I grew up in Washington State, and from an early age I've been passionate about the environment and world around me. Going through college, this led me to studying Geographic Information Systems and Geography. I loved the challenge that GIS gave me, with each problem being at least slightly new and different. After college I spent a few years working in the industry, both remotely for a non-profit conservation group, as well as in a more traditional GIS role as an analyst for the City of Centennial, Colorado. As I progressed in the career, it became apparent that with the improvement of GIS software, tasks that used to be challenging and time consuming were becoming easier and easier. While this is great for increasing efficiency at work, it also meant that what used to be a highly technical profession was becoming more mundane and entry level. To really be at the cutting edge I would have to be highly proficient in software development as well as GIS.
Thinking that perhaps this was a sign that it was time to move on, I changed careers to manage direct sales for a climbing and skiing company. While this was a great way to work in a field that I loved, it quickly became apparent that in my strive for personal improvement, to best manage our website I would also have to gain web development experience. I spent some time learning by myself, heavily using resources like codeacademy, but most of my code was copy/paste and really got me into more trouble than it solved. This led me to Turing. I wanted to more deeply understand the concepts that I'd been dancing around for so long, and the fact that Turing is a non-profit really resonated with me. I'm currently going through the program (and loving it), but in the future I will strive to apply these new skills and abilities to bettering our outside world. I hope to work in an environmentally based company, so that I am satisfied that I'm doing something to make the world a better place, while at the same time working in a field that satisfies my need for new challenges.
Great draft Ben!