Who is this Developer Guy?
First a little about myself:
- Name: Vardan Mkrtchyan
- Rank: Senior Software Developer
- Previous Rank: various positions within Information Technology
- Serial Number: Working in Information Technology for over 20 years now
The beginning – 1990s
I started in computers doing CAD (Computer Aided Design) back in 1991 and from there got more and more into Computers and Information Technology. I built my first website for a girlfriend in 1994 – using the best browser at the time, “Netscape” which just started supporting TABLES. I remember it was a major breakthrough – oh how things have changed 🙂
At that time, back in 1994, I was working in CAD Systems Support doing all kinds of end user and system support as well as working on 3D Animation and Modeling for computer presentations. Around that time I got a referral from a buddy to be an intern for a Movie Special Effects Production company. I couldn’t resist the temptation to try my hand at more professional 3D graphics. When I first got into the 3D Special Effects arena, it turned out they needed a lot more help setting up and troubleshooting their network and render farms than they needed another 3D artist. So very soon after I started, they offered me a permanent position as Information Systems Manager. The title didn’t mean much; it was a small shop with between 20 to 100 (depending on movie production) people. But it was a very demanding job, movie schedules cannot be missed or there are monetary penalties.
My job there was primarily on the system and network side of things, but after I built a simple PERL based Image Displaying website I was asked to focus more on programming. We started coding an Intranet Website using Java Object Oriented database and moved on to other interesting programming projects. I worked there for 4 years and paid my dues – working sometimes 80 or even 100 hours per week during crunch times. Still it was a fun experience and I am glad I did that.
.COM Era – 2000s
From there I moved into my first .com job. It was a company called eCapilatist.com. It was an on-line stock trading company that specialized in catering to the Chinese community. There we had an entire outsourced development team from Honk Kong. It was my first exposure to outsourcing and things didn’t go well for the development team. After some time the company folded, but I learned some valuable lessons.
After eCapitalist.com I was offered 2 jobs at the same time. The first was a position at Idea Labs in Pasadena. My direct boss at eCapitalist.com offered me job there after he had been there for a few months. The second job I was offered by the original owner of eCapitalist.com company. He had another company, an on-line Cruise Travel Agency. I took the second job as it seemed to be more challenging and interesting. But then came the bursting of the dotcom bubble in 2000 and the Cruise Travel Agency closed down.
Lucky for me, one of the people from my old Cruise Travel Agency had started her own travel agency and hired me to write her on-line booking engine. You can get more details on this project on my projects page: http://www.seaescapes.com/
Recent years – Current Era
After a couple of years with Sea Escapes I started doing various projects and over the years have had the pleasure of working on very different systems, networks and development efforts. Please see my Projects page for the list of projects I have done in the last 15 years.
It would be true to say that I am always trying to learn something new and prefer projects that are challenging and allow me to become a better Developer (when I am coding), System guy (when I setting up Web Clusters), Networks (when I am designing company LAN/WAN), or who knows … perhaps I can help you with your next project 🙂