A Little About Me
Hi there! I’m a 31-year-old living and working in the suburbs of Chicago. My background is in Manufacturing Engineering Technology, which I studied in college. Currently, I work in the foundry industry—also known as metalcasting. If you’re not familiar, foundries produce metal parts by melting metal into a liquid, pouring it into a mold, and allowing it to solidify into a new, useful shape.
Metal castings are ubiquitous! My industry supports a wide range of applications, from consumer products and cars to construction equipment, aircraft, and even space-bound technology. We focus on creating parts that are lightweight, strong, and free of defects. Since defects can be both costly and dangerous, my role is centered on helping foundries minimize these issues.
I work as a Senior Application Engineer at a global company specializing in simulation software for casting processes. Although my job title might imply coding, I’m not actually writing applications. Instead, I apply software solutions to address real-world foundry challenges. My role involves providing training, support, and consulting to help our clients implement the software and optimize their designs for efficiency and quality.
When I’m not solving metalcasting problems at work, I enjoy woodworking, skateboarding, and, more recently, playing pickleball with my wife and friends. Now, I’m adding coding to the list.
Why Learn to Code?
As I document my coding journey, it’s only fair to start by sharing why I’ve taken an interest in programming in the first place.
I’ve always found satisfaction in building things that are both useful and meaningful—whether it’s crafting a physical object or developing a tool that solves a problem. For instance, at work, I created a sales playbook in Excel to guide my team through common challenges in our sales process. It started as a personal tool but quickly became something others valued as well.
Outside of work, my woodworking hobby lets me build useful items for friends and family. When COVID hit, I made desks for our home offices. When a friend announced they were having a baby, I built them a custom changing table. Over time, I’ve progressed from following woodworking plans to designing my own projects, even turning a few into publishable designs.
But lately, I’ve noticed opportunities to apply that same “builder’s mindset” to software. I’ve had ideas like creating a program to notify me when my local skate shop gets new inventory or automating my monthly work expense reports—a task that currently eats up half a day each month.
My Coding Struggles (and Breakthroughs)
A couple of years ago, I decided to explore coding and started with some free online tutorials in Python, JavaScript, and MATLAB. While I could handle the basics, I quickly felt overwhelmed when things got more complex. Without a clear goal in mind, I doubted whether I was cut out for programming and eventually put it on the back burner.
Fast forward to this year: I started experimenting with AI tools like ChatGPT to help me tackle small coding projects. For example, I used it to build a web scraper to monitor my local skate shop’s catalog. By asking the AI to explain each chunk of code, I found it much easier to grasp concepts that had once seemed impossible.
Using AI felt like cheating, though, and I knew I needed to learn the fundamentals if I wanted to tackle bigger projects responsibly—especially with work-related ideas where sensitive information might be involved.
Jumping Back In
Luckily, my company offered access to Coursera this year, and I enrolled in the Python for Everybody specialization through the University of Michigan. I chose Python because it felt the most intuitive during my earlier attempts, and everyone I know who works in software development recommended it as the go-to language for beginners.
So far, I’ve completed the “Introduction to Python” and “Python Data Structures” courses, and I’m now diving into web interaction using Python. I’ve also been working through Automate the Boring Stuff with Python by Al Sweigart to get extra practice in my free time.
Looking Ahead
I’m genuinely enjoying the process of learning to code now, even if I’m still in the early stages. I try and set aside at least a little bit of time every day to focus on learning something new. I don’t know exactly where this journey will take me, but I’m excited to see how I can use programming to solve problems, create tools, and keep building things. Digital things!
Thanks for joining me as I embark on this adventure!