Get to know me
Professional-ish history
I remember being in high school and walking from class to class helping the teachers fix their computer issues. That was in the 90's. Since then it made sense that I would pursue a career in this field. I wasn't necessarily drawn to computers; they just made sense to me.
My first computer related job was actually not for technically computer work. It was for an advertising company. I was sitting in a pizza joint drawing in my sketch book. Some guy walked past me and said, "Hey do you want to design some web pages for me". How could I say no? I started my foray into graphic design work. This also lead to HTML and JavaScript and eventually into a degree in Computer Science with a focus on Visual Communication.
Let's go back a little further. Back in the 7th grade was the first time I was really introduced to the capabilities of the computer and programming languages. Apple II computers were used at the time for programming. I remember hlin and vlin to draw a little square that I could slowly get to cross the screen. Then a few years later a friend whose dad owned a transmission shop asked if I could write them a program. Of course I said sure. Thus began my journey into programming with visual basic 4. I'll admit; this was an arduous path. This program took a while to get to where it needed to be, but it started a spark, and I've been making programs ever since.
I took a hiatus from officially working on computers to other things for a few years, but soon I entered into the corporate world, at the ground level. It was phone support for a call center. Ok, this wasn't truly corporate it was second-hand crap support for Gateway computers, but it allowed me to learn how to help people with their issues. I learned all the things that could go wrong with Windows systems and how to fix them. After 3 months I was the lead of 40 people. 2 months after that I was training all the people that came in with shiny new MCSA, MCSE, CompTIA A+, etc. I decided to get some certificates of my own.
Actually, after I left this job I took another little hiatus, then I entered the corporate world. I started back at the bottom in a help desk position answering phone calls again. It didn't last, within a few months I was on the level 2 team, then a few months later I was the level 3 team. In my spare time I would automate tasks (and people). I admit that I have an issue. If you can be replaced with a button click, then I wrote the program to replace you with a button click. If you can be replaced with a spreadsheet, then why be in the computer field at all? Management seemed to like this. Not all my coworkers did.
Excel is where I really excelled. I loved VBA programming and made many an amazing spreadsheet. I signed up for as a support person for one of those websites where people would ask support questions and I could answer them. I got rated at their top levels. I remember a when expertsexchange started out and answering a certain amount of questions would get you points and get you rated on their site. I thought this was cool, especially when they would send me shirts after each new tier. I ended up with dozens of these shirts because I wanted to learn all these different technologies by helping others out. Excel and VB is where I gained these highest levels.
Back to the office job; I was introduced to SMS 1.2. I was on the team helping to migrate to System Management Server (SMS) 2.0. Wow, This program revolutionized OS deployment and software delivery. I'd recently gotten my MCSE certificate and was on board for learning all that i could about this technology. We had to handle some mergers and acquisitions. I took over as an Active Directory Administrator/GPO guy. I'd handle the design for the new domain and make sure we had seamless transitions. I'd buy books, go to tech conferences, spend time in online forums to learn more.
SCCM has really been my go to technology for the past 20+ years. As an SCCM admin, you can't really progress unless you understand the backend database. Naturally I had to learn MSSQL, but we weren't just a SQL company. We also had Oracle. Of course as a programmer I had to understand this as well. I got in close with the Oracle DBA and learned all I could about designing databases and understanding the surrounding technologies.
Lets get back to SMS, or at this point we're into SCCM. System Center is a full suite of products, and within those products we have subcomponents. As the System Administrator I needed to become proficient in all of these technologies. With SCCM I was an image deployment specialist, a software packager, a software updates security enforcer, top tier support technician, and go to for anything and everything. If anyone every asked me what I did, the responses would either be "Other" or "Automation specialist", because I was always tasked with the new fire that needed to be put out, or I would need to find a way to make bottlenecks within the business go away. System center had more than Configuration Manager; I also owned Service Manager for ticketing, Virtual Machine Manager to handle Hyper-V Servers, Orchestrator for automation runbooks. Citrix was thrown at me a few times. I handled Lync, then skype, now teams.
I decided to take a small break and start my own software company with a partner. I developed some software and were in the process of negotiations for some work contracts when the stress got to him, and we decided to split. He was the sales and I was the tech. I sucked at sales, and I was given a nice offer to go back to the grind of a job. I took over as a Lead software packager for some mergers and had thousands of titles that needed to all be packaged and go into SCCM. I built a team and we got to it. Over the next few years I again took over the newer technologies.
You know if you understand databases, then naturally you must learn Exchange, because that data is stored is a database as well. So I because an exchange admin as well. As exchange progressed it was managed with the new technology called PowerShell. So, now I must learn PowerShell. and if you know PowerShell, then you can easily handle anything Microsoft puts out these days.
There is more, but it is 3 in the morning and I'm tired. These days I spend my time between lots of meetings, SQL queries, PowerShell scripts, and developing software for this site. I plan to make many blog articles with all these scripts and programs I've written over the years. Be on the look out. They'll be here soon.
Thanks,
^B^
Other...Skills?
I'm just a guy that likes to learn stuff, and then teach other people that stuff.
Other jobs/skills I've held just for the heck of it:
Airplane detailer
Scaffold Builder
Construction Worker
Landscaper
Carpenter
A/C Repair tech
Audio Engineer
Roofer
Mechanic
Bouncer
Teacher
Driver
Counselor
Wildlife Rehabilitator
Electrician
Day trader
Real Estate Investor
Gardener
Photographer
Disc Jockey
Graphic Designer
Publisher
Junior Olympic fencer
Dad/son/brother/husband
send me a note, ask me a question.
B
Not just an IT Guy