professional

 

I spent four years at SUNY Stony Brook, double majoring in Math and Computer Science.  Because of the credits in Math I was able to earn before getting to college, i came into my freshman year way ahead of the game.  I ended up finishing the major in just over two years, but still needing 45 or so credits to meet the graduation requirements.  I decided to fill those credits with Computer Science courses.

I knew quickly that I did not want to be a math teacher.  So after college I took a job as the computer-helper-guy at the company I had been working part time at during school.  A couple months later, I was elevated to the illustrious position of Junior Programmer.  I worked on two seperate web apps, one in Cold Fusion and one in Java.  Neither one had any process or best practices in play.  Neither one even used source control.  I was hacking for $18 an hour and still unsure what I wanted to do with my career.

I left that job and took a position with Chyron, doing C# programming on broadcast graphics software.  There I met Peter Morrone, whose influence continues to have an impact on my career.  He lent me books like The Pragmatic Programmer, Design Patterns and Bob Martin’s Agile Software Development.  I went to SD Best Practices with coworkers.  I began to take my career seriously and want to further my knowledge around software development and the process surrounding it.

I met Wendy while working at Chyron. She is one of the brightest programmers and personalities I’ve been lucky enough to work with or know, ever.  She left Chyron a few months after I had started there, but we kept in touch over AIM or email while she bounced around jobs in NYC.  Wendy took a job at Oxygen Media in 2006, and recommended me for a spot there as well.  I was eventually hired, and started in mid 2006.

Oxygen was a turning point in my career.  I enjoyed learning and trying to improve my professional skills at Chyron, but i hated sitting in a cubicle.  I hated the lack of interaction, or the apparent lack of interest in what I might be doing all day.  I was ready to run as far as I could from a computer programming career.  Oxygen worked in an agile fashion using Scrum and XP.  We didn’t have cubicles, or even our own desks.  We had one giant desk, with four pairing stations for 8 developers.  Nobody had a designated spot.  We had a full time scrum master, an engaged Customer (the CEO), and a brilliant group of people.  We used the latest Microsoft technologies, and our leadership encouraged professional development.

It was the pairing.  Working with people all day, instead of just with the computer, is what made the difference for me.  I was enamored with the process, the daily standups, the retrospectives, the pairing.  With leaders like Luke Melia and Ken Judy, and tech mentors like Kris Selden, I could not imagine a better place to be, or a better way to spend my working day.  If not for the aquisition by NBC, and the subsequent decimation of our department, I would likely still be there, and still loving it.

I made some friends at Oxygen that I hope I’ll keep in touch with.  We’ve all gone on to new things now.  I’ve landed in another agile shop with bright people, doing web development with Ruby on Rails.  Its a start up, and the personal stake I have in the company has been a great motivator to keep up a somewhat unsustainable pace.  I’m enjoying my time with Rails, and am excited to see what happens next.