Programming Background

Getting Started...

My programming background is pretty simple. I started out as a hobbyist programmer (as it seems most do nowadays), and eventually finished a Bachelor's degree at Purdue University in Information Technology in May of 2003. I started programming somewhere around the year 1995 using Microsoft QBASIC. As time went on, I migrated to Visual Basic 6 - and what a change that was. Afterwards, I got hold of Microsoft Visual Studio 2002, and started playing with Visual Basic .NET, and have since stayed up to date with Microsoft's .NET versions.

Job History, Relevant or Not

Purdue University, Westville, IN
While I was going to school at Purdue, for part of the time I was a Computer Lab Technician. This involved helping students with computer-related issues in the computer labs.

Jet Corr, Valparaiso, IN
I started off with a Data Entry position, and quickly transitioned to writing a front-end to their Customer Complaint Database (which at the time was just a poorly written Microsoft Access database). This was a year-long project, and I was unfortunately laid off shortly after I had completed it.

Pratt Industries, Conyers, GA
Pratt Industries owns Jet Corr. After being laid off, Pratt Industries hired me on a contract basis to move my Customer Complaint Database System to one of their plants in Conyers, Georgia. I started going back to Purdue University at the end of this transition.

Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
For the one semester that the department exsisted, I worked on putting computers together from scratch (taking cases, dropping motherboards, drives, etc in them), and delivering them to people that needed them on campus.

SEI Information Technology, Merrillville, IN
I worked here for 1 year as a Customer Service Representative. We were the Tech Support for the R.R. Donnelly Printing Corporation. Shortly after I left, the company merged with the Moore Wallace Printing Corporation, and SEI was no longer used as Tech Support, as the new company brought in their own IT Staff.

The Genesis Foundation, Valparaiso, IN
I was hired here to do C# Web Development. I worked on many many projects for the first 2 years I was there. Due to downpayment assistance (DPA) market issues with FHA and the IRS, I decided to take a job in Arizona, for security reasons.

Citation Publishing, Scottsdale, AZ
I worked at Citation for about 6 months. Due to several reasons, I had to move back to Indiana. While at Citation, I worked on DLL's that parsed regulatory HTML texts into a format that the company could use for it's main product. After leaving Citation, I was able to get my old job back at The Genesis Foundation...

The Rainy Day Foundation, Valparaiso, IN
December 31, 2008 marked a scary time in my life, and in the lives of many others. That was the day The Government officially shutdown DPA. The Genesis Foundation had to close its operations. Fortunately, I was kept on board and hired into The Rainy Day Foundation where I perform the same duties that I did at The Genesis Foundation.