I first discovered my passion for IT in 2011 during my tenure as a Music Industry Manager. It was through this role that I received the opportunity to assist with web design and online promotion for three music projects. I was able to utilize my basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript skills in a professional capacity, which I had learned from Rutgers University’s Computer Applications course. I am proud to say that the online following of the music projects rose from 1,500 followers to over 20,000 during my time in this role. Furthermore, our efforts led to a production contract with a “Platinum Record Winning” Producer and also a record contract with an indie label. Similar to the composition of music itself, I greatly enjoyed the creative nature of these IT-routed tasks along with the opportunity to solve problems through the utilization of imperative knowledge.

My interest in IT was later reaffirmed when I accepted employment as an Accountant for Covanta Energy. In this role, I utilized and gained competency with the company’s ERP system, Oracle PeopleSoft. Although my position was in Accountancy, I began to realize that I had a passion for learning about PeopleSoft as an Accounting Information System. This provoked a desire to become more knowledgeable in IT in general. As my assignment progressed, I developed a closer relationship with the PeopleSoft Consultants and Technical Support Teams in an effort to acquire additional IT-skills on the job.

In October 2015, I made the choice to leave Covanta and re-enroll at university to formally begin my IT education with the intention of eventually completing a full transition into a Software Engineering career. I began studies as a part-time student of the Advanced Diploma in Data & Systems Analysis program at the University of Oxford. It was through this program that I was first introduced to the software development lifecycle. The program also re-enforced my understanding of database design and object-oriented programming. The course culminated in a final project in which we designed a database and software system for a fictitious company. I am proud to say that I graduated from the program with a 98.20% course average and earned distinction.

After my studies concluded, I accepted an internship in Business Intelligence at the Berlin start-up company, Move24. It was in this role that I first began to put my newly acquired skillset to use by applying SQL daily to query the company’s databases. I was also introduced to Python in order to extract data as necessary from various sources. At the conclusion of my internship, I began my first fulltime “tech-role” as a Senior Product Analyst within the Data Integration team at Wayfair. In this role, I received the opportunity assist with monitoring and troubleshooting data transfers at an enterprise-scale with the company’s EU business partners. I also continued to utilize my business intelligence skillset to create, calculate and analyze KPI’s for presentation to Senior Management. This eventually led to a Technical Product Manager role in which I continuously drove tech-related projects across multiple engineering departments to achieve data integration objectives.

I am proud to say that I completed a full transition into the Engineering Department at Wayfair in August 2018 where I remain employed. I am currently a Software Engineer III within the FinTech & Loyalty Department after having received two promotions. Our function is to implement new features pertaining to Wayfair's Global FinTech Platform while expanding our integrations with Payment Service Providers and Fraud Prevention Vendors.

My IT journey thus far has been nothing short of amazing! I personally feel just as passionate today as when I started, and I am very excited to see what the future has in store as I continue my journey.

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