Matt’s Journey
My journey started with a Texas Instruments TI-99 back in the 80’s. Yes, I was around then (but barely missed the 70’s). My first programs consisted of copying BASIC programs from library books and then tweaking them to see what they would do. In the mid-90’s, as a teen I learned C++ and Pascal with Borland Delphi. I loved programming and the infinite possibilities it opened up to create things.
I continued on to earn a Computer Science degree from Texas Tech University. My first paid position was as an intern at IBM testing the OS/2 Warp operating system (if you don’t remember it checkout this retro commercial). I thought it was cool to work on a product I’d seen advertised on TV. When I graduated, I took a position at IBM as a Software Engineer doing Java development and testing on financial service products. I then moved to a small company, Smooth Fusion. I started as a software engineer and eventually became an architect. The work was fun and interesting and I got to work on cool projects for big brands like Microsoft, Trans-America, and Alaskan Brewing.
After Smooth Fusion, I did a tour with Tyler Technologies in municipal government software as a software architect. Then I set out and started my own company building custom full-stack solutions. I’ve had the privilege of helping create solutions for cotton gins, precision agriculture, warehousing, and even sports scouting software.
In addition, to being a developer and architect, I am a husband and dad to 4 beautiful children. I love dancing, spending time with my kids, and being outdoors when I can. I’ve learned a thing or two about work-life balance, and how challenging it can be to keep all the plates spinning. As a fellow developer, I know that when it comes to continuing your learning there are times you need that deep dive course and then other times you need that nugget of information that solves today’s problem.
From my personal journey, I know how important it is to be a continuous learner. Of all the technologies, platforms, languages, etc I’ve used over the years nothing has excited me more than cloud technologies like Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, especially going serverless.