David Shrader Email & Phone Number

This bio is old and needs to be updated, but a quick TL;DR until I get a chance to change it: I’ve decided to leave my rollerblades in the closet and have instead picked up a Onewheel and achieved my dream of becoming a Googler! I’ve achieved an alternate, arguably better version of the future I always hoped for. The bottom line of this quick update? Never give up on your dreams!----------------------------------------------A friend and I once had a conversation regarding our respective paths into IT. Our backgrounds differed in terms of how we actually started working in the field, but eventually we both found the root of our interest in computers, and oddly enough, it was the same source.What was the common spark that, coincidentally for two very different people, ignited a full blown career in IT? The 1995 movie Hackers.After seeing that cheesy, yet thoroughly entertaining movie, I thought computers were the most interesting things in the universe, and people who could manipulate them to do what they wanted were ultracool geniuses. As a kid, I expected to become a rebellious, rollerblading computer whiz who could plug a laptop into a payphone and change the whole world. I didn't expect that desire to somehow translate into becoming a responsible, adult IT Architect/Engineer.However, that's exactly what happened, and I love it just as much as stopping a long-haired corporate bad guy on a skateboard.So how did I go from Hackers fan to Customer Engineer at Google? I started with a focus in Oracle Database Administration until meeting an excellent Linux Engineer (the friend and fellow Hackers fan mentioned earlier) who seemed to have an unlimited number of other skills. He began to unintentionally mentor me (which I am very grateful for), and he taught me an important lesson: Learn everything you possibly can.That lesson drove me to adapt and quickly move from database administration to Linux administration, and again, in 2015, to full scale architecture design and implementation with a heavy focus on container orchestration and DevOps enablement.Helping customers change the way they manage their IT infrastructure isn't quite the same as "hacking the Gibson" or setting off a school's sprinkler system, but surprisingly, it's just as fun and exciting.I do have a pair of rollerblades waiting in my closet though, in case this whole DevOps thing doesn't work out. ;)

Listed skills include Information Technology, Windows Server, Amazon Web Services, Linux, and 21 others.

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  Autodidact

  Information Technology