1 ...start
🏫
I first started to use computers in 4th grade, at my elementary school in 1981, in California. It was an Apple ][ on a wheeled cart, with a tv on top. I learned the basic computer maintenance of the day.
I was bored with school. If I got detention, then I was allowed to use the computer during the 1 hr. long detention after school. So, day after day, I'd get detention so that I could use the computer.
2 Apple][
🖥️
I was programing a Defender video game clone on the Apple. I used an Audio Tape recorder, with Audio Tapes as my hard drive. The audio tapes sounded like the squeal of a fax machine. At that time, for me at least, it was difficult to tell the difference between work or play in my process of doing things.
3 NYC/NYU
🎥 📺
I hadn't planned to work in the computer industry. I earned a BFA in Film & Television Production from
NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. I thought that I would do CGI and computer animation in the Movie and TV
industry.
4 Sony Imagesoft
🎮
Upon graduation from university, I almost immediately started with video game creation for the launch of the Playstation with would come out the following year. Moving from video
technician to game designer to producer 16 people were creating a game I had designed back when I was 11 years old. Unfortunately, another PC game, Descent came onto the market, and it was a much less elaborate
version of my game with the identical game play. So, as those things go, fall back and regroup.
5 TSI "Reverence"
🎮🎨
Next, I designed a PC game called Reverence for the PC. Initially, I was hired to design 1/4 of the game levels. However, 2 other designers proved to be bad designers, and I was called upon to completely rework the other two designers set of levels. I was also eventually tasked with designing the intro environment as well. So, overall 4/6 of the sets of environments. Again, Ultimately, this game also fell to publishing issues beyond my pay grade, eliminating it from sales. This is a common occurrence in the video game industry and a reason so many workers leave the industry.
6 TSI "Pillsbury"
🎮🎨
Next, I designed a PC game called Reverence for the PC. Initially, I was hired to design 1/4 of the game levels. However, 2 other designers proved to be bad designers, and I was called upon to completely rework the other two designers set of levels. I was also eventually tasked with designing the intro environment as well. So, overall 4/6 of the sets of environments. Again, Ultimately, this game also fell to publishing issues beyond my pay grade, eliminating it from sales. This is a common occurrence in the video game industry and a reason so many workers leave the industry.
7 ...escape LA
🏄🏻♂️
Living at the time in the mid-90's in Los Angeles, it seemed like Redmond or the Bay Area were the next logical step in my career.
As a California native, by that time, I had seen enough of CA for a while in my life. We moved to Seattle with eyes on Microsoft.
8 Microsoft
🚝
Securing a job at Microsoft, in the Exchange Server Group was not my ideal target: The newly created Xbox Group. Later at an internal interview, I described my ideal game to be more like Minecraft, while they were looking for my First Person Shooter experience, which would quickly become Halo, a game devoid a style, like it was designed by committee. By the time I interviewed for the xBox group, I had already had my fill of every type of FPS-type game. Raised on endless PC FPS games from Doom to Quake, to Duke Nuke'm, my own game, Descent, the other PlayStation Games, the whole FPS genre seemed played out. Which it was, hence, Halo and the AAA-FPS-era took shape in the game industry.
9 Exchange Server
👨🏻💻
Missing out on the xBox group, I stayed in the Exchange Group working on the WebDAV protocol which is used in services such as Dropbox, Box, Google Docs, etc. The protocol is what allows for the distributed authoring and versioning of online documents and files.
10 Marriage & Babies
🕊️ 👼
The hours were taking a toll on my life as I had recently wed my GF and my first child was born.
11 Legato-->EMC2-->DELL
🗃️
I shifted my career to a startup in Bellevue, WA working on Backup and Restore Software for Enterprise-level IT systems at Legato. Due to the nature of the software, I developed an elaborate
computer mainenance schedule for the lab computers testing the software.
12 Exchange & SQL
✨ 💽
At Legato, I worked on the development teams for the backup modules for both the Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server.
13 ...moving to Chicago
🚚🏡
After several releases of the software, and the growing responsibilities of my child, we decided to move closer to our family in IL.
14 Implementation & Maintenance
🏭👨👩👧👦
In IL, I managed the IT systems for a manufacture near my home, where I had the time, closeness to home, and ability to raise my growing family free of worry. This work was straightforward and easy to navigate. Consisting of current operating system updates, regular computer maintenance, and other types of computer maintenance. Sometimes I was programming software, offering it support solutions to end users, building systems, and other A+ type work. When acquiring companies, the correct tech solutions saved many budgets, and saved time.
15 Starting side gigs
🧑💻
In 2013, as my children took less of my time, I began to grow my work by open an IL business to earn outside income in addition to my regular job. Something to provide IT services and solutions to friends, associates, and eventually random strangers.
Most of initial work consisted of Web site work: individual clients with small needs. Helping clients out with monthly maintenance needs and other common place maintenance tips were the business of the day.
As time progressed, the job started to include database issues, printer issues, and every possible computer need.
16 Present Day...
🧞♂️
In 2016, I left the corporate work for good and continued with this business.
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