My name is Lance Allen, I've been working in the tech industry for about 10 years and have been tinkering with technology my whole life.
born 1990
When I was a kid I was tinkering with computers so I could play Diablo and Starcraft online, torrenting music, modding Gameboys, and fixing broken Xboxes (disassembling to manually spin the CD because the motor died, replacing surface-mount LEDs, other CD motor issues).
military 2008
After high school I joined the military; my placement test showed a predisposition for electronics work so I signed on as a communications and electronics MOS...electrician but for radios and trucks. I jokingly say I was a janitor because I cleaned so many toilets, mopped so many floors, and picked up so many cigarette butts. The truth is my job was really about troubleshooting broken electronic systems and repairing however I could while in the field. I got very proficient with troubleshooting.
One day at the barracks I saw a friend of mine on his computer and noticed his windows had this interesting wobble effect; I asked him what that was. He told me, "it's Ubuntu and I hate it". I learned about Linux then and went to my room and started downloading any Linux distribution I could find and tinkered with Linux shell scripting, and computer hardware.
IT guy 2013
After I left the military I got a local job at a non-profit as an IT support guy. I was answering phones and helping people troubleshoot their computer/tech issues. As time went on I eventually took over more of the system portfolio; Windows servers, Active Directory, VMWare/vSphere, Backups, VOIP, Networking, File Shares, Group Policies, wikis, portals, Powershell scripting, etc. That company allowed me to experiment with different tools and tech and eventually it got to the point where everything was done (for then). I'd show up to work bored so I figured it was time so I moved on. I also had a side-hustle of modding Xbox 360s which was peak nerd for me.
DevOps guy 2015
I started a new job as a DevOps Engineer at a hosting company called Reliam in El Segundo. It was my first real consulting gig working with many other companies so I was a bit out of my depth but it was exciting. I started learning more about data centers, Linux systems administration, SysOps, DevOps, AWS, infrastructure-as-code, Python, etc. I began implementing system automation with tools like Ansible (later Chef), developing infrastructure-as-code with Cloudformation (later Terraform), creating CI/CD pipelines (Gitlab, Github, Jenkins, etc), developing load testing scripts (Locust) with scalable infra, developing internal tooling and platforms, etc. This role introduced me to many teams and new concepts and my activities were "whatever was needed for the job".
After a few years the company was sold to a private equity group and rebranded to Mission Cloud. Since then the company growth exploded and I've been along for the ride, working in almost every technical department; DevOps, Platform, SysOps, Consulting, and now Sales.
SRE blip 2019
I left Mission and joined an information security SaaS product based in SF as a Site Reliability Engineer. Day 1 I was updating production Kubernetes clusters, contributing to GitOps pipelines, assisting with internal DevOps tooling, authoring Kustomize templates, writing Terraform, and setting up Atlantis pipelines.
It was a short-lived stint as I was laid off in 2020 at the start of COVID during the downturn.
Sales guy??? 2020 - now
I called up my former boss and asked if there was a possibility of getting another job and it turned out that sales needed an SA. I'm doing this role today.
I'm currently a Senior Solutions Architect with Mission and am part of the sales group. This role has actually been my favorite, surprisingly. I get to take my experience with technology and talk about it with others and bring on interesting clients. I can design systems and layout project plans without the frustration of the implementation challenges; I get to stay at a bird's eye view, making sure we're delivering accordingly. It's also nice to see the business side of things; it's not just about "cool tech" and way more about the solutions it provides to the business to help them scale.
Although I'm not the sales person I am a big part of the process. I represent the company when meeting with potential customers and my job is to instill confidence in our technical services and capabilities.
During my time with Mission I've seen just about every flavor of tech stack and deployment and met hundreds of people with different perceptions and methods. The consulting world is tough because it moves so quickly but gives you a great platform for learning.
now
I have learned a ton over the years and have even expanded out into new realms with my hobbies; computer vision, 3d printing and CAD modeling, software development/web services, etc. I go camping with my family a lot. I like making sourdough bread. I love chopping wood and building fires. I love teaching and tinkering with tech and I hope to be able to do that more in the future, hence this blog.
I also love tinkering with software and learning new tech. Hit me up on LinkedIn if you want to connect!
