About Me
Hi, I'm Mark, a full stack developer based in Austin, TX. I have a deep love for coding and for a little over two years, have devoted my life to it.
After a semester learning Python at ACC I knew I wanted to focus on coding, so I decided to join the UT Austin Coding bootcamp full time. There we covered full-stack web development. Coming out of bootcamp, I faced the harsh reality that for a new developer, finding a stable, full-time role can be very very difficult. I continued to develop skills on my own, taking online courses in Angular and AWS, learning Java and pouring over practice problems to work on core programming skills. After a few months, I landed at The Sails Co., building full stack web apps using the SailsJS framework.
I loved my life there. I loved building things, problem solving, learning. I loved being part of a team that took pride in making a great product. It was confirmation that this was the right thing for me. Unfortunately I was brought on with plans to add a new team to the company, but those plans changed and they had to reduce the team.
Luckily, my boss at Sails was able to help connect me with work with a company called Panzura. They were working on a product that allowed customers to use Elasticsearch as a service. It was a technology that I had never worked with, but I dove in and learned so much, from how the Elastic stack works, to setting up differnet parts of the stack on EC2 instances, to building example apps that interfaced with the API.
Since the end of my contract there, I've been looking for a new opportunity. I want to keep learning, to keep growing, to keep coding. In the mean time, I've worked part time with Hello World Studios teaching web development to elementary school kids. This has helped me so much in learning how to communicate technological ideas and learn to look at it from different viewpoints.
I value learning and sharing knowledge. I would love most to work on a team of people who take pride in what they build, and who want to share their knowlege and learn from each other.
