I work in software. I’ve been at it since age 11, starting with BASIC and C++. My parents used every dime of their savings to buy me an 80386 PC, and when I quickly outgrew it, they drained their savings again on a Pentium. That started me on a path of building cool stuff and meeting some truly incredible people along the way.
In 2016, having a career conversation with my boss, I made a decision to jump over to the “dark side” and said, I want to manage a team. And that set me on a whole new and different trajectory from anything I’ve done up to that point.
Since that time, I’ve bounced between IC and leadership roles a few times. I worked independently as a consultant. I’ve worked as a CTO (and simultaneously as senior software engineer, junior engineer and customer support engineer and a part time CFO) in an early stage pre-seed startup. And I’ve had several opportunities to lead others as a manager and a director.
Where I’m At Now
Day Job
I am a Director of Software Engineering at Fenix24, Inc.
I don’t remember who said it (either Brené Brown or Kim Scott) but it was something along the lines of: there’s 5% of people who find a role that aligns with their core values, allowing them to fully show up and bring their energy and passion to the table. Those people confuse the fuck out of the other 95% of us.
I feel truly lucky and always grateful to be in a position where I consider myself in that 5% and have felt that way almost through my entire career in software. Work isn’t always easy (and some months/years it is rarely easy) but it is always rewarding.
Outside Of Work
One of my personal back-burner / background projects is a search for other like-minded and like-hearted individuals who are on their own leadership journey and share a similar perspective on wtf is leadership
Bonus points if…
- the person is in tech/software
- the person is in mid-management role (manager, director, VP)
- the person is local to Rochester, NY
if you made this far down the page and any of this resonates, hit me up on LinkedIn 😉