I started my post-college career as a graphic designer. I worked with a firm that designed print materials and worked with print shops to get great products to our clients.

Eventually I moved my way into our tech department and created digital templates that would allow our clients to make their own print materials using our online application. I did minimal programming to customize the actual application, but mostly dealt with the actual templates that create the print products.

From there I was on a team that created a new application from the ground up. While I was the primary developer working on the front-end, I was starting to learn a bit of the backend and specifically picking up Ruby and really honing in my skills HTML, CSS, Javascript and picking up EmberJS. I also loved using version control and participating in code reviews as we checked in our code and created pull requests.

Now I’m working on a new app with a bigger team. A full stack team. And there are so many things to learn. Databases, services, APIs, unit tests, functional tests, integration tests, builders, frameworks, trunk development, pair programming. So many things!

It’s a big world to go from print design to a full stack developer.

Wish me luck!