Electronic Manufacturing
When I was younger my favorite subjects were math and art, but I really wanted to become a mechanical engineer, so I enrolled into a Tech-Prep Program at my highschool, which earned me college credit and taught me all about electronics. This allowed me to start working at Texas Instruments the day after I graduated high school. First, I worked on the assembly line putting together electronic circuit boards. Then I got into functional testing, and a couple of years later I worked directly with engineers to perform level 3 (military grade) soldering repairs on electronic circuit boards. After 4 years, I decided to leave my job so that I could go to college full-time. In college I was introduced to a “new thing” called the internet, websites and desktop publishing, which I enjoyed so much, that I decided to change my major to Visual Communication Design.
Right after college I moved to Washington State, and started my design/dev career during the dotcom boom. I worked at three different companies, while living in WA from 2000 to 2006. Meals.com was my first job out of college, where I was a web developer. Meals.com was a start-up company that made websites for various grocery stores. The websites had a cool application where you could look up recipes based on what ingredients you had in your fridge. We also did product pages for major food brands.
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After Meals.com, I worked as a graphic designer at a print shop called MinuteMan Press in Belleuve, Washington. At MinuteMan Press I designed business cards, business letterhead, logos, calendars, brochures and made things ready for the printing press.
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The third job I had in Washington was working for a company called Verus, a healthcare system website provider. We built websites for hospitals. At Verus I built Content Management System (CMS) websites, and used Flash and JavaScript to produce website banner ads. I also assisted marketing with corporate website re-branding, designed client proposals, postcards, product brochures, datasheets, artwork for trade shows and online newsletters. Verus allowed me to work from home when I relocated back to Texas in 2006. Working remotely was awesome, although I have to admit I did miss all of my co-workers’ smiling faces. The day Verus shut-down was very sad, but on the bright side of things, it gave me the opportunity to see what kind of jobs Texas had to offer in my field. I was also very excited about getting that office interaction I was craving.
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In 2007, I was super excited to begin working for a digital marketing agency located in Austin. I was an Interactive Production Artist at Engauge for two years. My responsibilities included working on multi-language email advertisements, microsites and landing pages. Extra-long hours and tight deadlines were typical in my role at Engauge, but the company would show their appreciation for my hard work by awarding me with special parking spots and gift cards. Another perk about this job was that it was located at the Domain Mall, which was like a mini-village full of delicious restaurants and shopping stores.
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My experience with multi-language advertisements helped me land my second job in Austin as an Independent Contractor with a company called Lifesize. As a Graphic Designer/Web Developer at Lifesize, I supported marketing managers with promo kits, print ads, datasheets, whitepapers, brochures, product matrix documentation, pop-up walls and banners for trade shows and exhibit events. I also created email templates, landing pages and CMS microsites.
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In 2010, I started a new full-time job as a User Experience Designer/Interface Developer for an Electronic Medical Record and Practice Management Software company called eMD’s. As a UX Designer, my responsibilities included creating low and high-fidelity mock-ups with icons and graphics used in software interfaces and public-facing patient portal websites. As an Interface Developer, I converted wireframes into standards-based XHTML and CSS using established global styling. I was also the XHTML/CSS Lead, responsible for coordinating in-house XHTML/CSS and the delivery of code to the JavaScript development team in India for application wire-up. eMD’s was an agile development environment where daily scrums were required and meeting tight deadlines were essential to keeping projects on track. I loved my job and the people at eMD’s, but had to leave toward the end of 2011 because my husband got a job offer in Washington State.
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After I moved back to WA, I began doing contract Graphic Design/Web Development work for an Austin, TX company that specialized in helping technology leaders make informed decisions about business software needs based on certified user reviews and ratings. A former Lifesize co-worker referred this company to me. I used Adobe Creative Cloud to produce comparison maps, product reports, and software buyer guides for various industries and vendors. I also utilized Photoshop, XHTML, and CSS to build webpages that matched PDF versions of guides. I supported marketing with banner ads, brochures, guides, business cards, trade show artwork, t-shirts, and awards.
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