Portfolio CIS 116 Robert Permenter Summer 2012

Hi, my name is Robert Permenter. I have been a full time student in the Computer Information Systems Program at Edmonds Community College for the past year and a half.

Why CIS? Well I worked in the IT field by way of Marketing for 10 years, learning everything from the ground up, and ultimately holding the position of Marketing Systems and Operations Manager. One of the main focuses of this position was database design and development, and systems analysis and development. Using the systems and databases we developed, my team and I were responsible for 50 to 60% of new revenues monthly and yearly for the company, and customer growth of 20%. Through this process I had the opportunity to work with and develop multiple working databases, and systems that would drive the company. I worked with many IT professionals in varied areas of the IT field. Everything from Network infrastructure, User support and training, to system coding and development gave me valuable experience spanning the entire range of the SDLC. (Systems Development Life Cycle) In the process I also learned coding such as SQL, used for data basing, and HTML, used for generation of marketing leads over the internet. This was all great experience, but I had no formal training until now.

Due to the economy the company I worked for was forced to downsize in early 2009. After being laid off in February 2009, I struggled to find a new position in the IT industry. I searched for months not finding anything, and was finally fortunate to find a new position as an office manager for a chiropractic office. This position did not suite my love for IT, but I had to have a job. I kept looking, but the economy had become much worse in the year that I have been looking for work, and was still not showing signs of improvement.

I had almost lost hope that I would be able to get back to the industry I loved when I found that I was going to be laid off again. Some may have found this a major setback, but I knew from the first time around with Unemployment that I it would give me the chance to apply for the worker retraining program. I started the ball rolling for this immediately.

My first quarter at Edmonds was Spring 2011, and other then one math class I had to do, it was all course work. CIS 250 Database Theory and Design, and CIS 253 Application development, two of my favorite things, and boy did I learn so much. Even after all of the experience, it was so amazing to have the chance to learn what all those inside jokes really meant. By the end of that first quarter I knew I had made the right decision, and I could finally rest easy knowing that I completely understood what it meant when some database guy said “The key, the whole key, and nothing but the key so help me Cod.”

Now here I am with not only the CIS degree, but a Web application development certificate as well. What a wild ride, and what a great bunch of instructors. I will never stop learning, but I am happy I took the time to build on the base knowledge I had. I will never be able to thank the great instructors that I had, and am so lucky to have them now as friends and someday maybe colleges.