Blog

DEVIN KONKEL

Bio

“I am a Fort Hays State University alumnus, where I graduated with a degree in Communications with a Theatre emphasis, and a minor in Business Administration. While in school, I was in the customer service industry where I learned to balance my work/school life, communicate with customers, and provide them with detailed answers. After school I began working for Amazon, where I have been for the past three years. In that time I have worked my way up to Area Manager. There I learned how to communicate with other team leaders to ensure daily goals and deadlines were met. I also took the initiative to research and fix problems, bugs, or other common computer issues that occurred within the warehouse operating system. I’ve had a lot of fun in my current role, but I wanted to find something where I could advance my problem solving and technology skills.”

Q&A

Q: Why did you decide to come to Centriq?
A: Being the youngest in my family made me the default “Technology Guru”. I attempted to study networking in college, and was the night shift “Computer Fixer” at Amazon before an evening IT Administrator was hired. I heard about Centriq’s Application Developer program and it reminded me of my time learning HTML in high school and my current work with Excel functions. I always loved the feeling of getting everything to work just right. Computers and technology have always been in my life in one form or another, but it wasn’t until I bumped into Kimberly Bridges, Technology Career Specialist for Centriq Training, at four different career fairs that I thought I could give it a chance once more. I’ll say what everyone else says because it’s true: This was the best possible decision, and has already changed my life.

Q: What class has been your favorite so far?
A: It is currently a tie between C# and SQL. C# is the backbone of everything we do in the program. You never feel as powerful as when you tell the computer to do something with code written from scratch, and it works! With SQL, the ability to write queries and pull information out of a heap of data into a legible list shows amazing real world possibilities. I’ve always enjoyed fixing problems and there is an odd excitement when you’ve been plugging away for an hour on one road block and it suddenly works. Both languages offer the satisfactory challenge of really thinking about how to pull off an idea, get it to actually work, and finding just the right format to make it happen.

Q: What do you hope to do after Centriq?
A: After Centriq I would like to work for one of the many amazing companies in the area either developing applications, or managing databases. Over the course of my career, I would like to be in a position where I can pass on my knowledge to others, perhaps in a leadership position. There is no greater satisfaction than solving your own technical problems, but there are different kinds of fulfillment in helping someone else tackle their own issue and coming out victorious.

Q: What other interests do you have?
A: Everyone who walks through these doors has some sort of “Nerd Cred”, and we are always encouraged to embrace and share this side of us. My main source of nerd excitement these days comes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including all of the lore and history that goes into what has happened so far. I can spend hours going down a research rabbit hole exploring the origins of The Avengers, their founding members, their strangest members, worst and weirdest villains, etc. When movies are slow to release, my wife and I enjoy playing table top and card games about every chance we get. Among our friends, board games are the most given and received gifts for all occasions!