2024 Brag Doc

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title: 2024 Brag Document date: 2024-12-26 12:18:22 +/-2025 categories: [Career] tags: [brag-document, year-in-review, software-engineering, defense-contracting, debugging, mentorship] —

TLDR; Moved from Utah to VA. Started my first full time job and quickly went from onboarding to becoming the person who onboards others. Solved ambiguous bugs, supported critical test events, and assisted an internal research project.

Goals for 2024

Get my first post-grad job!
Move out of Utah.

Goals for 2025

Get a new job!
Work closer with AI
Leave defense contracting
Move to NYC

Projects

BYU (January - April)

Last Semester of Bachelors Degree in Computer Science

• Took a full course load of both fun (gymnastics!) and career oriented classes (databases!)
• Attended networking events both on and off campus.
• Extensive preparation for interviews.

Leidos - Maritime (May- December)

• Process Optimization: Consistently looked for small adjustments that made large course corrections. Updated Bitbucket default settings to reduce dead code and repo clutter. Pushed for and created a delivery script that improved software delivery efficiency to customers by over 10x (required substantial problem-solving as it coincided with our migration from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8).
• Bug Resolution: Resolved an ambiguous bug in a remote control platform. Required extensive collaboration and digging through systemd journals, kernel dumps, and various logs. The software was delivered back to the customer in an improved state because of other improvements made during the investigation.
• Test Event Support: Supported an on-water test event for new software releases. Required extensive troubleshooting and extending the trip through the weekend. After literally checking from the mast to the engine room, we finally fixed the issue. Upon returning, I pushed for pre-trip and post-trip briefings, requested sitreps to increase project visibility, and advocated for a retro meeting. This has since been applied to future trips.
• Internal Research Project: Advocated for leveraging third-party libraries (navigating the legal complexities) and saved the team weeks of development effort. Also supported the data capture event, which included significant troubleshooting to set up the testing environment.
• Collaboration and Mentorship: After only three months, I was trusted to assist with onboarding, standing out as the only one from my cohort to do so. Well on the team I would onboarded 10+ new team members. Additionally, I led approximately 40 pair programming sessions throughout the year and consistently sought opportunities to build my network at Leidos (including attending employee events in person, working from the Reston HQ etc.)

What I learned

• Working closely with the rawness of hardware is awesome. I love the tactical nature of literally building, but it also has its own frustrations
• I love making things more efficient
• I enjoy working in person
• Loved the east coast!