Welcome
While you may find my portfolio is a bit different then the typical resume; I
hope you find it candidly refreshing and you leave with some idea of who Ken
Whiteside is and what he can offer to your company.
I have been in IT for over 20 years and love what I do. I started out
building PC's ( 4.77mhz or 8.0mhs if Turbo! ). That should date me a bit,
especially since most of you have only heard about the original IBM PC/XT. From
the beginning I was automating business practices starting with VB 4.5, and then
using Dbase III. Didn't matter what the business was, I quickly found ways to
streamline the mundane, repetitive processes. During the first part of my career
the focus was more in building networks. So I managed IT departments and
achieved certifications in everything I did. Netware, Microsoft, Cisco,
Checkpoint, etc.. But just setting up companies with Email, Spreadsheets, and
Letter writers paled in comparison to driving important business decisions with
my database systems. Of course I'm already dated here by mentioning Dbase III. I
got into the Microsoft line with SQL Server 6.0. It has come a long way to the
latest SQL2008 version they have today. I've also done some Oracle, DB2, and
Teradata along the way
too.
While working at Public Health Services, I was starting to setup personal
computers in every department. Over the next few years I built some 250
systems and of course with that many computers, you need to start networking them. I
became very proficient with Novell Netware, and later Windows networking (wasn't worthy
until 3.11). I achieved my CNE and MCSE for the most part from hands on usage
and just taking the tests. I hired and trained a staff of 7 to help me with all
the automation going on there. We worked closely with the Hospital and and other Counties,
so we connected all our LAN's up for a nice county wide WAN to share
information. We also had a lot of needs for applications. We utilized Vendors
for our main Clinic, Lab, and Vital Stats applications. But we were always
developing other apps for functions that the main ones didn't accommodate. I probably
developed over 50 apps using DbaseIV, Basic, VB, and SQL.
Back then the colleges were still teaching Cobol and not touching the new
technologies. I was learning these new technologies and getting certified in
them as quick as they came out. The certifications seemed to be what was
desired to propel ones career back then. So that's what I did for years. A.S.
degree in computer science and a wall full of certifications.
I also started my own company while I was working a full time job. I developed a
very robust Service Management System for the automobile repair industry that
became very popular. My software was utilized by 250 companies in 48 states. I
built a support team, did all development, hired sales persons, advertised in 5
magazines, and did 4 trade shows a year. It was so exciting creating a
system with the current technologies and moving in on million dollar companies
such as ADP, Reynolds, Napa with a clearly more functional and usable system.
But I needed to give it more time in order to grow bigger.
I joined forces with another company in Georgia that had multiple programmers
and an existing infrastructure that would better support and grow my system.
The deal I made didn't turn out as expected and I lost my software through the
venture. That was a tough loss for me to take. I really enjoyed the business
side of the endeavor.
So, I went back to managing IT departments and projects. Now it's the DotCom era
and just about anything internet is flying high.
I took a job with an Israeli based company in Georgia called Jacada.
Although it only lasted a year due to downturn, this was a very good experience
for me. Now I was in a corporate environment with my supervisor being a
very structured micro manager who previously worked for Microsoft in Israel.
While I'm not a micro manager, I feel the experience was great. To see him
focus on meetings, projects, planning, budgets, scopes, etc. was great
experience since I was so home grown.
From there, I moved over to a private transaction processing company. At LDC
Direct we
had over 30,000 remote
customers hammering over 1 million transactions, 24 hours a day on our Microsoft
SQL Databases. I had some years of experience with SQL Server before this
position, but can honestly say that I learned more in the first year then all
the other years combined. The original creator of the system and his
partner who wrote one of the first SQL Server Unleashed books where quite
creative. I came in and took over for them as they moved on. I've hired and
trained ten SQL DBA/Developers for a period of 4 years and can say from looking at
all the candidates Atlanta has had to offer that I've worked with some of the
best. Unfortunately, turnover was always high due to constant upper
management changes. Regardless, I was able to build a very strong staff
and was able to hold them together with praise and appreciation for the high
level of accomplishment we were (see
accomplishments on resume) achieving. My team loved the work they
were doing even though there was always the threat of company contraction.
After many years of increased responsibility and being promoted to VP of IT
for the transaction processing company, the company finally contracted down to
nearly nothing. From here I decided to utilize my technical talents in the SQL
Server arena rather than continue with the stressful IT Management. For the last
few years I have been contracting to perform SQL Development, Admin, Business
Intelligence work. To my surprise, the demand has been so strong that I
really have not felt any less secure being a contractor, than when I was going
through the corporate struggles.
It is my preference to work for a larger company that has the resources to
utilize the latest and best technologies to get their projects done in a timely
and successful fashion. Of course I will consider the whole situation when
looking for new projects. I am always upfront and honest about my
abilities as well as what is important for me to consider when taking on a new
project.
I have come
to realize that the certifications I've achieved have helped to get me where I am now,
but that higher academic education has become the desired qualification. I
did manage to get back and finish up my Bachelors degree and intend on pursuing my
Masters degree in the future. I have achieved my SQL2005
Certified DBA from Microsoft.
My current project at Bellsouth is a SQL2005 environment. I
have been working with the SQL2005 product from the early stages of Beta. We
design ETL with the new SSIS Integration Services
to migrate data from a variety of systems such as Oracle, SQL Server 2000, Text
Feeds, or even Spreadsheets and deliver it to the managers who need to see
trends and patterns to make critical business decisions for their departments.
We utilize Reporting Services for the most part to present the data. Many of our
reports are in the format of Enterprise Dashboards utilizing
the Dundas charts, calendars, gauges suite. I really do love the
Business Intelligence side of IT and find that my extensive business
background lends itself to help deliver data in a easily viewable fashion for
executives to make the best possible decisions!
I've been mostly contracting since 2005. I've been back to Bellsouth/AT&T
for three different projects, CDC, Georgia Retirement and even tried a work
at home job. Those gigs came through a variety of primary vendors such
as Cap Gemini, Bearingpoint, Booz Allen, TEK, Primus, Accretive. The
exposure to the various methods of doing things has been interesting and
informative. During all these assignments, the databases have been
laid in fact and dimension models. I've done some prototyping with
cubes, and have at least a solid year with the new 2008 product.
Sincerely,
Ken Whiteside
| 
