about.html

---
layout: default
title: "About me - Max Kramer"
---
<h2>About me &amp; my experience</h2>

<div class="row-fluid">
  <div class="span3">
    <ul class="nav nav-list nav-bordered">
      <li><a href="#work"><i class="icon-chevron-right"></i>Work</a></li>
      <li><a href="#study"><i class="icon-chevron-right"></i>Study</a></li>
      <li><a href="#play"><i class="icon-chevron-right"></i>Play</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <div class="span9">
    <p>I currently work for a large financial services company in NJ.</p>
    <p>I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BS in Computer Science and minors in Spanish and Chemistry.</p>
    <p>I grew up in NJ.</p>
  </div>
</div>

<h3 id="work">Work experience</h3>
<p>You can <a href="/resume">view my resume</a> or <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/mckramer">head over to LinkedIn</a> or take a look at some of my experiences below.</p>

<hgroup>
  <h4>Fidelity Investments&emsp;<small>2011-present</small></h4>
  <h5 style="text-align: right;">Principal Software Engineer</h5>
</hgroup>
<p>Joined the company in July 2011 as an Associate Software Engineer with the Leap program.  Promoted to Software Engineer in January 2013,  Senior Software Engineer in January 2015, and Principal Software Engineer in 2018.</p>
<p>I spend the majority of my time building Spring applications for multiple product offerings, where we interface with Oracle and various REST and SOAP services.  I also work with various client-side frameworks, such as Angular and Backbone.</p>

<hgroup>
  <h4>Go To My Sports Physical&emsp;<small>2012-present</small></h4>
  <h5 style="text-align: right;">Partner</h5>
</hgroup>
<p>I am designing digital records system for pre-participation records for organizations, athletes, and physicians.  Launched Beta in Fall 2012.</p>
<p>Wearing multiple hats (such as salesman, support technician, product manager, and lead software engineer) has been a great learning experience for me, especially related to working with users of 3 distinct personas to prioritize issues and new features.</p>
<p>&rarr; Check out <a href="https://gotomysportsphysical.com">GTMSP</a> to learn more</p>

<hgroup>
  <h4>Medical Passport and the TR<sub>X</sub>ANSITION Study&emsp;<small>Spring 2010</small></h4>
  <h5 style="text-align: right;">Software Engineer</h5>
</hgroup>
<p>I began work on the Medical Passport project as part of the Software Engineering Lab class during the fall semester of my senior year and continued to the spring semester. The project built a data management system around the "Medical Passport," a business card-sized identification card that containted important information for chronic pediatric patients.  Information included allergies, diagnosed conditions, and a list of current medications.  The application was created to collect all of the information and produce a ready-to-print Medical Passport.</p>

<hgroup>
  <h4>Campusville&emsp;<small>Fall 2010</small></h4>
  <h5 style="text-align: right;">Software Engineer &amp; Game Designer</h5>
</hgroup>
<p>I worked with a 4-person team (3 developers and 1 non-technical member) to build a HTML5/JavaScript game called CampusVille for the Serious Games class. The game was loosely-based on ESPN's <a href="http://apps.facebook.com/espnucollegetown/">College Town</a>, Maxis' <a href="http://simcity.ea.com/">SimCity</a>, and MicroProse's <a href="http://www.atari.com/games/rollercoaster_tycoon">Tycoon game franchise</a>.</p>
<p>The purpose of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game">serious game</a> was to teach fiscal responsibility and how to manage a budget.  The player started with a small university campus, and had to invest in various parts of the school and expand the school through new construction.</p>

<hgroup>
  <h4>CSCC and HCHS/SOL&emsp;<small>Fall 2007-Spring 2011</small></h4>
  <h5 style="text-align: right;">IT Intern</h5>
</hgroup>
<p>Once I came to UNC, I began working at the <a href="http://www.cscc.unc.edu/">Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center</a> (a division of the School of Public Health).  I began as an administrative assistant to Jeffery Oberhaus, a Research Assistant for the Hispanic Collaborative Health Study / Study of Latinos (a multi-center epidemiologic study in Hispanic/Latino populations to determine the role of acculturation in the prevalence and development of disease, and to identify risk factors playing a protective or harmful role in Hispanics/Latinos).</p>
<p>I then became an IT intern for the study, where I adminstered the site.  I also authored user manuals for the website and worked with the Data Management System to code and proof forms in English and Spanish.</p>
<p>As a senior, I evaluated the legacy website and helped to plan the design for a Drupal-powered website with bi-lingual support.  I am currently working to implement the design.</p>

<hgroup>
  <h4>Noe Pond&emsp;<small>June 2004 – June 2011</small></h4>
  <h5 style="text-align: right;">Head Lifeguard &amp; Swim Instructor</h5>
</hgroup>
<p>I grew up at the <a href="http://www.noepondclub.org">Noe Pond Club</a> in Chatham, NJ and began working as soon as I could as a camp counselor and grill chef.  Then, I moved into lifeguarding and worked full-time.  I held position of Head Lifeguard (3 years) at the club and also taught group and prive swimming lessons to kids ages 4-12.  As Head Lifeguard, I supervised and scheduled staff of 15 as well as participated in mid-year and end-of-year reviews.</p>
<p>I also have consulted on their website and designed a new visual look and mocked up the site first using Drupal and then rewriting with Ruby on Rails.  This design is not currently public, but can be seen on <a href="https://github.com/mckramer/noepondclub">GitHub</a>.  It contained a background that matched the current weather at the club.</p>

<h3 id="study">Study</h3>
<div class="courses pull-right">
  <h4>BS Computer Science</h4>
  <ul>
    <li>Serious Games <span class="muted">(585)</span></li>
    <li>Artificial Intelligence <span class="muted">(590)</span></li>
    <li>Computer Security <span class="muted">(535)</span></li>
    <li>Advanced WWW Programming <span class="muted">(426)</span></li>
    <li>Software Engineering <span class="muted">(523)</span></li>
    <li>Algorithms and Analysis <span class="muted">(550)</span></li>
  </ul>
</div>
<p>I arrived to <a href="http://unc.edu">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</a> in the fall of 2007 with the intent of being pre-medical.  I was very interested in how technology and Computer Science was improving the medical field.  I graduated in May 2011 with a BS in <a href="http://cs.unc.edu/">Computer Science</a> and minors in Chemistry and <a href="https://roml.unc.edu/undergraduate-programs/spanish/spanish-for-the-professions/">Spanish for the Professions</a>.</p>
<p>I attended high school at <a href="http://www.somsd.k12.nj.us/chs/">Columbia High School</a> in Maplewood, NJ.</p>

<h3 id="play">Play</h3>
<p>Soccer. Tennis. Golf. Basketball. Volleyball. Lifting.  I will play any sport.</p>
<p>I love to stay active.  Grew up playing soccer and tennis religiously.  During college, I played for the UNC Club soccer team and spent one semester on the women's varisty practice squad (which was quite the experience).</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>