Summary
I'm a passionate project manager with experience from both the games industry and student projects, looking for an entry level Technical or Non-Technical PM position. My focus is on consumer advocacy and user experience, combined with the intricacies of developing a technical piece of software. I'm truly passionate about raising the quality bar on the project I'm working on, thinking outside of the box to try and improving process.
Background
I received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Game Design from a small school in Redmond, WA called DigiPen Institute of Technology. Besides its reputation as "Nintendo U", the school is famous for launching career paths into the games industry with a strong emphasis on their coding classes from an efficiency and practicality standpoint. I began in their new degree of Computer Science and Game Design: a degree which combined the fundamental aspects of computer science with a focus on the user experience, user interface, pacing, and flow of motivational game design. On top of these two disciplines, the program drew me into several different team-based projects, each lasting anywhere from four to twelve months at a time (sometimes concurrently), all of which I worked on as project manager.
More recently I've worked as a production intern at Blizzard Entertainment on the StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm teams, specifically with their infrastructure (engineering) teams. What awaited me there were month-to-month release cycles for patches in the what was upcoming Heroes of the Storm MOBA, and Live Ops tasks with the already released StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm as well as its expansion. What I received most from my experience at Blizzard was the opportunity to work among some of the most brilliant minds I've come to meet in production, software development, design, art, and audio. Moreover, I began to understand at Blizzard where my skills could combine and push me in the future: a focus on operations, project management, consumer advocacy, and technical implementation.
Knowledge
My most proficient language is C++11, where I've worked in more recent years to understand the benefits of C++ over higher-level languages. As such, I'm comfortable with memory management, pointer manipulation, profilers and optimization, registers, structured exceptions, and other aspects of lower level programming.
I've also utilized JavaScript to integrate many of Google's services with their Google Apps Script service, creating a number of custom tools for automating and benefiting tedious tasks in Google's Sheets and Forms services. To this end I've developed a better understanding of REST and the API's for Trello, Asana, JIRA, Bitbucket, Slack, and more.
Other programming languages and libraries I've had exposure to and studied, either in my classes or with the work I've done on personal projects:
I also have a passion for statistical analysis, particularly with data mining and metrics. I've built two different analytics systems utilizing GameAnalytics.com, a small and free web service for tracking important design statistics in games. I've also taken extensive math courses in statistics, creating a project for analyzing and identifying trends in League of Legends matches to help determine balance in the game.
Finally, I've learned and studied on many production methodologies over the years, having incorporated new techniques and tools in each team I encounter. I have a strong foundation in Agile, particularly with SCRUM, but I'm also comfortable working with Extreme or Test-Driven paradigms as well. I've even utilized Waterfall effectively in instances where deadlines could not be pushed (such as semester ends), and I'm always looking to learn more, since every team will respond differently.
Goals
With my skill sets separately, I feel confident that I could take an entry level position as a designer, a programmer, or a project manager and do a fine job in the role I'm given. However, my inclination is to find the career path which hits all of my different passions together, and where I can spend all of my time helping to make a product and its team work more coherently. Ideally, the company that I land in will be one I make an entire career out of, and grow into the role and expand it to whatever needs arise. By ten or fifteen years I also plan on obtaining a broadened understanding of the business side of software, where I can focus on making smarter and more economical decisions that helps to nurture a company and make it succeed. While the games industry is as rigorous and volatile as it is fun and exciting, I also recognize that I can find the same challenges and passion in software as a whole, and I want to make my push forward in an ever-advancing industry.
I'm a passionate project manager with experience from both the games industry and student projects, looking for an entry level Technical or Non-Technical PM position. My focus is on consumer advocacy and user experience, combined with the intricacies of developing a technical piece of software. I'm truly passionate about raising the quality bar on the project I'm working on, thinking outside of the box to try and improving process.
Background
I received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Game Design from a small school in Redmond, WA called DigiPen Institute of Technology. Besides its reputation as "Nintendo U", the school is famous for launching career paths into the games industry with a strong emphasis on their coding classes from an efficiency and practicality standpoint. I began in their new degree of Computer Science and Game Design: a degree which combined the fundamental aspects of computer science with a focus on the user experience, user interface, pacing, and flow of motivational game design. On top of these two disciplines, the program drew me into several different team-based projects, each lasting anywhere from four to twelve months at a time (sometimes concurrently), all of which I worked on as project manager.
More recently I've worked as a production intern at Blizzard Entertainment on the StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm teams, specifically with their infrastructure (engineering) teams. What awaited me there were month-to-month release cycles for patches in the what was upcoming Heroes of the Storm MOBA, and Live Ops tasks with the already released StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm as well as its expansion. What I received most from my experience at Blizzard was the opportunity to work among some of the most brilliant minds I've come to meet in production, software development, design, art, and audio. Moreover, I began to understand at Blizzard where my skills could combine and push me in the future: a focus on operations, project management, consumer advocacy, and technical implementation.
Knowledge
My most proficient language is C++11, where I've worked in more recent years to understand the benefits of C++ over higher-level languages. As such, I'm comfortable with memory management, pointer manipulation, profilers and optimization, registers, structured exceptions, and other aspects of lower level programming.
I've also utilized JavaScript to integrate many of Google's services with their Google Apps Script service, creating a number of custom tools for automating and benefiting tedious tasks in Google's Sheets and Forms services. To this end I've developed a better understanding of REST and the API's for Trello, Asana, JIRA, Bitbucket, Slack, and more.
Other programming languages and libraries I've had exposure to and studied, either in my classes or with the work I've done on personal projects:
- C#
- SQL
- Python
- R
- jQuery
- HTML / CSS
- cURL
- FMOD
- OpenGL
I also have a passion for statistical analysis, particularly with data mining and metrics. I've built two different analytics systems utilizing GameAnalytics.com, a small and free web service for tracking important design statistics in games. I've also taken extensive math courses in statistics, creating a project for analyzing and identifying trends in League of Legends matches to help determine balance in the game.
Finally, I've learned and studied on many production methodologies over the years, having incorporated new techniques and tools in each team I encounter. I have a strong foundation in Agile, particularly with SCRUM, but I'm also comfortable working with Extreme or Test-Driven paradigms as well. I've even utilized Waterfall effectively in instances where deadlines could not be pushed (such as semester ends), and I'm always looking to learn more, since every team will respond differently.
Goals
With my skill sets separately, I feel confident that I could take an entry level position as a designer, a programmer, or a project manager and do a fine job in the role I'm given. However, my inclination is to find the career path which hits all of my different passions together, and where I can spend all of my time helping to make a product and its team work more coherently. Ideally, the company that I land in will be one I make an entire career out of, and grow into the role and expand it to whatever needs arise. By ten or fifteen years I also plan on obtaining a broadened understanding of the business side of software, where I can focus on making smarter and more economical decisions that helps to nurture a company and make it succeed. While the games industry is as rigorous and volatile as it is fun and exciting, I also recognize that I can find the same challenges and passion in software as a whole, and I want to make my push forward in an ever-advancing industry.
