I began coding as early as 9 years old, managing to convince my parents to buy me a $100 "C++ for Dummies" book, and immediately
I knew programming was what I wanted to do. I continued to explore this as time went on and I began scripting for
video games I was playing, starting with C# scripting for Tribes 2. I moved on to writing with VBScript for a moderation
bot on Starcraft and Warcraft 3, but I was still only performing basic string manipulation and data retrieval.
I then worked for some time with JASS, the coding language for Warcraft 3's custom map engine, and created a few
unique ideas - for example, a ping pong map with simulated physics, or a base-72 encryption algorithm for 'saving'
data securely.
Around this time I began working through Advanced Placement courses in high school; I took as many programming and
IT related classes as I could, including Oracle database, Java programming, and began work on a Cisco certification.
In the Java course, I built a 'game' from the ground up that involved a turret shooting rabbits who were trying
to steal your carrots. Okay, it wasn't a turret, it was a monkey ... and it wasn't shooting, it was flinging feces
- but what do you expect from a high schooler. I cleared Calculus 2 before completing high school and moved on
to a community college for financial reasons. I worked through my courses and earned an Associate's degree, snagging
a few extra programming courses along the way - Python, C++, more Java, and Linear Algebra (which should definitely
count as a programming course)
I moved on to University at Appalachian State. School had begun to take its toll and I had not managed to work up
any new projects in the meantime, but I finished many more programming courses - Software Engineering, Database,
Computer Science Theory, Computer Systems, Data Structures, and advanced Java.
In the last semester of my final year, I ran into personal problems and could not keep up my attendance. I decided
that my best course of action would be to take a short break and return the next semester - but unfortunately,
it was too late to withdraw from my classes. Since the school offered a certain amount of 'replacement' grades,
I felt it was best to take the F's in each course and replace them next semester.
Turns out, financial aid frowns upon failing every course in a semester. Without financial aid I couldn't afford
to return, and never received a bachelor's degree.
From here I began work in my current occupation, remote technical support. I quickly moved to my preferred third
shift, where I was the only employee on shift, and was responsible for handling any and all issues myself. After
a bit over two years I was moved to a Level 2 management position, overseeing all employees during second shift
- but most importantly, I became the person to solve any problems nobody else could solve. I wrote my own interface,
"Support Center 3", to increase productivity and as a personal challenge. I wrote firewall rules, and scripts for
Mikrotik routers that alerted us of problems, and accomplished things we could not do previously - such as limiting
bandwidth in a way that scales with the number of users and how much data they're using. I also automated many
programming processes with these scripts, saving signficant amounts of time.
I was handed other projects I was less interested in and handled them appropriately, picking up skills with Active
Directory, SQL, hardware troubleshooting and security. I was customer facing and the go-to person for writing e-mails,
involving me directly with any problems involving anyone important as a client - unfortunately, because of this
I never learned how to write succinctly (I'm sure you haven't noticed), but I became very good at handling customers
and explaining things, verbose as I might be.
This is where I stand at the moment - I am an IT support manager with a heavy programming background but only an
Associate's degree, seeking to get out of the IT field and into programming. I am pushing my current company to
employ me as a programmer - and as a result, I'm being given small programming projects - but this company is very
small and cannot afford to pay fair wages for a full time programmer. With this website, I'm simply hoping to show
off that even though I do not have a Bachelor's degree, I am more capable than many programmers who do.
