Intro Post & WiP
Tags: beginners, firstpost, learning
Published: 2023-11-13 23:40:33


![Forest Gump Waving Hi](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0p3t6mr2e7a07a2i0ngq.gif)
In the spirit of traditional new beginnings...

**Hello World!**

I anticipate evolving this document as the information becomes outdated or N/A but for the time being here's some background dump...

## **TLDR:**
I am a software dev in the Chicago area with experience in systems integrations, aka digital plumber, creating the "pipes" and processors that move/transform data inter- and intra- applications, DBs, teams, vendors, etc. My experience so far has lead me to work for the Education and Finance industries over the past 10+ years. My self taught dev experience includes: -in no particular order-

- Linux (Ubuntu - dev OS)
- Java (Primary language for my work projects)
- Camel (EiP)
- Spring (Latest framework utilized for builds/config management previously Maven)
- Kubernetes (Got rid of our pets for cattle)
- Various means of data schlepping; File I/O, APIs/REST/[A-]Sync, SQL DB transactions, CSVs & all such dubbed files that were anything but comma separated >.<
- HTML/CSS/JS (moderate frontend exp. for various projects)
- hm... probably more to come as I think of it or learn it. There are plenty of dev concepts I have and still dabble in but going forward, I will be building Git projects to speak to my experience.


## **Not so TLDR:**
I've been in the tech space -loosely speaking- since...hm now that I think about it, I'm not sure which came first;

**Jarring blast from the past alert**

![WebTV Logo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/puxz823a44fzr0tc2bfg.png)

or if I was on one of these at school before having WebTV in our home...

![1998 iMac colors](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/p3pjbvq1al0b3a2pcsq7.png)
I do know that WebTV was our first "computer" if you can call it that... maybe just access to the internet. Despite its flop, it was a monumental experience for me nonetheless.

Shortly after that, our first actual computer was an iconic -to the time- beige tower, sporting a flashy "never obsolete" sticker;  an eMachines computer with a blazing 500MHz processor and I can only assume 32MB of RAM? 


![eMachines PC tower](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/o8e9x8fykr3e6qjpw870.jpg)

It was on that machine that I learned hardware upgrades when my dad and I wanted to play an RC aircraft simulator to learn how ot fly the real things. We found out we needed a GPU upgrade so I got to studying and learning WAY more than I needed about the computer internals; mobo, CPU, GPU, RAM, HDD, PSU, and I/O peripherals. 

I followed that line of interest all the way through school, with PC games being of greatest interest of course -shocker, I know- but along the way I tinkered with HTML/CSS thanks to MySpace's flashy profiles, and performance tuning/overclocking to keep playing the latest games on the oldest hardware, network setups for LAN parties, and ultimately coding for setting up some automation scripts for... a thing

![SNL Learning Thai...for...a thing](https://i.imgur.com/rxT6JSc.jpeg)

Entering the job market I first worked for a couple retail tech giants, then landed a student job as a computer support technician in college. After graduation I had to transition into a contract role as a tech liaison for a project, until that was complete and I was absorbed into a Java/Web dev team where I grew the most as a dev thanks to my supervisor, co-workers, and other team members.

Changing financial times and family obligations lead me to leave that position and join a larger company with my same job title but vastly different scope. Virtually no coding, a few challenges, and a year later I'm seeking a change of pace and looking to expand/improve my career in a bigger way than before, entering the job market with more to offer and seeking a better fit.

I believe that about brings us to current as of this publish date but updates and edits to come I'm sure as things evolve and/or I change my mind about the flow of the story ^.^

![felt cute, might delete later](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/onmhsxx1g51lc6jp89i1.jpg)

Thanks for coming on this intro journey with me!
While mostly just fluff, some may find this as a good grounding/relatable post to connect with. Check out my other posts -once I get to writing them- and I hope they serve better for useful content.



![Leonardo DiCaprio Cheers](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ofs6b5o59vbl5l0qnhmq.gif)Cheers!