CS499

👋 Greetings!

I’m Tim McIntire—U.S. Army veteran, long-time Fire Medic on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, and freshly minted B.S. Computer Science graduate from Southern New Hampshire University. Over the last three years I have transformed a lifelong fascination with technology into demonstrable expertise in software engineering, full-stack development, and secure cloud architectures. This self-assessment introduces the strengths, values, and career goals showcased throughout the ePortfolio that follows.

🛠️ Professional Self-Assessment

1 Coursework, ePortfolio & Professional Growth

Building this ePortfolio around a single codebase—the IT-145 “Grazioso Salvare” animal-rescue application—forced me to iterate exactly the way production teams do: refactor, optimize, then persist data securely. Although every visible artifact comes from that project, each enhancement leverages concepts first mastered across the wider CS curriculum:

Strength (learned in …)	How it appears in the capstone
Modular OOP Design (IT-145, CS-230)	Abstract `RescueAnimal` superclass, kingdom subclasses, reusable intake logic
Algorithmic Efficiency (CS-300, CS-305)	Swapped `ArrayList` linear scans for `HashMap` O(1) look-ups
Secure Data Persistence (CS-340, CS-470)	JDBC + SQLite with parameterised queries and exception handling

2 Key Professional Competencies

Domain	Demonstrated Ability
Collaborating in Team Environments	Led Git workflows and peer reviews in CS-250 & CS-255; comfortable with Agile boards and GitHub Projects.
Communicating With Stakeholders	Produced UML diagrams, sprint demos, and the capstone code-review video that explains technical trade-offs to non-developers.
Data Structures & Algorithms	Reduced search time from O(n) → O(1) using `HashMap`; earlier labs implemented recursion, BSTs, and dynamic programming.
Software Engineering & Database	Refactored for SOLID design; added a secure SQLite layer that persists data across sessions.
Security Mindset	Parameterized SQL, rigorous input validation, exception handling, and separation of concerns mitigate injection and logic attacks.

3 Career Aspirations & Values

I’m transitioning from 10+ years as a Fire Medic to a Software/Full-Stack Developer role—ideally with companies that serve public-safety or civic domains (FirstDue, emergency-services SaaS providers, or similar mission-driven teams). I value:

Solutions that improve community safety
Cloud-native, scalable architectures (studying for AWS/Azure certs)
Ethical, explainable AI (foundational exposure in CS-370)

4 How the Three Enhancements Fit Together

Software Design & Engineering – establishes a clean, extensible OOP foundation.
Algorithms & Data Structures – boosts performance without altering external behaviour.
Database Integration – adds secure, persistent storage, completing the data-flow.

By evolving one artifact through these stages, reviewers see a clear narrative of problem-solving: from architecture → efficiency → persistence—exactly the lifecycle of real-world software.