Professional

Tribune Interactive

I currently develop web applications for Tribune Interactive in downtown Chicago.

GreenLite Web Solutions

GreenLite Web is a web development company based in East Lansing, Michigan. As the lead developer, I oversaw all aspects of the development process. I was also responsible for most of the actual development. The websites I created were built on Drupal. a content management system written in PHP.

My primary duty was tying various Drupal modules together to create the functionality that Greenlite's clients depended on. We deployed everything from simple blogs and photo galleries, to complex E-commerce solutions. Sometimes I would customize modules to better meet a client's needs. I was also responsible for server administration and day-to-day maintenance on a collection of live sites (totalling around 40 as of this writing).

Global Crossing

I worked for Global Crossing initially for an internship which became full-time employment after the internship ended. My main project was to plan and implement an audit for one of the billing systems. They had not planned on having me write the audit program, just work with a few members of the team to design it. The program was to be written in COBOL, just as much of their other billing software was. I convinced my manager to lend me his COBOL manual. I poured over the book and in 2 days had learned enough to write the program – which I did. I had had no previous experience with COBOL.

After completion of the audit program, I was tasked with updating several of the modules on a monitoring system written in Java. My managers were aware that I had no specific knowledge of Java. However, I did have a profound understanding of object-oriented programming, design patterns, and best practices. I successfully executed the updates and was then asked to write a front-end to my audit program in Java. I developed the program but left the company before I could see it implemented.

Academic Computing and Network Services (Michigan State University)

At ACNS I worked for the Wireless department. The job had two main duties. The first was the deployment and upkeep of wireless access points across the MSU campus. We would walk around with tablet PCs running a wireless monitoring program to check the signal strength across a given area. We were also responsible for determining the number and placement of access points based on a building's construction and layout. The second duty was maintaining and upgrading the custom web application that the department had for tracking access points. This was the part of the job that I loved. (Although it was pretty cool to walk around all of the old buildings on campus. I even got to tour the campus power plant. Yes, even the power plant has wireless Internet.) The custom web app was written in PHP. Each year the student employees would maintain it and add new features. I simplified several of the search pages and created an inventory subprogram.