Every Blog Needs a First Post

I'm Ross, Using JavaScript and PHP I've built production grade applications for thousands of users in both the public and private sector. I am a curious problem solver who enjoys working across the stack to build solutions for various domains. I love to architect. I love to build. Most of all, I love the fulfillment that comes from seeing something I contributed to in action.

Before starting my professional career in technology, I worked as a manager in an Iowa City restaurant. In my free time I acquired a Salesforce Administrator Certification.  Around the same time, I recognized an outdated catering order process in my workplace that required unnecessary labor. Overconfident, naive, and beneficially delusional; I built an online catering order system with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Firebase, and no bundler🤢. Guess what, they didn't want to use it. But, that wasn't what mattered, I found my outlet.

I slid down the slope and started building/learning about JavaScript applications in every hour outside of work (ask my girlfriend😬). React Router + Vite, Vue/Nuxt, React/Next. I became an addict. Stumbling upon Supabase and AWS Lambda made my ideas whole. I was never much into app tutorials and enjoyed the freedom to turn ideas into reality. A little under a year into my journey; AI. I believe AI has benefitted my journey by giving me a pair programmer to grow from in cross reference with Googling and most importantly, docs. I have enjoyed autocomplete abilities for trivial syntax generation especially when using TypeScript. And it's always nice to turn to someone with ideas in moments of programmatic despair.

I began my current role as a Front End Developer in February 2024. We are a small shop, and fortunately I get to wear many hats which has helped me continue to grow💪🏼. Upon being hired, I had never written a meaningful line of PHP. Within 6 months I was working inside Laravel, creating features for production applications. I have worked on teams of 2-4 developers, contributing to the development of numerous projects, supporting 100s of thousands of users and generating millions of dollars worth of value.  Outside of work I still build for fun, whether it's this bespoke NextJS CMS Portfolio, or a realtime golf event scoring app built with Ionic React and Node/Express/Redis/Postgres/SocketIO. I'm constantly leveling up, courtesy of my curiosity.

I still have a strong desire to grow. In less than three years, I've gone from Salesforce hopeful -- no bundler and a dream, to production grade ordering apps and Salesforce integrations for State Universities. I hope to never stop learning, whether it's languages, frameworks, or the industries I participate in. What's the point of it all? I don't exactly know, but I love it.