How Does a Chemist End Up as a Web Developer

Well, that is kind of a long story, but I will give you the short and sweet version. I went to Michigan State University where I majored in Chemistry, graduating in 2004. Towards the end of my degree, I decided that I really wasn't that big of a fan of lab work, and as a chemist you have to do a lot of that. I loved the science (still do), but didn't really like day to day application of it. I did a short stint in sales and then jumped into the IT field. After working at Chrysler, I decided to go back to school to pursue a MBA. In the course of pursuing my MBA I got a few ideas for various websites, and like most college students, I didn't have any money. No biggie, I'll just figure out how to code and build them myself...

Nine Years Later, Still Coding and Loving It

I don't know many people who say they love their careers, but I am fortunately one of those people. Learning new programming languages and playing around with emerging technologies is incredibly fascinating, my analytical mind (thanks chemistry!) can't wait to digest everything on the horizon and beyond. The internet is a great place and the possibilities are endless with it. I am excited to play my part to help evolve it. Never afraid to push my own boundaries, I can't wait to make tomorrow happen.

Coders Can't Design...

Whoever says that, hasn't met me yet. Design and UX/UI Development are very intimately intertwined with the modern web. Why limit yourself to one thing? In order to be really effective you need to be experienced in both design and development. The understanding of both allows you to produce a much more cohesive, user-friendly, and seamless experience. Don't believe me? ... just kidding. But, seriously, filter my portfolio to see some of the stuff I have designed all on my own :)

Here is What I Know and How Well I Know It (no bull*%!@)

Languages
PHP (my fav) very well
MySQL well
HTML / XHTML guru
HTML 5 well
CSS 1, 2, & 3 guru
JavaScript well
jQuery very well
AJAX well
XML well
ColdFusion decent
Objective-C decent
XSLT some
DTD some
Facebook / FBML some
CMS's & Marketing Clients
WordPress guru
Drupal well
Joomla decent
BigCommerce Well
PrestaShop decent
ShopSite decent
ZenCart decent
HubSpot well
Silverpop well
Neolane decent
Express Email Marketing well
iContact well
Constant Contact well
Software & OS's
Dreamweaver guru
Photoshop well
Fireworks well
Illustrator decent
Premier learning
Soundbooth learning
After Effects learning
X-Code decent
iPhone SDK decent
MS Office very well
XP, Vista, Win 7 guru
Mac OS X decent