Web Developer

I am self-taught, technically minded, and always driven by my interests and pursuits.

My advice to anyone interested in coding, tech, web development, software... Try different things to find what you like, get good at it, and then repeat.

Here is a brief history of my journey with software development:

1997 - programmed music in QBasic. Beep, bop, boop from the old Sound Blaster sound card!
2002 - built my first website with HTML, CSS, and JS at college (music recording degree)
2003 - configured DNS for my dad's website and email
2004 - installed, configured, and built a website with Joomla and a MySQL database
2005 - programmed CNC machines using G and M code and learned about automation. I automated all the machines to produce 3 times the output of the two other shifts combined! I ended up getting fired for being 5 minutes late to work.
2006 - migrated several websites and databases to new hosts and servers
2007 - read an old book on a concept called "relational databases" which inspired me to learn more about website architecture
2008 - architected and built a service department CRM using Drupal, MySQL, and JS
2009 - designed and developed a company website using WordPress, JS, and MySQL. Then began freelance development for various companies.
2010 - advanced my SEO skills and won at Google with the company's two websites appearing 1st in searches!
2012 - developed a logistics app with Ruby on Rails, JS, and PostgreSQL
2015 - architected and developed a React web app and Ruby on Rails API to manage backline rental for festivals and events (a proof of concept to see if I could actually do it)
2016 - moved to California to find a full time job in website development. Got hired in two weeks at a Fortune 500 company as a Lead Front-End Developer.
2017 - built a web style guide and UI component library for the company's website
2018 - worked part-time as a front-end developer on several single page applications running on Angular, PHP, and no SQL databases
2020 - learned about data structures and algorithms. (Knowing data structures is useful, Big O notation basics is useful to avoid blowing up your computer or crashing servers, and algorithms are mostly fancy party tricks for interviews with people with CS degrees who interview you at companies you may want to avoid.)
2021 - started as a Senior Software Engineer for a company working on a React web app and Ruby on Rails backend (be cautious with companies when their developers have been there more than 5 years)
2022 - full time as a freelance, full stack software engineer working mainly with React, Vercel, and various databases
2024 - built and deployed a multi-tenant React/Next.js web app and continued developing my devops skills