[kermitology]

Electrical engineer by education, mostly focused on wireless signal stuff. That kicked off my career working in GIS applications. I've mostly found that my career has progressed by luck and chance networking.

My internship during university was because my neighbour was the Geomatics department head at the U of C (Elizabeth Cannon - now the dean, is his wife). And that kicked me off into a world of software development. One of the research associates in that department reached out to me to join a GNSS receiver design startup when I finished school.

I got my second job working in airborne radar systems because I met a guy in a 7-11 who helped me work on my resume. In 2008, when radar acquisitions were winding down, I got moved onto a project for our consumer electronics department, working on iOS applications.

I then got a job at Shaw, developed a bunch of stuff there, learned some bad lessons about politics and how to achieve your goals without getting fired (I got fired).

Then, after going to a startup Calgary event, and being impressed with a certain presentation, I started following the presenter on Twitter. When I got fired by Shaw, they reached out to me and I learned Ruby on Rails and the server side of web application / SaaS development and the principles of eCommerce.

My current job came about when a former coworker invited me out for a beer one day and said he had a job as a Solution Architect that he thought I could help his team with. I wasn't initially interested, but after the development team got white washed for a support misstep that was largely caused by a crappy phone system and being told I didn't care enough (I busted my ass to help the company and clients on a constant basis), I said, screw it, what do I have to lose?

The whole interview process sounded like something that was completely made up and I winged it through the interviews. They made me an offer that doubled my compensation and I couldn't turn it down. This is the best team I've ever been on.. I have a hard time with some of the work because I have to direct application development with a 10 foot pole and that makes it hard to control things, and there have been a number of questionable decisions made by some of my leadership that set me on edge, but it's a good job.

Careers can go in so many different directions if you open your mind and focus on a chance to learn something. I took less money on several occasions because I wanted to learn something or from someone. Just dive into something new..

All this being said, if it wasn't for financial responsibilities I would quit my job and go to culinary school. Cooking makes me so happy, and if I was financially independent, I would drop all the technology and make food.