I started programming computers on an Atari 400 when I was 12 years old. Learning wasn't easy back then. There was no Internet. You had to actually find good programming books, which was hard because there weren't very many computer stores around back then. I had to read a lot and become creative. Mostly though, it involved a lot of trial and error.

After my dad built an RS-232 interface to connect the Atari 400 to a Teletype that he acquired, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I could actually send print jobs to the Teletype from the computer.

Fast forward a year or (a lot) more, I'm still writing code and building interfaces between devices. Only, I get paid to do it now.

I was fortunate to work in a university for 23 years where I was able to carve my own path. I gained valuable experience in designing, building, maintaing, and integrating enterprise level services such as Active Directory, Exchange, Office 365, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, and later, of course, ServiceNow.

Even though I was a senior level engineer, there was no one I would turn down when they asked for help. I mentored my peers, faculty, and students alike. A long, long time ago, I even provided tech support to Whitman Mayo (Grady from Sanford and Son) -- true story.

Over the years, our team broke apart and it just wasn't the same place it used to be. I had also fallen in love with ServiceNow and thought about doing that full-time. I went to Knowledge 2018 and that sealed the deal. I turned in my resignation without having another job. It was a little scary since I have a family but I am very confident in my technical skills. And it didn't take long to land my first ServiceNow dev job.

I am a ServiceNow platform developer, which means I develop for the platform as a whole. I cringe when a recruiter asks about my level of experience with a particular module. The "module" concept is more for the end user because all of the building blocks are the same as any other ServiceNow feature. Sure it's helpful to know how the module works for the end user but, at the end of the day, a business rule is a business rule. A client script is a client script.

My favorite things to do are integrating ServiceNow with other systems and custom application development. While I have performed a lot of integrations from and to ServiceNow, unfortunately, there hasn't been as much of a need for custom applications where I've worked so far. I also like building little widget based tools that help people do their jobs.

All that said, I'm also an engineer by hobby. I've built lots of semi-useful to useless gadgets over the years. I have an unhealthy fascination with the ESP32. I couldn't even try to tell you how many things I've built based on those. They fall under my useless category. The most recent thing I've built that I'd file under semi-useful is a MagicMirror. I've built several modules for it, like this one.

Oh. I also dabble in game development.

While I love the ServiceNow platform, I think the platform has negatively impacted what it means to be an application developer. First of all, the majority of ServiceNow "developers" I have worked with, don't have much, if any, experience in a real-world application development environment. Their experience comes from writing client scripts and business rules using TinyMCE.