OBJECTIVE

I am pursuing full-time employment at a company in line with my passion for digital media and technology, where I can increase my knowledge and expertise in technology while helping provide solutions that people need.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Microsoft Corporation

Redmond, WA    Senior Support Engineer    Platforms Global Escalation Services   Jan 08 – Present

Volt Information Services, under contract to Microsoft Corporation

Redmond, WA    Support Engineer 3    eHome: Core Services Infrastructure    Mar 07 – Oct 07

• Responsible for working closely with the internal operations team and eight external global data providers to drive issues to resolution and maintain strict data quality levels for the metadata platform across 28+ program guide regions, on-demand video, movies, and sports data.
• Started new reporting mechanisms and issue management procedures providing real-time tracking of issues vs. weekly to monthly reporting which greatly enhanced accountability in data provider SLA’s.
• Helped create a system turning worldwide user feedback into usable and actionable data to resolve data quality issues from providers.

Redmond, WA    Support & Test Engineer    eHome: Beta and Release Team    2005 – 2007

• Delivered worldwide support to internal and external customers for the Windows eHome Division at Microsoft during three contracts. This included first line beta technical support for Media Center 2005 Update and Media Center for Vista.
• Triaged bugs and feedback. Communicated user needs to the product team to create a better product and improve customer satisfaction.
• Communicated with testers via email, newsgroups, chats, and 1:1 calls to understand and resolve issues, maintaining a response time of less than 24 hours for all support cases.
• Software Test Engineer 3    Jan 07 – Mar 07
  • Delivered new guidelines and support information from the ground up for both internal and external customers. Including full process information for beta program procedures which enhance reporting and accountability throughout the complete ship cycle.
  • Provided new reporting and tracking mechanisms for tasks, bugs, and assets for the 700+ tester beta program.
• Support Engineer 2    Nov 05 – Nov 06
  • Responsible for Privacy and Terms of Service UI fixes on Media Center for Vista. This included bringing the feature up to date by ensuring many outstanding bugs were fixed.
  • Created and delivered weekly eHome Take Home test media with an excellent level of quality and efficiency.
  • Helped streamline team procedures by facilitating better reporting of the beta feedback and data to the rest of the eHome organization.
  • Direct 1:1 support on executive level issues resolving various aspects of home setup with Media Center.
• Support Engineer 1    Jan 05 – Sep 05
  • Implemented and documented an extensible reporting site, allowing real-time tracking of incoming bugs.
  • Built and verified over 300 test machines across multiple configurations, including maintaining 12 lab systems for bug investigation.

Project Hurricane    2003 – 2005

Manchester, England        UI Architect

• Community toolkit written in ASP.NET/C#, and SQL. Developed in 6 weeks by 3 undergrads. Distributed by Microsoft to students in the UK.
• Created six UI designs using CSS, DHTML, and Photoshop. Consulted with design firm driving branding and a targeted marketing campaign.

AuroraVisions    1996 – 2008

Redmond, WA        Owner & Operator

• Maintained and supported over 250 clients up to FY 2001 with website design and hosting. I also helped other small businesses set up their Windows networks in addition to training users with daily and advanced computing tasks, including Word and FrontPage.
• Individually owned and operated shortly after taking over key business areas from previous employer, which included Internet development, network infrastructure, and graphic design production.

SKILLS

• Project Management, Customer Support and Liaison, and Third Party Consulting.
• Broad hardware, home theater, storage and networking skills in designing, implementing, testing, and troubleshooting.
• Experienced with installing, configuring, maintaining, and supporting the following applications:
• Microsoft Windows, Office, Visual Studio.NET, Windows Server, Active Directory, Media Services, SQL, and Exchange
• Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, and Acrobat
• Programming for the cross platform web (ASP.NET, XML, JavaScript, AJAX and SQL backend databases). Increasing skills in C# development.
• Familiar with a Windows based test environment (WTT).

COMMUNITY

Microsoft Corporation        1996 – 2008

Redmond, WA        Windows Media Center & Digital Media MVP

• Most Valuable Professional (www.microsoft.com/mvp) awarded for 6 consecutive years from 2002-2008. MVP awards are given, for recognition of exceptional contributions to the community.
• I have supported Windows Media Center and DMD in various user communities including the Microsoft public newsgroups since 1998.
• I have participated on more than 60 beta programs since June 1996 and had an average of 40 bugs reported per program.
• Discovered and worked with Microsoft on a showstopper security bug in Office Online, which allowed domain admin rights to unauthorized users and gave full access to personal user information.
• Tester on every version of Windows since 98, every version of Office since 2000, and a member of the Games Core Group.

ACADEMIA

San Jose State University
2004 – 2005        San Jose, California

• Attended courses for a BFA in Graphic Design.

University of Manchester
2001 – 2002        Manchester, England

• Completed first year abroad on a BS Computer Science course