Stephen

Developer, Systems

At Panasonic since July 2011

Throughout my childhood, I grew up in an Army family traveling across the United States and central Europe.  This unique experience enabled me to see so many varying landscapes and cultures in the world, that many people have never had the opportunity to experience.  In 2002, my family moved to Columbus, GA and I have been here ever since.  Even from a young age, I was always fascinated with computers and all the capabilities that they entail.  I took as many programming classes that were offered in school and followed that passion all the way to college at Columbus State University, where I majored in Computer Science.

I actually found the job listing for a programming position at Panasonic through the local paper. Panasonic was my first professional software development job post-graduation, and I will always be so appreciative of the opportunity that this company gave to me.  During my years at Panasonic, I have learned and implemented various programming stacks and technologies to help provide customized business solutions.  Recently, I was promoted to a more supervisory position, which allows me to share my talents and mentor our two new junior programmers.  This new role requires a completely different skillset from software development, and Panasonic is constantly providing new opportunities and training to help me excel and reach my supervisory potential.

There are two distinct things that make working for Panasonic a wonderful experience for me.  The first is knowing that my work has an impact on people’s lives.  There is an enormous sense of satisfaction that comes from seeing a product, not only go through all the stages of SDLC (systems development life cycle), but also working directly with our users to continually improve existing systems to better fit the company as it evolves. The other is being able to help mold and guide new talent.  It is such a rewarding experience to see those that I have mentored gain confidence and apply what they learned in their work inside our company and in their everyday lives.