Because I’m transitioning from teaching back to software development or IT work, it was a challenge to fit all my relevant experience into a resume and cover letter. So I created this mini-website to provide potential employers a more complete picture of what I have to offer.
After I have been hired, I plan to update this site with my professional growth and achievements for current and future employers.
Career Goals
It has been an honor serving the educational needs of middle school students for sixteen years, but I am now embarking on a new path in my career to put to use my strong interpersonal and various technical skills to achieve the goals of a company and its customers, to better support my family, and reach greater professional opportunities.
Professional goals for myself are:
- Short Term
Get hired in the private sector as a software developer or an IT professional with opportunities to improve my coding skills and technical knowledge - Medium Term
Impress my employer with my current skills, build my coding skills, network to make professional software development and IT connections, and make steps toward team lead and management - Long Term
Lead software development or IT project management, and begin participating on the side (or primarily) in open source software development
Personal Life
My family and I live in Cypress, Texas. We are originally from California and relocated to Texas in 2001. I enjoy concerts and collecting vinyl records, camping and hiking, and visiting the zoo and museums.
My daughter is the most important part of my life. After a decade of waiting and hearing from doctors that there was no reason we shouldn’t be able to have a child, my wife and I reorganized our finances and pursued pregnancy through IVF. We were very lucky that it worked, but it was a grueling and expensive process.
Our next hurdle with our daughter was trying to keep her safe when vaccinations for young children weren’t available until two years after the adult vaccine. After all we went through to have our daughter, we decided to keep her home instead of sending her to back when daycare opened back up. It was challenging to provide all she needed while still isolating her as much as possible.
We were able to get my daughter vaccinated mere weeks before beginning Kindergarten. Getting her acclimated to being around people and spending so many hours away from home has been a big challenge. It’s paid off, and I’m happy to say she’s got a bunch of friends and learned so much this year.
FAQ
- What salary are you expecting to earn?
- As a teacher I was making about $70k for a ten-month contract, so converted to a twelve-month salary I need to earn at least $85k. As an entry-level software developer, I would be satisfied with this salary since much of my first few months would be spent improving my programming knowledge as much as doing actual coding. As an IT professional, however, I am worth over 100k because of the breadth and depth of my technical knowledge, my critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and my people skills. I would settle for a little bit less pay for a work-from-home position.
- You resigned from teaching in August of 2023, so why are just now applying for this position?
- So far, I have been only been applying to “perfect fit” listings as I find them. This means I see your organization as a very good fit if I’m applying for a position. I’ve spent this time preparing for a shift in my career. I have been studying (server and Linux administration, coding, etc.), and I’ve narrowing down my career passions and next steps.
- How has teaching prepared you for a career in information technology or software development?
- If you already have any idea what a teachers day looks like, I probably don’t need to convince you that you’ve lucked out finding me to fill your position. I don’t highlight my teaching accomplishments much in my resume or on this website since I am done with that chapter in my career, but having been a successful teacher has prepared me for almost any job out there.
I’m as hard working as any other successful teacher. Each day was like leading six mandatory meetings in a row, and keeping them on track even with constant interruptions. This requires being able to think on your feet and being flexible. I managed each school year as a yearlong project, meeting rigorous deadlines, communicating with all interested parties, and keeping admin happy. I was able to navigate student needs, parent expectations, district and admin goals, privacy and security requirements, red tape, and budgetary constraints to reach consistently high-achievement outcomes.
I’m an expert in learning and a life-long learner, so any skills I need to learn for a position I’ll acquire rapidly and efficiently.
In the classroom, I routinely communicated complex concepts and procedures to students with various backgrounds and abilities. I’m able to do the same with management, users, and customers. As a former teacher who guided the learning of every kind of student you could imagine, I strongly support diversity and tolerance.
I’ve held leadership roles both in and out of classroom. I’ve always sought and found win-win solutions to conflict resolution. Parents have consistently been happy with me, and I’ve always been able to convince students to enjoy my classes. I almost never called parents about their children because I was able to work directly with students about behavior and academic challenges.
Managers and coworkers have always enjoyed working with me. - What is “Z Technical”
- Z Technical is my branding for freelance IT, web design, and software development work I have done for small business and individuals referred from my professional network. Because I’ve always been “the computer guy” and people know I’m helpful, I’ve been asked for guidance and help at least a few times per year—even when I was a teacher. I haven’t pursued it as a full-time career because my main focus for sixteen years was my work in the classroom. But it’s been satisfying to help out when I can (and bring in some extra cash from time to time).
- Who are your references?
- I have a list of administrators to vouch for my abilities. I also have a vendor I worked with for ten years who has said she would be happy to sing my praises. Unfortunately, my former students and their parents would be the best at convincing you to hire me, but FERPA prevents me from sharing their contact info. They were always pleased with the support and guidance I provided year after year. I’ll gladly give you anonymized examples if you’d like.