I started building web pages at the age of 12. As you'll see below, I went off to work in other fields starting at the age of 15. I have sailed through the heart of hurricanes, hung off a ship side with nothing but the ocean below, increased the income of a Real Estate office fifty times over, learned the art and craft of the printing industry and I've now come full circle to doing what I love: Creating things
See my story below.
I started professionally working at the age of 15. I left home, flew across the nation and landed my first job working on cruise ships in the Caribbean. Starting out as a deckhand I learned what I needed along the way both as a sailer and as a person. By the age of 18, I was the youngest fully qualified Quartermaster in the Caribbean. This is where I learn life skills, learned to manage others and make decisions that could affect the lives of everyone aboard that vessel. Needless to say, I got very accustom to directing others and managing at a very young age. I faced some of my greatest challenges at sea. I learned every aspect of sailing I could and more than anything, I learned how to be part of a team.
At the age of 20 I moved back home after 5 years at sea. I got a job as a receptionist at a local Real Estate office. There, I put to use the skills I learned at sea, both as a teammate and executive. After learning the industry a bit, I proposed a new production concept for the office completely different than any other known office. The summary of the implementation of my written out plans was that in 2 years the company expanded dramatically increasing the monthly income by a factor of 50. When I left, I was managing half the company running a team of seven people.
At the age of 23 I then moved to LA in order to marry my wife. I got a job at a print shop that had not yet been built. I was tasked with the duty of purchasing all materials that would be needed to build a 185,000 square foot print facility throughout the renovations. I was then given an entry level position at the print shop and by the time production began I was the head of one of three divisions. In my time there I have literally manufactured hundreds of millions of print items and won four industry awards for quality. I am personally trained in all post-print production manufacturing while additionally qualified to print T-shirts. I also created innovative methods of manufacturing which dropped production times of certain jobs from 4 hours to 30 minutes.
Summary: In each field I have gone to work in, I have started out with no prior knowledge, education or skill in that field. I have a high desire to learn, innovate, collaborate with others and produce high quality products all with the goal of getting more done in less time, utilizing as few resources as possible. I have been told by many that I should write a book about the accomplishments I've had over the last fifteen years but I doubt I ever will. The above is the first time I've stopped to look at the past and put any of it down in writing. And while the above only covers my professional life really, to me that's the most important part. A co-worker of mine once found out that I was staying at the office until 9pm every night. She told me "It's only a job.". I guess that's where I'm different. I'd like to know that at the end of this life that I did all that I could and made a difference. We'll see what I bring next fifteen years.
I started when I was 15 with no experience working on ships. I learned on the job and became a licensed Able Bodied Seaman. My thirst for knowledge led me to become the youngest Quartermaster at the age of 18. I held Bridge watch with six people under my charge on a 400ft long vessal. I was also selected to be a member of the Damage Control and Rescue Party which is charged with handling any and all emergency situations. It was at sea where I learned competence and teamsmanship.
I was hired as a receptionist. Due to the lack of call volume I learned Real Estate in my spare time and how the industry worked. I drew up a complete plan for the Broker, proposing a completely different of running Real Estate. I headed up one of the divisions listed on my plan and was able to implement everything adding only two additional staff making a total of 13. The results were dramatic and the office went from 30 listings on the market to 325 while selling fourty to fifty properties a month.
Starting out with no experience in the printing industry, I was hired to feed paper into a machine. I quickly learned ropes, the equipment and the industry. I was promoted to head up all post press operations. There, I run a division with twelve staff under my charge. I invented new methods in foil stamping and lamination which reduced production time by days. I am personally trained and qualified to run over ten different types of equipment including screen printing (printing T-shirts). I also came up with software which automated the planning of the print production which cut out three days of work from upper managment.
I'm a self taught developer. I learned through books, projects, CS50, Udemy, building
applications, working with other developers and the like. To see my full list of studies,
please visit my github repository here:
How I Learned Programming
While working at the print shop there was a huge need for automation in order to get more production through the shop. It was here where I discovered my passion for the subject. As the print world is very secluded and competitive, I won't be able to post any of those projects as they're very innovative. Some of the applications I made saved executives of the shop 3 days of work each week.
Thank you for visiting my page. Should you have any questions feel free to contact me.