About Me

My name is JD and I am an IT professional based in Tempe, AZ.

My interest in technology started way back when I was 14 years old when trying to record my own music. Through my love of music production, my knowledge of troubleshooting computer and software issues grew.

At the age of 16 I started teaching guitar and carried on teaching into my twenties.

Following my high school graduation, I pursued my interest of audio engineering at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences and loved every second of it. There I studied live AV production, post production, broadcast production, video game audio production, and studio production. With access to a wide range of analog and digital technology, my love for learning new tech consumed me.

Once I finished school, I got an internship at a analog recording studio and continued to teach guitar and work two other jobs ( Music Retail and Freelance Musician) to make a living in music production. Over time, I had the opportunity to work as an assistant engineer and also bring in my own clients to the studio for recording sessions. The amount of knowledge I gained from working in a studio environment, building a client base in both audio engineering and music education, is invaluable. I would not trade the experiences and connections I gained for anything. Music production is a tough racket, and I feel so lucky for my time in the industry. That being said, as you grow personally, your professional ambitions and interests grow with you. Due to many life events and personal goals, I felt a new calling .

After several years of working multiple jobs in the music industry I decided to take a break from it and got a job in a print shop for a title company. I learned to operate industrial sized printers along with other printing equipment such as UV and scoring machines. Through this job I rediscover my passion for technology.

In early 2020 I was presented with an amazing opportunity to work as an IT Coordinator for a small business. This experience has really shaped my knowledge of what is required, from an IT perspective, for a business to run. Anyone who has worked in IT for a smaller sized business will tell you, you have to be a one stop shop. Through the needs that the business operations presented, I have learned so much and gained skills that I may not of had if I was working for a larger company. I have been lucky enough to manage projects such as call center transitions, MSP transitions, firewall/network appliance installation, GRC development, O365 auditing, strategic planning, server virtualization transitions, support ticket management, and changing an in office workforce to remote in the spring of 2020.

I am very thankful for the opportunities I have had and am currently working on obtaining my CCNA certification and will continue to develop my skills and knowledge of IT every chance I get.