These days, I'm a QA Engineer for Adobe Systems in downtown San Jose. My specialty is Internation testing. I work for the Home and Office Products Division, testing applications like PhotoDeluxe and PageMill. In fact, while I created this site to learn HTML (in preparation for creating Plextor's web site), it was while testing PageMill 3.0 that I gave the place the complete "face-lift" you see.
Adobe is a great place to work with awesome benefits, fun co-workers, great pay and nice perks. When I switched from network administration to QA engineering, I really was anxious. But now that I'm here, I'm really enjoying it.
I used to be the MIS guy for Plextor. My official title read "Information Services Manager." I hated using it cuz when I did, in addition to sounding snottier-than-shit, people started calling me Mister. I hate being called Mister; makes me feel old enough to be someone's dad or something.
I was a one-man shop, handling everything from PC hardware and software, to networking issues, to printers and faxes, to telephones and our PBX. The hours were long, but it was a living and it paid okay. In fact, one of the fun things I got to do at Plextor was practice my Japanese from time to time. Sure a far cry from Lockheed...
Yeah, I used to work for the "other" Big Blue -- I started off at Onizuka Air Station (the Blue Cube) when I was fresh outta college. I was young, niave and idealistic. I wanted to work for the Space Program and make a difference. A year later I transfered into the Training Department to run their local area network. One of the best decisions of my life...
Under the best boss anyone could ever ask for, I learned about computers, Windows, Novell, hardware and training. I had the free reign to explore different aspects of the industry and try out new interests. In my spare time (hey, ANY government related job means spare time) I tried new projects and took additional classes, including hardware, software, Russian, Japanese and Asian History. Finally, I created a training program for Microsoft applications and forged an extremely effective team. We really made a difference. Our classes had at least a three month backlog and our students had the best of comments. Then a certain Major pulled the plug -- guess we were making him look bad. I left a few months later.
LTOC also taught me a few other things. Ya'see, Lockheed is the home of racism, sexism, homophobia, the "good ol' boy network" and most every unethical business practice you can name. Don't get me wrong, LTOC had its moments. But I got a first-hand education in the "dirty" side of the aerospace industry; I'd never really spent time with or watched someone be discriminated against. I even had my office turned upside-down when I made a stink... It got me mad, which is good, because now I know what I won't stand for...
If you're interested, you can see my whole resumé, from early college to the present...
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