(no subject)
I just applied for the most perfect job I could think of for me right now.
And I'm all scared and stuff. I hate doing this. I've bitched and grumbled and been pissy all weekend because I want this job So. Damn. Bad.
I want to share the stuff I've put in the app, so if anyone cares to read over the cover letter and résumé they are under
The Cover Letter:
I really want this cover letter to wow you. I want it to blow off your proverbial socks, and have you diving for the phone. I couldn’t be more excited about this position, because it’s exactly the step I’ve been looking to take in my career. After you’ve finished reading this, I believe you’ll see how well my multiply-disciplined background matches me with the tasks described in this job posting.
The Brief and Direct Response:
I’ve done IT in various capacities for over 15 years. I’ve got many methods of finding out where the files are if I don’t already know. I’ve been working and studying land surveying and its related technologies for the last four years. NGS Blue-booking with GPS, cadastral breakdowns and mortgage surveys aplenty - all surveyed and drawn myself. I’ve done a lot of purchasing research in this same timespan and have put my hands on a lot of new equipment and software.
I’ve worked as an application developer and a web-app developer. I’m also my own graphic artist and print technician, which means: SQL queries? Check. Data imaging dashboards like MS-SQL Server or NaviCat? Check. Spreadsheet calculations? Check. Word Processing? Check. Large data sets? Simply a question of available RAM vs. processing time. I know I have the tools to make the data do what it needs to do, and present that data in a format that’s sensible and digestible.
In high school, I was plugging toward being a Mechanical Engineer, and consequently I have several hundred hours of manual drafting time under my belt. Not many people my age can say that! During this same time period, I started CAD drafting very early in AutoCAD’s life cycle.
The Life Story Response:
My technology career started in the trenches doing telephone technical support for end users of America Online, learning how to analyze, document, and resolve complex problems without being able to access the problem directly. It’s the sort of work that emphasizes patience, clarity of thought, and effective communication. The same environment also began to show me the importance of “technical triage,” to be able to choose when to go the extra step to achieve a resolution on my own, or to recognize when the problem might be outside my expertise and to enlist other resources. Other telephone support jobs followed, including another ISP, with my last call-center job supporting the delicate intricacies of credit card accounting software.
I taught myself a few core programming languages along the way, and the software company moved me up into a developer-support position bridging the gap between data analysis and escalated end-user support. I was in charge of analyzing data problems, as well as developing new protocol enhancements and their documentation. I spent a lot of time sifting through massive log files and helping developers patch their system interfaces. I also learned how to make Word documents into very slick Acrobat documents.
I made the jump from analyst to full-time programmer, working on a vast database of questionnaire responses. One of the more challenging tasks I’ve ever been handed involved designing an XML-like structure for transforming these responses from “Yes/No” questions to a variety of other formats such as “Has/Does not have,” “Does/Does not” and so on, hand coding this transformation matrix, and filtering the database through it for use. I’m happy to say this earned me some very intrigued high-fives from some of the more experienced programmers in the community, both for the flexibility of my solution, and that I’d made a textbook case of “why XML is useful.” After doing web-programming for a few years, it was time to find something fresh.
What I found was land surveying. I practically stumbled into the work, as I’m told most do, and have since embraced its broad-spectrum appeal. Drawing on my prior CAD and mechanical drafting experience, I was able to go out on the survey crew, collect the survey data, then come in and draw up the plats myself. Many times our small survey shop was able to lean on my odd array of expertise with regards to survey data adjustments, in one example using a combination of Regular Expression processing and Microsoft Excel to convert several thousand points worth of descriptor codes from in-house string to the code blocks required for use by the Illinois Department of Transportation. I was charged with keeping the drafting stations running smoothly with their combination of AutoCAD 2000 and various (ancient, DOS-based) third party plugins, and I made it possible to bring server support in-house and spare the expense incurred by outside technical support.
I was one-third of a survey crew that installed a municipal control network, complete with NGS Blue Book procedures for horizontal first-order accuracy; you can look at datasheets for PID DJ9524 through DJ9527. That was a great summer. Soon thereafter, I was sent even deeper into the world of geodesy in order to understand and defend against a claim regarding a site benchmark we had set, refuting that an error made by a grading contractor could not be attributed to our work.
In 2008 I moved to the Portland area to enroll in Clark College and participate in their Land Survey Technician certification, which has since been increased to a full AAS. After one year in the program, I took an opening for a CADD instructor, teaching an AutoCAD class (CADD 280 - Intro to Civil3D). I also volunteered to speak on behalf of Clark College at the 2009 PLSO College Lunch event. Once I have my AAS from Clark, my plan is to transfer to PSU for a BS in Geography.
I work now for a local surveying firm, dealing with AutoCAD on a daily basis and doing research on Clark County’s geoCortex system as well as Multnomah County’s SAIL system. My work with ODOT and WSDOT requires me to be familiar with the workings of MicroStation, and naturally I play with Google Maps or Google Earth at least once a day.
I’m eager to find that kind of place where I can shine brightly as a problem-solver. I want to stand astride that grey area between Surveying and GIS. The position you’re offering is perfectly aligned with my collection of talents and experience. I’m ready to be your Mapping Data Technician.
Eagerly,
Chris Bielanski
The Résumé:
Chris Bielanski
Chris@Geexploitation.com
503/953-0530
I am concurrently employed by Clark College, and self-employed as a drafter and survey crewman, seeking a full-time position that will allow me to work with other sectors of the geospatial industry, with GIS of particular interest.
Employment History
Employer: Clark College
Job Title: CADD Instructor
Location: Vancouver, WA
Dates Employed: 04/20/2009-Present
Duties:
• CADD 280 “Intro to AutoCAD Civil-3D” instructor.
• Educate students on the basics of operating C3D as a land development platform.
• Interact with other college faculty as necessary.
Self-Employment Work:
Employing Agent: Vancouver School District (Through Clark College Work Study)
Job Title: High Demand Math/Science Tutor
Location: Fort Vancouver High School
Contact: Ed Esparza, GEAR-UP/Rocket Site Coordinator
Dates: Winter Quarter 2009 - Present
Duties: In-class tutoring and assistance for students in the Washington Dept. of Ed. GEAR-UP program.
Employing Agent: Quick Line Surveying, Inc.
Job Title: CAD Operator
Location: Vancouver, WA
Contact: Alan Kumma, PLS (360) 852-6720 akumma@qlsurveying.com
Dates: 08/01/2008 - Present
Duties: As below, but as a contractor.
Employer: Quick Line Surveying, Inc.
Job Title: CAD Operator
Location: Vancouver, WA
Dates Employed: 01/12/2008-07/31/2008
Duties:
• Use of Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D and Land Development Desktop for data preparation and presentation of Survey work.
• Client relations, data transfer to and from engineering and government clientele.
• Daily maintenance of Windows XP-based workstations.
• Backup and maintenance of digital archives.
Employer: Stacy Ferguson Land Surveying, Inc.
Job Title: Field Crew / Draftsperson / Technician
Location: Batavia, IL
Dates Employed: 10/12/2005-11/17/2007
Duties:
• Survey Crewperson for cadastral and construction surveying.
• GPS Operation and troubleshooting of all types; Static, Base/Rover, and Networked RTK.
• Drafting of collected survey data using AutoCAD software, including linework, topographic contouring, boundary analysis and resolution.
• Workstation Maintenance (Windows XP Pro Environment), Software deployments, Printers, Copiers, Scanners, Plotters.
• Various Surveying Equipment Experience
• Various Geospatial Software Experience
Employer: International Trademark Association.
Job Title: Admin-Programmer
Location: NYC
Dates Employed: 1/12/2004 - 6/30/2005
Duties:
• Onsite Speaker Coordinator for 2005 Annual Meeting of the Association. Logistics for delivery of powerpoint presentations and some printed materials for legal education courses. Onsite (convention center) speaker support for fine tuning of presentations. Overall numbers were 46 presentations, 150+ speakers, about 120 project days from start to finish.
• Telephone and email technical support of accessibility to online resources for INTA's international membership.
• Onsite support of 50 user, 16 server mixed environment. Software includes WinXP, Win2K, MSAD, Exchange 5.5, MS-SQL7, MySQL, OpenOffice, MS Office. Canon eCopy MFCs, HP LaserJet printers.
• Backend support of several members-only websites, involving heavy PHP and minor database (MySQL) work.
Employer: Shift 4 Corp.
Job Title: Interface Programmer
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Dates Employed: 11/1999 - 7/2004
Duties:
• Telephone-based helpdesk support and technical support escalation from other Helpdesk personnel.
• Worked in the SCO Unix/XWindows environment developing PERL code to build an interface between point-of-sale systems and Shift 4 protocols
• Conducted live (telephone/Internet) testing and certification of all new interfaces to ensure that they uphold all financial, federal and state rules and regulations regarding security and privacy of credit card information. Worked with developers internally and externally to help prevent transaction downgrades by analyzing and resolving deviations from statutes in both front- and back-end operations. Communicated and coordinated approximately 200 different complete certification phases over 4 years.
• Quality assurance and compliance testing, vendor support, and expansion design of the Shift4 API. Administration of the interface certification test-bed. Developed new documentation for the Shift4 API to assist and instruct third-party vendors in the development and certification of new credit card interfaces. Updated docs to current (2004) pending federal and common state data requirements.
Previous Employers:
• Innovative System Design, Tucson AZ
• America On-Line, Tucson AZ
• Radio Shack Corp. (Chicagoland District) 1992-93
• STAB Engineering, Oswego IL, 1982-1992
Educational History
• AAS Land Surveying Technician (in progress) - Clark College - Vancouver WA.
• High School Diploma (1991) - Oswego High School, Oswego IL. Emphases: Mathematics, Drafting, Spanish, Music.
Thanks for any kind (gentle) words you can offer on this one.
And I'm all scared and stuff. I hate doing this. I've bitched and grumbled and been pissy all weekend because I want this job So. Damn. Bad.
I want to share the stuff I've put in the app, so if anyone cares to read over the cover letter and résumé they are under
The Cover Letter:
I really want this cover letter to wow you. I want it to blow off your proverbial socks, and have you diving for the phone. I couldn’t be more excited about this position, because it’s exactly the step I’ve been looking to take in my career. After you’ve finished reading this, I believe you’ll see how well my multiply-disciplined background matches me with the tasks described in this job posting.
The Brief and Direct Response:
I’ve done IT in various capacities for over 15 years. I’ve got many methods of finding out where the files are if I don’t already know. I’ve been working and studying land surveying and its related technologies for the last four years. NGS Blue-booking with GPS, cadastral breakdowns and mortgage surveys aplenty - all surveyed and drawn myself. I’ve done a lot of purchasing research in this same timespan and have put my hands on a lot of new equipment and software.
I’ve worked as an application developer and a web-app developer. I’m also my own graphic artist and print technician, which means: SQL queries? Check. Data imaging dashboards like MS-SQL Server or NaviCat? Check. Spreadsheet calculations? Check. Word Processing? Check. Large data sets? Simply a question of available RAM vs. processing time. I know I have the tools to make the data do what it needs to do, and present that data in a format that’s sensible and digestible.
In high school, I was plugging toward being a Mechanical Engineer, and consequently I have several hundred hours of manual drafting time under my belt. Not many people my age can say that! During this same time period, I started CAD drafting very early in AutoCAD’s life cycle.
The Life Story Response:
My technology career started in the trenches doing telephone technical support for end users of America Online, learning how to analyze, document, and resolve complex problems without being able to access the problem directly. It’s the sort of work that emphasizes patience, clarity of thought, and effective communication. The same environment also began to show me the importance of “technical triage,” to be able to choose when to go the extra step to achieve a resolution on my own, or to recognize when the problem might be outside my expertise and to enlist other resources. Other telephone support jobs followed, including another ISP, with my last call-center job supporting the delicate intricacies of credit card accounting software.
I taught myself a few core programming languages along the way, and the software company moved me up into a developer-support position bridging the gap between data analysis and escalated end-user support. I was in charge of analyzing data problems, as well as developing new protocol enhancements and their documentation. I spent a lot of time sifting through massive log files and helping developers patch their system interfaces. I also learned how to make Word documents into very slick Acrobat documents.
I made the jump from analyst to full-time programmer, working on a vast database of questionnaire responses. One of the more challenging tasks I’ve ever been handed involved designing an XML-like structure for transforming these responses from “Yes/No” questions to a variety of other formats such as “Has/Does not have,” “Does/Does not” and so on, hand coding this transformation matrix, and filtering the database through it for use. I’m happy to say this earned me some very intrigued high-fives from some of the more experienced programmers in the community, both for the flexibility of my solution, and that I’d made a textbook case of “why XML is useful.” After doing web-programming for a few years, it was time to find something fresh.
What I found was land surveying. I practically stumbled into the work, as I’m told most do, and have since embraced its broad-spectrum appeal. Drawing on my prior CAD and mechanical drafting experience, I was able to go out on the survey crew, collect the survey data, then come in and draw up the plats myself. Many times our small survey shop was able to lean on my odd array of expertise with regards to survey data adjustments, in one example using a combination of Regular Expression processing and Microsoft Excel to convert several thousand points worth of descriptor codes from in-house string to the code blocks required for use by the Illinois Department of Transportation. I was charged with keeping the drafting stations running smoothly with their combination of AutoCAD 2000 and various (ancient, DOS-based) third party plugins, and I made it possible to bring server support in-house and spare the expense incurred by outside technical support.
I was one-third of a survey crew that installed a municipal control network, complete with NGS Blue Book procedures for horizontal first-order accuracy; you can look at datasheets for PID DJ9524 through DJ9527. That was a great summer. Soon thereafter, I was sent even deeper into the world of geodesy in order to understand and defend against a claim regarding a site benchmark we had set, refuting that an error made by a grading contractor could not be attributed to our work.
In 2008 I moved to the Portland area to enroll in Clark College and participate in their Land Survey Technician certification, which has since been increased to a full AAS. After one year in the program, I took an opening for a CADD instructor, teaching an AutoCAD class (CADD 280 - Intro to Civil3D). I also volunteered to speak on behalf of Clark College at the 2009 PLSO College Lunch event. Once I have my AAS from Clark, my plan is to transfer to PSU for a BS in Geography.
I work now for a local surveying firm, dealing with AutoCAD on a daily basis and doing research on Clark County’s geoCortex system as well as Multnomah County’s SAIL system. My work with ODOT and WSDOT requires me to be familiar with the workings of MicroStation, and naturally I play with Google Maps or Google Earth at least once a day.
I’m eager to find that kind of place where I can shine brightly as a problem-solver. I want to stand astride that grey area between Surveying and GIS. The position you’re offering is perfectly aligned with my collection of talents and experience. I’m ready to be your Mapping Data Technician.
Eagerly,
Chris Bielanski
The Résumé:
Chris Bielanski
Chris@Geexploitation.com
503/953-0530
I am concurrently employed by Clark College, and self-employed as a drafter and survey crewman, seeking a full-time position that will allow me to work with other sectors of the geospatial industry, with GIS of particular interest.
Employment History
Employer: Clark College
Job Title: CADD Instructor
Location: Vancouver, WA
Dates Employed: 04/20/2009-Present
Duties:
• CADD 280 “Intro to AutoCAD Civil-3D” instructor.
• Educate students on the basics of operating C3D as a land development platform.
• Interact with other college faculty as necessary.
Self-Employment Work:
Employing Agent: Vancouver School District (Through Clark College Work Study)
Job Title: High Demand Math/Science Tutor
Location: Fort Vancouver High School
Contact: Ed Esparza, GEAR-UP/Rocket Site Coordinator
Dates: Winter Quarter 2009 - Present
Duties: In-class tutoring and assistance for students in the Washington Dept. of Ed. GEAR-UP program.
Employing Agent: Quick Line Surveying, Inc.
Job Title: CAD Operator
Location: Vancouver, WA
Contact: Alan Kumma, PLS (360) 852-6720 akumma@qlsurveying.com
Dates: 08/01/2008 - Present
Duties: As below, but as a contractor.
Employer: Quick Line Surveying, Inc.
Job Title: CAD Operator
Location: Vancouver, WA
Dates Employed: 01/12/2008-07/31/2008
Duties:
• Use of Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D and Land Development Desktop for data preparation and presentation of Survey work.
• Client relations, data transfer to and from engineering and government clientele.
• Daily maintenance of Windows XP-based workstations.
• Backup and maintenance of digital archives.
Employer: Stacy Ferguson Land Surveying, Inc.
Job Title: Field Crew / Draftsperson / Technician
Location: Batavia, IL
Dates Employed: 10/12/2005-11/17/2007
Duties:
• Survey Crewperson for cadastral and construction surveying.
• GPS Operation and troubleshooting of all types; Static, Base/Rover, and Networked RTK.
• Drafting of collected survey data using AutoCAD software, including linework, topographic contouring, boundary analysis and resolution.
• Workstation Maintenance (Windows XP Pro Environment), Software deployments, Printers, Copiers, Scanners, Plotters.
• Various Surveying Equipment Experience
• Various Geospatial Software Experience
Employer: International Trademark Association.
Job Title: Admin-Programmer
Location: NYC
Dates Employed: 1/12/2004 - 6/30/2005
Duties:
• Onsite Speaker Coordinator for 2005 Annual Meeting of the Association. Logistics for delivery of powerpoint presentations and some printed materials for legal education courses. Onsite (convention center) speaker support for fine tuning of presentations. Overall numbers were 46 presentations, 150+ speakers, about 120 project days from start to finish.
• Telephone and email technical support of accessibility to online resources for INTA's international membership.
• Onsite support of 50 user, 16 server mixed environment. Software includes WinXP, Win2K, MSAD, Exchange 5.5, MS-SQL7, MySQL, OpenOffice, MS Office. Canon eCopy MFCs, HP LaserJet printers.
• Backend support of several members-only websites, involving heavy PHP and minor database (MySQL) work.
Employer: Shift 4 Corp.
Job Title: Interface Programmer
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Dates Employed: 11/1999 - 7/2004
Duties:
• Telephone-based helpdesk support and technical support escalation from other Helpdesk personnel.
• Worked in the SCO Unix/XWindows environment developing PERL code to build an interface between point-of-sale systems and Shift 4 protocols
• Conducted live (telephone/Internet) testing and certification of all new interfaces to ensure that they uphold all financial, federal and state rules and regulations regarding security and privacy of credit card information. Worked with developers internally and externally to help prevent transaction downgrades by analyzing and resolving deviations from statutes in both front- and back-end operations. Communicated and coordinated approximately 200 different complete certification phases over 4 years.
• Quality assurance and compliance testing, vendor support, and expansion design of the Shift4 API. Administration of the interface certification test-bed. Developed new documentation for the Shift4 API to assist and instruct third-party vendors in the development and certification of new credit card interfaces. Updated docs to current (2004) pending federal and common state data requirements.
Previous Employers:
• Innovative System Design, Tucson AZ
• America On-Line, Tucson AZ
• Radio Shack Corp. (Chicagoland District) 1992-93
• STAB Engineering, Oswego IL, 1982-1992
Educational History
• AAS Land Surveying Technician (in progress) - Clark College - Vancouver WA.
• High School Diploma (1991) - Oswego High School, Oswego IL. Emphases: Mathematics, Drafting, Spanish, Music.
Thanks for any kind (gentle) words you can offer on this one.