Milestones

My road in life took a while to figure out.
Decided to go to Illinois Tech instead of Mizzou to get away from the peer pressure at home.
Got involved in undergraduate biomedical research to try and get into med school.
Picked up computer science as a second degree after enjoying a required intro programming class.
Watched academic peers scan dead human brains and decided medicine was too morbid of a career path.
Got an internship at Cerner corporation to try and find a middle ground between tech and health.
Got an internship at Microsoft where I now work full time.
Keep following my journey

Career

Software Engineer

I write prototype software for windows devices.

Career Roadmap

Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Engineering
Design
Being Creative

Day to Day

I show up to work at 8am and get a two hours of personal time to write code and drink coffee. My team appears around 10am and we have a standup where the different members share their current job-related struggles as well as their recent accomplishments. We then travel around the Microsoft campus to meet with different partner teams in order to architect a new product. At the end of the day, there's a team social hour where prototypes are demoed and everyone gets free food / alcohol.

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for college students

GPA's act as a filter for new college hire recruiting. Teaching, giving presentations, and building a thick resume / CV will help you stand out from those who don't put in the extra effort. When coursework seems boring, try and look at content through a different lens and find aspects that interest you. For example, who knew that the creator of Fourier transforms traveled with Napoleon to found an institute in Cairo during the late 1700's!?

Recommended Education

My career is related to what I studied. I'd recommend the path I took:

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Parents:

"Don't go into art. It isn't profitable."