It was 1990-something when I started exploring this new thing called the Internet and found out that anyone could create their own website. Determined to create my own space on the web, I picked up an HTML for Dummies book and started building. Around that same time I programmed my calculator to solve complex equations based on just a few simple inputs. I did not realize it at the time but this was the beginning of my passion for programming.
Fast forward some years and I began my college career on track to become a pharmacist. It took a full semester for me to realize that pharmacy was not a good fit. Three and half more years of business and computer courses and I still had no idea what I wanted for a career. It was my first job after college that introduced me to programming full time and I have never looked back.
Principal Software Test Engineer • September 2014 - Present
Though my role as Senior Consultant involved a great deal of programming, moving to the R&D organization as a Software Test Engineer allowed me to once again focus on programming full time. While in this role, my responsibilities have grown from simply implementing test cases to leading the implementation of test automation efforts for new products under development. Working primarily within the Selenium framework, I have written hundreds of automated test cases and saved thousands of manual testing hours while catching countless software bugs in the process. Working closely with developers has allowed for easier development of test automation scripts that catch bugs early in the software development life cycle.
Senior Consultant • May 2011 - September 2014
Implementing Ellucian Recruit as one of my final responsibilities at Northwood University gave me an enormous wealth of knowledge that I was able to carry directly to Ellucian. As a senior consultant for the Ellucian Recruit product, my job was to gather requirements and build complete solutions that exceeded the expectations of university clients. Working with colleagues to ensure consistency and quality of delivery meant spending all of my time either building or improving customer solutions. My efforts included data manipulation via Excel macros, remote client training for customized solutions, collaborating with R&D on software enhancements, and building an end-to-end solution for the migration of 20 million records of historical data for 16 clients into a custom Microsoft Dynamics solution.
Programmer Analyst • July 2006 - March 2011
My first job out of college was at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan. My position as Programmer Analyst introduced me to writing code full time and I have enjoyed programming ever since. My role was to support all programming needs of the Human Resources, Payroll, and Admissions departments. During my time at Northwood I built and maintained an employee time tracking system, implemented countless fixes and enhancements to vendor software, analyzed and implemented cross-departmental processes, and led the university-wide global implementation of Ellucian Recruit, an admissions CRM system.
Master of Science in Administration, Information Resource Management • December 2011
While maintaining a full time career, I pursued my Master's Degree from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. As a fully online program, completing coursework and participating in online discussions took a great deal of focus. It was far to easy to postpone coursework to focus on my full time job or even hobbies. To further complicate my efforts, I switched jobs twice during the course of obtaining my degree. It was only with great support from my family that I was able to hide away for months at a time as I completed day-to-day coursework and a large capstone thesis.
Bachelor of Science in Business, Computer Information Systems • May 2006
In my four years at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, I was enrolled in more business courses than technical courses--a fact that irritated me at the time. It was only after I graduated and started my first job that I realized technical and business skills go hand in hand. While at Ferris, I worked as a computer lab technician and tutor, received four years of scholarships, was a perpetual member of the Dean's List, joined the FSU debate team, and was invited to become a member of the Communication Studies honor society of the National Communication Association.