I’m a jack of all trades and love learning new skills. I’m currently a software engineer that was once a graphic designer. I’ve studied other fields from accounting, to law, radiology, optometry and I grew up farming with my family. I love games and puzzles, and I’m up for almost anything at least once.
I have a wonderful wife and a very fat cat who we love dearly. I’m interested in art, robots, nature, stocks, and self-growth. Besides that, everything else is very straight forward.
How did you get started in your career?
I’ve always been interested in computers and art; however, growing up in a farming community I didn’t have a lot of options. After getting a degree in graphic design and working in that industry, I wanted something that was more critical thinking and less repetition. During school I had taken web page design and a few web coding classes. Having really enjoyed these classes, I deiced that going back to school was worth a go.
Starting with a less heavy semester to see if I would like it was a great idea because I loved it and started down the path of getting a software engineer degree. While obtaining the degree I got an apprenticeship as a software engineer at Cerner and the rest fell into place. I’ve been using my graphics skills and engineering skills hand in hand ever since.
What is the best part of your job?
Best part of the job is simple, nothing ever stays the same. Being a developer you get to investigate and look into a lot of systems and coding languages. The industry is always changing so you have to be on top of it. Sometimes uplifting our systems might come faster than we think due to new age industry standards. It also helps us keep in current with skill and knowledge other developers are focused on.
What is the most challenging part of your job?
The extreme amount of information and technologies that are out there. All sorts of information is floating around but knowing just what is the best fit for everything can be very rough. It's a fine line from helping a code base to hurting it. You can also start down a path that leads to a dead end.
There have been several times over the years while researching and testing products I have come across something that I think if we implement it might help us a ton. Only to find out it's not compatible, is to much trouble, or versioning is not going to work. Having a broad scope of knowledge and a deep enough skill set can be the most challenging thing.
What advice would you give someone who is starting their career in your field?
Having been in so many careers and fields I can say there have been a few things that have helped me along the way, but I would say this is a very important one. Understand your limitations and strengths. A lot of knowing these limitations comes back to time management. People over reach in new positions trying to over impress, take on too many challenges, and don’t understand the core information.
Being able to understand and complete your daily job with confidence is very important. You can't absorb everything in one go. It takes time to understand and digest the information. Your foundations are extremely important. Without it you will be unable to grow and build from it. Take notes on things you don’t understand, learn and look up the information. Keep learning and improve your weaknesses while improving your strengths.
What are some rules you live by?
Continuous education is a must.
Work is fast paced. Society is fast paced. Life is fast paced. Things change, and in order to keep growing as a person you must keep learning. Not everything comes from a book. Stay curious, learn from your mentors, peers and anything else you can.
Know thyself.
You can't move forward in life without a direction or compass. You will just wander. Self-reflect, learn from your mistakes and become better for it. Not all inner reflecting is easy. It takes work to overcome hardships, but you will find balance with it and inner peace to reach new heights.
Nothing ventured nothing gained.
Fear, standing still and playing it safe will not guarantee that your dreams and goals will come true. Being afraid, nervous and anxious is normal; you have to push through these feelings. Knowledge, life practice and learning from failures will help.
Failing is not the end, just a teaching moment.
Life is about taking hits, and there will be a lot of them. Some hard, some soft, trick to it is getting back up after you get knocked down. It's all about how many hits you can take without giving up.
We are all just people.
Don’t forget who you are, being rich, poor, sick or healthy we are all people. Show kindness and manners. None are better than another; we are all just in different places in life at different times.
