Race P. Vanderdecken

I am looking to restart my project management and software engineering career after a 10-year hiatus.

• Recently, I have been working as a Senior Consultant and Freshservice implementation consultant for ZestCo.uk.
• I have completed my bachelor’s degree in Applied Management Information Systems with Operations Management, with honors from UNC.
• I have an unfinished Bachelor of Computer Science from UCI and UD.
• My software engineering skills are somewhat out of date right now. I have not professionally programmed for ten years. Before that, I programmed in C/C++ and was a development lead, manager, and project manager.
• I did it before, and I can do it again, but I’m realizing I will need to start at the bottom and work my way back up. I am not looking for that “top performer best of the best slot”, just a job to prove myself again.
• I can program in C/C++ pretty well. My Ruby on Rails is out of date, so is my Perl and Ruby. I did JAVA with JNI for about six months. I have done them once, and I can do them again given time to relearn.
• MY OOD/OOA/OOP is still good. STL is fair. I have studied C++ 11, 14, and 17 to include lambda functions.
• I am not a webpage or client-side JavaScript developer. Much of my work was done on the backend, communications WIN32, and systems levels.
• I have been trained in Text Analytics, MapReduce Hadoop, HDFS, Jaql & Pig, and other big data tools, but I am not a Big Data developer nor an Architect.
• I am doing personal iOS projects in Swift in order to learn Swift. 
• While I would like to do DevOps, I have not been trained enough in Docker and Kubernetes beyond some IBM and AWS training modules. I would like to work in DevOps as that utilizes the best of my past development experience and compliments my new degree work.
• I would also be open to doing embedded work.
• I know my skills are out of date and lacking. I also know that I have a lot of valuable experience in software development.
• I am looking for a chance to restart at the bottom and work my way back up again.

Wait! You have a lot of Software Developer or Software Engineer experience and knowledge. Would you consider working for us as a Developer or Engineer?

I am at a career crossroads. I went back to school to get a Bachelor’s in IT MIS management as I believe I would make a very effective people and project manager. One who is of more value by leading others to do their best.

At the same time, my background in software development is still relevant, and I would consider working as a developer given the right support, project, and manager.

Why have you not been in the workforce?

I was laid off with the Microsoft 10% layoffs during the last Recession in 2009.

After unsuccessfully trying to find another software development job, I decided to change my career focus away from the software industry.

What are you doing to prepare for your return to work?

I completed a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Management Information systems at UNC in December 2018.

I am continuing to study using more online courses and books to keep my technical knowledge up.

I am studying:

•  Project Management (awarded Google Project Manager Professional Certificate )
• Data Analysis (awarded Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate)
• Agile, Scrum, modern C++, Swift for IOS, etc…

I would expect any team I would be involved with to also continue their education in several ways.

Why did you return to School?

I returned to school to learn new management skills. I completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology Management Information Systems with Operations Management to complete that Goal (graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.8 GPA).

I want to be a better manager than the managers I worked for in the past. I want to be a good project manager.

What do you want to do with your IT MIS degree?

I would like to manage a DevOps team as I like the problem-solving challenges that work would provide. Eventually, I would love to work as a Delivery, Transition manager, or Solutions Architect on the far end. 

While working as a CTO might seem like one course, it is just not my favorite course. I do not think I have the required financial skills needed for the job unless I complete an MBA.

Uhm, why did you do a degree in Brewing?

My goal was to try something completely different from Software Development. I wanted to learn to manufacture, and I did learn to manufacture beer. (3.97 GPA if you are wondering.)

While doing my brewing degree, one of my professors handed me a copy of “The Goal” by Eliyahu Goldratt.  Reading “The Goal” changed my view from one of a worker to one of being a manager. I did not want to make beer, I want to run the brewery.

Then I read The Phoenix Project which brought me back to Software Development and Delivery.

What have you been doing for the last ten years?

Tired of Software Development, I went to find myself. 

I did filmmaking, screenwriting, lots of charity work, ran an online antique store, gardened extensively, traveled, designed an inter-airport transportation system replacing regional jets with motorcoaches, worked on a few small software projects,  worked as a wedding chauffeur, played some golf and started work on some cool push payment iPhone apps using AWS with DynamoDB.

I even wrote about Dating in the Art & Style of a Gentleman, the Gentleman's Definitive Guide to Dating Relationships.

What are you doing to reenter the workforce?

I am studying again. I am actively doing classes on Project Management, Data Analysis, IT Automation with Python, Scrum, Agile, Swift, Python, lots of other stuff and all the pieces I need to deliver my iPhone apps.

I am actively working to find work as a Project Manager in an Agile environment, possibly a Scrum Master, DevOps, or delivery.