobbies the one that I’ve always retained is the one that’s paid my bills – Computers and Technology.
My career in computers started out in 2003 when I started working as a computer tech while I was working on my CIT degree (network administration). I moved onto being a field tech mostly installing structured cabling of every type imaginable. That position grew into taking care of administration of the network and servers at two locations for the company.
While I was interviewing with Google (one of my dream jobs, still) for LAN support I took a job working for a small software company about an hour from home. I wore various hats there doing QA, Product Demos, customer installations (remote and on site) and local network maintenance. My primary role was software support and testing.
Unfortunately after 13 months of interviewing the Google position didn’t work out. The reason was not directly stated but the recruiter said he felt it was a lack of Linux experience, which was pretty accurate for the time. I was mostly a mac/windows guy with enough Linux skills to get me by, or get me in trouble. That lead me to becoming immersed in Linux/GNU in my free time.
I spent the next 3 years working for a company that produced speech driven computer systems for specific applications and the related software too. I worked as a support specialist with about 10 other very talented folks.
Now I work as a “Sr. Operations Analyst” – which is a pretty generic term. My job can range from custom implementations, loading data, writing complex shell scripts, automation, development, process improvement and providing technical insight. We accomplish this in a purely Linux environment. To date this is the most captivating position I have worked in. While there are frustrating days most of them are spent solving problems with relative freedom as to the approach, as long as it’s scalable. In April 2012 I moved from doing less critical monthly/weekly work to daily processing (as well as doing more things related to managing the systems that we leverage).
I have returned to academia to work more on software engineering as that is where my current interests are leading me.
My other current interests include trying to read 50+ books a year (I’m at 59 for 2012!), weight lifting, Jiu-Jitsu and most-importantly being a good husband and father.