STATUS:
Unemployed / Self-Employed Web Developer - Seeking Employment Opportunities and Professional Connections
EDUCATION:
Minnesota State University, Mankato - Mankato, MN (2005 - 2009)
Bachelor of Science in Physics, Minor in Mathematics
May 9th of 2009, Cumulative GPA: 3.30/4.00, Cum Laude
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND (2003 - 2004)
COMPUTER SKILLS AND SOFTWARE PROFICIENCIES:
Platforms and Applications: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Mathematica, LaTeX, Notepad, WordPad, CS5: Adobe Dreamweaver, CS5: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Windows XP/Vista, Linux/Unix/Ubuntu, Red Hat, PuTTY, Unix Shell, phpMyAdmin, Sphinx Search Technologies
Languages/Software: LAMP Stack, PHP 5.4 & PHP 7.0, MySQL & MySQLi Improved, Linux, Apache, HTML/HTML 5/XHTML, XML, CSS, Bootstrap 3.0 Framework, Java, JavaScript, jQuery, AJAX, True Basic, ActionScript
API Integration and Software Experience:
Sphinx Search Technology - Open source full-text search server - Index data from MySQL database and provide an extremely fast and advanced search engine.
PayPal Adaptive Payments - Marketplace payments between 3rd-party buyers and sellers
Amazon Flexible Payments Service (FPS) - Marketplace payments between 3rd-party buyers and sellers
Google Checkout (defunct) - Marketplace payments between 3rd-party buyers and sellers
eBay SOAP API - One-click import of products and feedback ratings from eBay to my eCommerce marketplace
Facebook API - Allow sellers to integrate their marketplace store into Facebook, automatically share new item listings
Twitter API - Allow sellers to automatically share their new item listings from marketplace.
PROGRAMMING AND WEB DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE:
Startup Internet Entrepreneur - Self-employed web developer and online business owner (10/2004 - Present): Built online businesses in numerous competitive industries. Webmaster tasks included designing, programming, developing and maintaining over 100 websites, writing content, SEO copywriting, and becoming an expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). First learned HTML in the late 90's and began working at a commercial level in 2004. Most recently have been re-designing websites with "mobile-friendly" Responsive Web Design practices with HTML5, CSS3, jQuery and Twitter Bootstrap 3.0.
My most successful web development project is USA Coin Book: https://www.usacoinbook.com, which is a dynamic, automated online auction and marketplace in the numismatic and coin collecting niche. This site is solely owned, administered, and developed from scratch by myself. This is a MySQL database-driven site using PHP, XHTML, CSS, AJAX, jQuery and JavaScript. Work on this site includes designing and optimizing the entire MySQL database from scratch (experience with InnoDB, MyISAM and index tables) along with an automated daily MySQL backup script. Also includes PayPal, Amazon Payments, Google Checkout and eBay API integration, ecommerce and multi-seller shopping cart development, private message inbox system, JavaScript and AJAX calculators/applications, Sphinx Search used with MySQL to provide a fast and accurate search engine. Built a scalable jQuery/PHP-based image uploading script and thumbnail generator. Also built an application that collects live precious metal commodity market prices which are used to instantly update price guides for thousands of gold/silver coins based on their mass and metal composition. The price data is integrated into the calculators. USA Coin Book yields 10.8 million page views or 2.5 million unique visitors (in 2016 alone) and is a leading resource and marketplace in the numismatic and coin collecting industry. I also have 22+ years experience and expertise in the coin collecting industry, numismatics and coin valuation.
My most recent web development project is UniSquare: https://www.unisquare.com , which is a dynamic, automated online auction and marketplace - a full eBay alternative. This site is solely owned, administered and developed from scratch by myself. This is a MySQL database-driven site using PHP, XHTML, CSS, AJAX, jQuery and JavaScript. Work on this site includes designing and optimizing the entire MySQL database from scratch (experience with InnoDB, MyISAM and index tables) - with my own automated daily MySQL backup script. Also includes PayPal, Amazon Payments, Google Checkout, Facebook, Twitter and eBay API integration, private message inbox system, coupon code management for sellers, invoicing system for buyers and sellers, cronjob management, dynamic XML product feed and sitemap index development, ecommerce and advanced multi-seller and multi-variant products shopping cart development, JavaScript and AJAX calculators/applications, Sphinx Search used with MySQL to build a customized, fast and accurate faceted search engine. Also built my own jQuery/PHP image uploading script and thumbnail generator. Developed a bulk CSV/TXT product importer/exporter so sellers can import/export their items to/from files on a computer, import up to 10,000 product listings at a time. Developed a similar bulk uploader using the eBay SOAP API to allow sellers to import their products directly from eBay into UniSquare with just 1 click. UniSquare hosts over 500,000 product listings created by nearly 6,000 independent sellers, making it one of the largest eBay-alternative marketplaces online. Loads with lightning-fast speed. I have 22+ years of experience and expertise in ecommerce and business in general.
More General Details: A great deal of experience was gained developing earlier websites by coding raw HTML/CSS into notepad and debugging code, keeping in mind cross-browser compatibility. Later sites were developed using Adobe Dreamweaver. As the sites grew and became more advanced using PHP and MySQL, I learned more about web security and web hacking techniques. I was able understand and better protect websites against SQL Injection vulnerabilities and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. I also learned more about SSL and the secure HTTP (HTTPS) protocol, such as where and when to use the secure protocol on web pages to encrypt and secure communication of sensitive information across the internet. I enjoy learning and regularly tweak the code in my websites as I acquire more knowledge and techniques. This includes finding a balance between a scalable, high performance, fast loading website and efficiently conserving memory and server resources to save money.
Some minor experience was gained in developing basic Adobe Flash applications, such as smooth image rotators, using ActionScript. SFTP is used on a daily basis to transfer files to the web. I use Adobe Photoshop to create logos, showcase and present coins professionally, and "watermark" screenshots. I also gained much knowledge in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for the online marketing of the websites in major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. The key goal of SEO is to get sites and pages to appear high up in the search result rankings for various keyword search queries - which is our primary source of visitor traffic and potential customers, hence higher earnings and profit. SEO and responsive webpage techniques are always kept in mind in any website design. Web development and design skills were self-taught over a 6 year period while attending college at the same time. Total of 14 years of commercial web development and programming experience.
Formal Programming Education: Aced college course in Java and gained experience working on Linux and Red Hat. Aced advanced course for developing computer applications, simulations and algorithms in physics using True Basic language. Simple simulations included basic physics problems, free falling objects, animated oscillators (damped and undamped) and pendulums, animated Kepler orbits, Euler-Richardson/Cromer algorithms and Chaotic Monte Carlo computations.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND RELATED EXPERIENCE:
Undergraduate Research, Minnesota State University, Mankato - Mankato, MN
Particle Accelerator, (1/09 - 5/09)
Collaborated in a group effort to build a 400kV Van de Graaff particle accelerator at Minnesota State University and perform experiments in nuclear physics. Experiments include identifying spectrums of particles and finding the optimal energy calibrations of the machine for use in new science courses that can be offered at the University.
Individual Study, Minnesota State University, Mankato - Mankato, MN
Renewable and Alternative Energies, Solid State Physics, (1/08 - 5/08)
Researched green energy, renewable energy and alternative energy topics including nuclear fission reactors, nuclear fusion, thermoelectricity (heat to electricity conversion), radioisotope thermoelectricity (radioactive decay to electricity conversion), photovoltaics (solar energy) and solid state physics.
Advanced Laboratory, Minnesota State University, Mankato - Mankato, MN, (1/08 - 5/08)
Experience in 4 advanced lab experiments: X-Ray Diffraction, Millikan Oil Drop, Cavendish Gravity and AC Circuit Analysis; Gained experience using new equipment and applications of an X-Ray Diffractor, Function Generator, Oscilloscope and Mathematica; A large amount of experience was gained in Data Analysis and Error Analysis, working as an independent group and utilizing all available resources at the University to solve problems in each experiment; 40 minute presentation. Experimentally measured the physical constants: Universal Gravitational Constant and Elementary Electron Charge within a 1% margin of error.
QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS EXPERIENCE:
As a student of the quantitative hard science in physics, I have used Microsoft Excel on a regular basis to solve highly complex problems and perform data analysis of experiments in advanced physics labs, classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, optics, electricity and magnetism, modern physics, calculus, chemistry and other fields of science. I have much experience in Excel programming and have worked with large volumes of data, developed specialized calculators, mathematical formulas, charts and other functions. I am also highly experienced with Windows, Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
WORK AND JOB EXPERIENCE:
Web Developer - Webmaster and Online Business Owner, Self-employed (10/04 - Present)
Built my own websites and online businesses to make money. Self-taught myself web programming languages over a period of 6 years while attending college - for a total of 10 years of commercial web development experience. Languages include XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, AJAX, JavaScript, Apache, Unix, Linux and Sphinx Search Technologies. Gained experience working with on-site design and content management as well as off-site internet marketing including Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Professional Satellite TV Installer, Stargate Entertainment - Tomahawk, WI (7/96 - 8/03)
Installed Dish Network satellite TV systems as my job throughout middle school and high school. Used technology to locate satellites in space and tune in signals. Assembled and installed satellite dishes, ran and configured wiring through households in a clean and organized fashion, interacted with customers and configured TV systems.
OTHER EXPERIENCE:
Aviation, University of North Dakota (9/03 - 12/04), Minnesota State University (9/05 - 5/06)
Trained in Private Pilot certification. Logged over 40 hours of flight time in small single engine
airplane. Flown solo in class C airspace with ATC. Course taken in Air Traffic Control with simulation. Scored 93% on FAA
certification exam.
Meteorology, University of North Dakota (9/03 - 12/04)
Completed courses in General Meteorology and Aviation Meteorology, which is specialized for pilots.
RECOGNITION:
Won a 2012 Annual Wammy Award (from Answers.com) for a best answer in my field of expertise - USACoinBook.com. (2012)
Elected to the 2008-09 "Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges", Minnesota State University (2009)
Kiwanis Environmental Physics Scholarship Recipient, Minnesota State University (2008)
Dean's List, University of North Dakota (2004)
Two time D.J. Robertson Award Recipient, University of North Dakota (2003 & 2004) - Award given at the end of a semester for earning a 4.0 GPA.
ACTIVITIES:
Alpha Eta Rho fraternity - active member (2003-2004), Upward Bound (1999-2003)