Coding and Management Experience

When I was young, one my favorite computer games was a point-and-click puzzle game called Myst. What I found super interesting about Myst was that it took more than just ‘sitting down and playing’ it. You had to look and listen carefully to everything you saw and heard. You had to have a physical notebook by your side to make notes of patters and details you might think are relevant. It was a game that really helped to foster my love of problem solving (especially if it was tech-related), as well as my attention to detail. These were two loves that followed me hand-in-hand into almost every aspect of my life.

During the early course of my career, my positions often involved paying close attention to details, and checking to see if there were ways to make things more efficient. High-Ropes Staff at Camp Michigania is incredibly detail-oriented, since we were working with safety gear and making sure campers have fun, all while suspended several stories in the air. I was able to rework the way campers would sign up for sessions, as well as the way we cataloged our climbing-elements, checked our inventory, and even ran our training sessions so that things were more efficient, and that important information was more visible and accessible.

Working both in Hollywood and in insurance, detail is the name of the game. It was my job to make sure my acting clients made it to the exact address, at the exact time, with the exact lines that they would need to read for their audition. Forty-plus clients, some of them having multiple auditions on the same day, leaves very little room for error. Throw in managing calendars, calls and events for multiple bosses, and having an organized system in place becomes essential. It was a very similar vein at the insurance company I worked at, where missing a detail in a policy could result in a load of trouble if not caught in time.

I found it interesting that regardless of my work, I was constantly being tapped to solve I.T. problems. I was the go-to-guy whenever a camper needed help with email, my insurance company’s network would go down, or if our talent agency’s actual I.T. guy was busy. I loved the challenge, because it was a problem I got to solve, and it usually meant I got to learn something new about whatever system I was working with. Eventually, I took the hint, and formally enrolled in a coding school based in San Francisco, CA.

When I graduated, I spent several months freelancing. I built websites for clients, and webapps for myself, to further my coding knowledge. I leaned a lot about self-troubleshooting technical problems, and acquired a new appreciation for working in a structured organization. This all paid off when I was hired to be developer for an advertising agency in San Diego, and later promoted to Director of Operations at the same company. Here I got to work closely with developers to oversee and deploy new applications for the company, managed office supplies, and cataloged and maintained all of the technical equipment our company used. It was a blast, I really helped to further the technological capabilities of our company, and many of our clients described me as essential.