There are two separate resumes posted here. This one is in a narrative style, in order to show my ability to write clear and interesting documentation. If you would prefer to see my more traditionally styled resume, I have provided that here in HTML, here in Word 2000 format, or here in PDF.
In 1995, I decided that I had spent enough time in retail, and I really wanted to work with computers for a living. I had been using personal computers since the Apple II days, so it seemed like the right career for me. Conveniently enough, there was a new Computer City opening near North Point Mall at this time, so I applied for and got a position as a sales rep there.
After a year of sales, I was pretty sure that a career in sales was not a good idea. I worked hard at it, but I am not, never have been, and never will be, a salesman. But when I was offered an opportunity to move into the upgrades department, I jumped at the chance. A few weeks later, the department head left, and I became the manager. For the next eight months, I installed all sorts of upgrades, as well as giving advice to customers.
In March of 1997, I was offered a position setting up new PCs for Lucent at the Atlanta Works. (I was actually a contractor for a subcontractor of the outsourcer, which was my first exposure to outsourcing.) I got hands on experience with numerous software packages, as well as LAN and IP setup. When PCs started arriving that were supposed to be running NT Workstation, I taught myself to install it, since, as a contractor, no one wanted to send me for any sort of training.
During the summer of 1997, Xerox Global Services, Inc. (at that time known as XLConnect, then as Xerox Connect) called me based on a resume I had sent them at the beginning of the year. They needed a technician to do support at Equifax, where they had a small group onsite doing support for Lotus Notes and NT. They were also bidding to take on all of what Equifax referred to as “MicroLAN” support, which was Banyan Vines, NT Server, and Lotus Notes on the back end, and all the desktop clients. The job looked interesting, so I accepted.
For the rest of 1997, I was part of a five person team, doing everything from help desk to desktop support, to helping out the NT Server team. We worked with IBM as Equifax was migrating from a Banyan / Token Ring environment to a Windows NT / Lotus Notes / Ethernet environment. I also acquired my MCP certification by passing the Windows 95 exam.
In March 1998, Xerox Global Services, Inc. took over the entire outsourced support contract for "MircoLAN" from IBM, and I became the Technical Lead for the deskside support team. In this position, I supported the deskside team, designed images for the various desktop and laptop systems in use at Equifax, and generally implemented standards and Standard Operating Procedures for the team. I developed tools using Partition Magic, Drive Image Pro, WinBatch, and WinZip to help automate installations and upgrades. I completed my MCSE while in this position, passing IIS4, Proxy2, TCP/IP, and both NT Server exams.
In 1999, a position on the Server Operations team opened up, and I was accepted for it. In this position, I was responsible for about 40 NT servers in multiple domains. The Banyan migration was finished about this time. When another of the administrators left soon after I joined, I took over maintenance and development of various Perl utilities that he had been working on. I was heavily involved in managing the backups, using Veritas NetBackup. I also developed a deployment of McAfee VirusScan and updates using the Kix32-based login scripts to choose which users would receive the updates, and WinBatch to automate the installation.
In January 2000, I was asked to join the Server Operations team at Intercontinental Hotels (peviously known as Bass Hotels and Resorts, then as Six Continents Hotels), Xerox Global Services, Inc.’s newest outsource client. I’ve been involved in recovering Exchange 5.5 servers that crashed completely. In mid-2000, InterContinental Hotels purchased Bristol Hotels, and we have integrated their three NT domains into the overall structure of Intercontinental Hotels. We were using CA ArcServe to perform backups; in late 2001 through early 2002, I was the primary operations representative in the project that moved us to a Unix-integrated NetBackup scheme. I was also the operations representative for the disaster recovery testing Six Continents was performing on September 10, 2001.
As InterContinental Hotels has kept more of the engineering and design work in-house than Equifax did, I needed to find other things to challenge me and keep me interested. . I moved the NTAdmin tool suite with me, and have continued developing these tools, which you can see here. I have also designed, developed, and maintained an Intranet site for the Xerox Global Services, Inc. group onsite. I have become quite proficient with Citrix MetaFrame 1.8, and am a Citrix Certified Administrator. I also updated my MCSE, first to an MSCE+I by passing the Exchange 5.5 exam, and then to a Windows 2000 MCSE by passing the accelerated exam and the Security Design exam.
From May 2002 until February 2003, the Server Operations team was without a manager. During this time, I filled many of the roles that the manager would have filled. I was not interested in filling the position on a full-time basis, but as there was a need for day-to-day operations, I filled in as best I could.
As I've progressed through my career, I found that the part of my job I enjoyed the most was scripting. I've been doing some work with various mail-enabled Perl modules, as well as a good bit of ADSI programming. In April 2003, Six Continents Hotels changed their name to InterContinental Hotels Group, which required that all email addresses and display names in the Exchange Global Address Book be changed. I wrote and executed the Perl script that changed the majority of the 26,000+ entries in the GAL. This opportunity was also used to remove email addresses with two older, and now unused, domains.
In the fall of 2004, I decided to return to school. I have been persuing my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science at Georgia State University. In the six semesters I've been there, I have maintained a 3.82 GPA while continuing to work full-time.
And I have written almost 1,000 daily reports, many with a Link of the Day. (Fortunately for me, management has generally given me free rein on these reports, so I have enjoyed writing them in various styles, including romance novel, sports report, horror movie, and more.)