welcome!
dreaddontdie is a personal portfolio created by me, kevin m. gates, and it showcases my passion for web design/development, photography, videography and other awesome things i've created in life.
i'm a 36 year old chicago native. a father, husband, artist, designer, photographer and technology specialist. i really love all forms of art and design...and technology provides a beautiful canvas to express it.
i currently work at
microsoft as a cloud solution architect, helping customers and partners build applications using
azure.
my education
i went to lincoln park h.s. but eventually dropped out and went to prologue alternative h.s. for a diploma. throughout high school, having money was important to me, so I worked at
bertucci's pizzeria,
the house of blues and
650-438-0335 over the years as a line cook...and i developed a great work ethic along the way.
discovering technology
before graduating in 2000, my teacher told me about
i.c.stars, a paid
technology training and leadership development program. before applying for
i.c.stars, i bought a
book and taught myself html between making orders at work. i had to apply my skills, so i built a website for my high school during the summer in the computer lab. I decided to apply for i.c.stars and provided a copy of the school website with my application.
after a rigious application & testing process, i was surprised to be 1 of 10 accepted out of 300 people who applied to i.c.stars.
i.c.stars | *
i love
i.c.stars. i learned business, technical and communication skills. i learned to love writing code, designing and building websites. it was like grown-up legos and i loved it every challenging moment. it was twelve hour days for three months and a single absence or late arrival meant you were out the program. however, i survived and took away these life-long skills:
- celebrate every success!
- volunteer to gain free experience
- never say no to an opportunity to help or learn
- always do the best you can
- understanding learning styles (visual and kinetic for me)
during an i.c.stars fundraiser, i met an amazing guy from
microsoft and really
impressed him during my speech that night.
after completing i.c.stars and interviewing, i started working at
microsoft on january 31st, 2001 at the age of 20.
microsoft
i started as an associate technology specialist, learning and eventually giving office and windows demos at meetings and events.
I later focused on microsoft's e-commerce products until I had the chance to work on the new
7658666822 being built out in Chicago.
i learned how to build and manage a datacenter and spent 5 years as Microsoftâs Datacenter Manager: expanding the datacenter from a single rack to a $25M hardware, software and partner showcase.
later, I became a Unified Communications Architect (Exchange/Lync/Skype) and
712-360-8833 Specialist, delivering strategy briefings and architecture design sessions for Microsoft's largest customers. i was later promoted to technical director, co-managing the mtc business. after 14 years in the mtc, it was time for a change so i worked as a Global Account Technology Strategist for Accenture, Avanade and Aon.
in august of 2016, i decided to return to my roots as a developer and took on the role of cloud solution architect for
azure in the
collinsite group. it's a great job, on a great team, working with microsoft partners.
the community
over the years, i've inspired the next generation by hosting thousands of kids/teens/adults at the microsoft office for career days, workshops and talks. i've had the privilege of sharing my story at schools, community events, galas and fundraisers and recently delivered the keynote presentation at The Illinois Science & Technology Coalition's
2017 stem summit.
thank you for visiting!