After being talked into the field of Computer Science by a tour guide at Midland Luthern College in Fremont, Nebraska, I joined the program at Simpson College in 1998 and got my first computer ever that Christmas. Though I got a late start, I dove in head first. I received my Bachelors in Computer Science from Simpson while spending my free time and summers working for the Newton Community School District’s Technology Department as well as Simpson work study program as a computer lab monitor and Progress Industries in their HR department and assisting their technology director (documentation, upgrades, & data entry). Bigger projects included a Y2K upgrade, wiring a school addition while working with, updating, using and supporting Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000 and Mac OS 7.6.1, 9 & X.
After college my first computer gig was as a temp for Maytag Corporation in my hometown. My temporary status quickly was converted to full time and I worked my way from a Help Desk Analyst to being one of the last few people in the tech department that helped to shut the headquarters down in Newton and pass operations to Whirlpool in Benton Harbor, Michigan and India. My roughly 3 and a half years of experience with Maytag consisted of working for and with a very large organization with an IT department of about 90 people. I worked mostly with the infrastructure side with mostly 1st and 2nd level support. My specialization was in supporting the Sales Department. This meant focusing on VPN’s, home internet connections (wired), wireless was just in its infancy and we didn’t like to support it at the time. As I advanced and the company was acquired, I moved into more of a procurement, 2nd level support, training, a little networking and mainly a jack of all trades.
When Maytag closed its doors in 2007, my girlfriend at the time was heading back to her home to get her Masters of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska Omaha and I decided for the first time in my life to move to a new town and start over. Let alone it was a huge town for me and a new state. I stumbled across the best possible job for me, which has led me to what I am doing today. I am currently the Director of Information Technology for Burlington Capital. We are a small department working for a small company in the heart of the Old Market doing everything from Real Estate to International as well as various other investment and non-profit work. Some of them you probably wouldn’t believe if I told you. It is some exciting, fast pace work with a heavy load of in house development. I love the company I work for and get to play with some pretty exciting stuff every day.
In my free time I still can’t get away from technology. I enjoy playing with all the new social networks and apps on my new gadgets and try to keep up with the newest in technology and the news that follows it. I have deep roots in Microsoft’s environment, but truly am a huge Google Fanboy. I’m not necessarily an Apple hater, but definitely not a fanboi of the iDevices. I still dabble with an iPad and iPhone here and there for the app ecosystem, but I carry a Pixel phone so it works with my Google Home, Chromecasts, Chromebook, Nexus tablet, Android Wear smart watch, Google Chrome, Google Drive, Google Music… you get the point. I never could afford Google Glass, but I probably have about everything else.