Episode 16 – Jared Faris

Jared’s Bio:
Jared is a Microsoft MVP and the Director of Technology Services at HMB, an IT services company based out of Columbus, OH. His focus is on building great development teams through training, mentoring, and prodigious amounts of caffeine. He’s spent years building web applications with cloud and mobile experience. Jared is a cofounder of the CloudDevelop conference in Columbus, OH and a frequent speaker at regional events.
You can find out more about him at http://jaredthenerd.com or follow him @jaredthenerd
Episode Highlights and Show Notes:
Arsalan: Today’s episode features Jared the Nerd, or Jared Faris, a Microsoft MVP and are doing a whole lot of wonderful things in software development. You are a speaker, a conference organizer, and more. How do you see yourself?
Jared: My twitter handle is Jared the Nerd because that’s how I see myself. I’m into board games, video games, gadgetry, and technology. So, nerd things, I guess. I’m not ashamed of that at all. I also see myself as a teacher, a speaker, a mentor. Some of that is professional, but I really enjoy doing that. So, I guess in that sense. I also see myself as a community nerd. I’m definitely someone interested in helping others and learning along the way as well.
Arsalan: Do you remember your first encounter with programming?
Jared: Sort of. I don’t remember specifics, but I had a Commodore 64. I’m probably one of the last generations to program by copying from a book line by line and trying to figure out what I got wrong. That was one of my first experiences. I really got into it more when I started with the web. That was pretty early on with the Internet. Once I realized that I could build websites and share them with others, that’s when I really started going crazy with it.
Arsalan: What motivated you to do that?
Jared: I did play games. I never really got excited about building games. I did try it a couple of times, but I lost interest in it. I think it was the creative aspect of it. It was the fact that I could make something tangible because I also like to do woodworking and other things like that. I like to make stuff and I think it was that I could make something on screen that I could show to others. That was really cool. When I was a kid I didn’t like to go outside much. So, the idea that I can do this inside was nice.
Arsalan: Later on you started working on the web and making websites. What motivated you to do that?
Jared: I think it was still the creative aspect because it was like I was releasing something into the world. The idea that I could build things was the most interesting part. I also had friends who were into that as well. So, there was also competitiveness to it as well when we try to one up each other. When I entered the workforce It was more about building things to solve problems. So it was still similar. It was very creative. It was about making my life better and making the lives of others better as well.
Arsalan: So, you started doing website development and casually started building some websites and doing some programming. But, at some point, you would’ve taken it seriously and decided to start making it a career. Did you decide to go to college to pursue this? Or, did you decide to just get a job? What did you do?
Jared: I went to the University of Toledo. I don’t think I ever considered not going to school. I knew I wanted to go to the University. I just assumed that I would go into computer science because that’s what I was interested in. I just assumed that I would go into computer science because that’s what I was interested in. So, it just seemed like the thing to do. But, I didn’t stick with computer science. I got bored quickly because I was doing a lot of software development on my own...

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