Back then, newspapers hadn't quite figured out the Internet yet, and were laying off people left and right. Safe to say, finding a full-time job as a reporter was going to be next to impossible.
A few months after graduating, I was lucky enough to find some freelance sports reporting work. But I knew in my gut that I needed to evolve my skills to keep up with the changing job landscape. So in my free time, I starting working on a new, budding passion — UX design.
With the recession still wreaking havoc, I took a job as a Communications Specialist at a local non-profit called CareerSource Brevard. While there, I helped lead a rebranding and website design. It was my first real taste of UI design. And I was hooked.
From there, I moved on to a small local ad agency where I worked as both an account executive and designer, where I designed and consulted on dozens of web designs, ad campaigns, and much more.
After that, I took a job as a designer for Precision Door Service, a national garage door company with more than 100 locations nationwide. As the sole creative, I designed the internal fleet and project management system that all franchises used to run their businesses.
Years later, I started a role as a Senior Product Designer at Schlesinger Group, where I lead a total redesign of Qualboard, a complex market research app that thousands use each day. This work has also included creating and managing a large design system from scratch.
Today, I'm working at a prestigious Education Technology company as a Senior Product Designer, where I take complex UX design needs and turn them into delightful and intuitive experiences for teachers and students. This work has also included the creation of a new design system from scratch that the entire design team and developers use daily.
In my off time, when I'm not attending sporting events with my friends and family, or playing biking with my kids, I'm working on various freelance projects or just-for-fun design concepts (including some that went viral) to keep my skills sharp. In the recent months, I've completed website designs for the Smithsonian Institute and helped create and manage a design system for Avid Technologies.
View my resume
