I’m a computer geek who has written application software for more than 30 years. Today, my official title is VP of IT, though I like to go by the more informal title of the IT guy. I’m doing this with a startup, Greenhealth Exchange, that is helping move healthcare to a more sustainable future by making it easier for hospitals to buy products that are known to be green.
Before this job, I’ve held a number of positions. I’ve worked as both a consultant and a staff member. I like both types of position as each it’s advantages and disadvantages.
As far as roles, I’ve done quite a bit working as a:
- Technical Lead
- IT Director
- Project Manager
- Application Architect
- Application developer
- Business Analyst
- DBA
- Data Analyst
Technical skills wise, while most of my positions have been as a Microsoft Developer, I have used a lot of different technologies:
- ASP.NET MVC WebAPI
- c#
- Python
- Postgres
- SQL Server
- HTML & CSS
- React
- and more
I mostly develop following the principles of Test Driven Development. And developing without Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery.
What I Look for In a Job
One of the things I enjoy most with any job is delivering working software at the right time. This means more than just delivering the application; it means holding the team accountable, including myself, and allowing the team to be responsible for what software needs to be delivered even when that means scrapping an agreed upon feature because something more important needs to be delivered first. This is a fundamental piece of the agile puzzle for me and a critical part of being a successful development team.
Personal Background
I knew I wanted to be a programmer from a young age. My first computer was. Commodore Vic 20 with a cassette drive. I had a lot of fun with it. I still remember my first program was a silly baseball simulator that would get out of memory errors in the fifth inning every time I played it. Looking back, with 3.5KB available for Basic programs, I’m surprised I didn’t run out of memory long before that.
My current computer is a MacBook Pro, a big step up from that Vic 20. For the last 7 years, I’ve been a Mac convert and struggle a bit when I have to go back to Windows.
Jeff Siver 