Ash Porter | @KirbyPaint

Hello!

OHA|OIS → August 2023 - March 2024

My most recent position was as an Information Systems Specialist IV at the Oregon Health Authority, specifically in the Office of Information Services (OIS). During my time there, I got to experience life while working in an enterprise Microsoft environment. Everything I touched, from Microsoft Exchange, to Azure, to Active Directory, to the PowerShell scripts that made automation work behind the scenes, was 100% Microsoft. This meant I got to flex my skills in an entirely new direction, and though I'd experienced working with Microsoft as my daily driver since 1998 (No joke, I've been using computers since I was a toddler, and my grandparents *will* confirm that!), I'd never yet had the opportunity to do so this deeply in a workplace environment.

While I was there, I had the role of Identity and Access Management, essentially meaning when a user needed new access or modified access, I was one of the people to pick up their ticket and provision that access, typically on the same day the ticket was to be worked. Specifically, some of my duties were to create new temporary user accounts, provision Active Directory groups for new and existing accounts, provision access to specific State of Oregon programs, change user identities following name changes, and troubleshoot access issues with any service that IAM provided, all while ensuring that the user had the least privilege necessary to do their job. A security mindset was key for this role, as provisioning improper access could lead to lawsuits, security breaches, and other issues that could potentially cost the State of Oregon millions of dollars.

Fortunately, the addition of myself and a few other temporary hires meant that there was no backlog of daily tickets, so during our downtime, I spent time assisting other provisioners with the creation of custom User Access Roles, to assist with new automation processes for the State. I assisted personally in the creation of a role that has now been implemented state-wide, meaning that for certain Eligibility Worker roles across Oregon, there is now a 1-step process, where a manager may submit a role and have near-instant access for a new employee. This is a process that used to potentially take days or weeks, depending on the backlog; a process that has been reduced to minutes. I am honored to have served my state in such a way, and I would love to bring this efficiency to any future position I work in, wherever possible.

EyeCue Lab, LLC → August 2021 - July 2023

Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company → July 2019 - September 2020

I got hired on at SCTC in part due to my experience with transitioning systems at JELD-WEN, though my main role was to be a cashier. My responsibilities there were classic cashiering duties: take cash and check payments from customers and via the mail, route inbound calls to the appropriate departments, and open/close the business daily, all of which I did with the help of my fellow cashier. I am proud to say that during my tenure, I never once had a variance in the register, nor did I receive any reprimands.

It was quickly revealed that I had an aptitude for technology, so I was promptly given the unofficial title of Document Administrator. This meant that on top of my daily duties, I was responsible for every new document that the company received. For the most part, this just meant processing password documents, address changes, and ACH forms, but due to the sensitivity of this information, I was responsible for the security of the documents. Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) information is federally protected data, and a breach of this information typically started at a $40,000 fine. Therefore, it was my duty (as it was everyone's) to ensure that no customer ever had their CPNI information breached. I implemented safeguards onto the customers' accounts through role-based access, ensuring only the representatives and managers could access forms. Additionally, after the system change, I manually re-sorted over 15,000 customer forms back onto their proper accounts, finding and redacting critical information on occasion, and adding new metadata in the form database to ensure each form was properly labeled for future ease of sorting.

You may have noticed this was the job I had during the COVID-19 global pandemic. On March 11th, a week before my birthday, it was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. June was our deadline to finish our system transition, and naturally this threw a wrench into our new system training. Two days after my birthday, I was informed that I was going to be our guinea pig for our work-from-home processes. I took home my work phone and a laptop, and didn't come back into the office until our June deadline. I was able to work over 95% of my job completely remotely, with the only issue being hand-processing batches of checks. I was trusted enough that a coworker would drop off the checks on his way home from work, and I would process them the next morning, then drop them off with him while he handed me the new batch of checks. I was able to work this way until our June system deadline, where I masked up and re-entered the office to finish the system transition and assist customers over the phone with accessing the new web portal. My work-from-home experience was so pleasant and my processes were so efficient that I have not worked in an office since I left this job.

JELD-WEN Windows & Doors → July 2017 - June 2019

At JELD-WEN, I was originally hired to be the Intake representative. This meant that I would route inbound calls to the proper phone queue, depending on the customer's location, door/window type, and whether they worked for a distributor or were a homeowner. Within two months, I'd proven myself and accepted the position of Consumer Customer Care Representative (CCCR).

As a CCCR in the warranty department, my duties were to take new warranty claims, determine eligibility based on the customer's warranty at time of purchase, and proceed with any available warranty services. More specifically, I worked in a terminal program designated TITAN, where I'd manually enter window and door details with up to 1/32" accuracy. I would also process some daily reports, making sure no customer claims were falling behind, and any new homeowner-submitted claim for the state of Texas came straight to me. When necessary, I would submit a claim for scheduling, and place orders for specific warehouses. In September of 2018, I was invited to the customer care office in Hawkins, Wisconsin to learn the ins and outs of the new customer care program called CEC. I was given one week to learn the entire program, which I did. It was expected that I would return home and train the entire office on the new system, with a deadline of December, 2018. Stayton was the only office to be 100% transitioned by that deadline.

Naturally, my technical aptitude bled over into this job as well, and I quickly became in-house IT, becoming preferred over our actual IT department located in Klamath Falls. I'd be called over to fix a CCCR's computer for all sorts of reasons, diagnosing why Paint wouldn't open an image (usually an iPhone filetype Windows couldn't recognize) or to un-maximize an accidental F11 press. During one of my lighter days, I developed a simple process to shrink our full day of onboarding down to about a 56 minute process. It was largely just installing a few programs onto a rewritable CD that I then gave to my supervisor for future use, but it was a serious reduction of onboarding time that allowed new CCCRs to begin their training much sooner than before. I also wrote a small batch file to automatically open and log in to my terminals, saving me precious minutes every morning and ensuring I was ready to go right at start time. I wrote a separate batch file to make sure I was available on the phones as much as possible, since the phone queue system would strangely forget to re-add only me specifically to the available queue once I'd finished a call.

Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette → August 2015 - June 2017

At GICW, my first real job, I was hired on as a cashier. I had typical retail duties, including register responsibility, customer service, and stocking the floor with our newly donated goods. I was additionally trained to receive the goods from the donation door, and rounded out my training with pricing items.

All of this training eventually led to me being promoted to a Lead Cashier roughly a year after hire. My additional duties were to then open or close the store on any day, set the schedule and lunch breaks for the morning or afternoon shift if I was working either shift that day, and to undergo minor loss prevention training. I did not have the responsibility to actually trespass thieves, but it was my responsibility to verify large bills and checks were legitimate, and to double-check if a price tag appeared to have been swapped out. I also had the ability to override a price, if a good appeared to be damaged.

My Non-Work Life → Birth - Present

When I'm not working, I'm usually engaged in one of my hobbies. Most often, I'm playing some game, whether it's old or new. My Steam playtime is definitely in the thousands of hours, and I'm a huge fan of the factory-building genre, such as Factorio and Satisfactory. I've spent hours automating my factories for optimal production, but my spaghetti is always a work in progress. I also love survival games and aviation simulators.