This repository is my first stumbling ground as I set about learning the necessary skills to make a mid-life career change.

Curious by nature and suffering from career decision paralysis at the age of 18, I let my sports scholarship choose my college for me. Four years later, having received a degree in foreign language, the airline industry seemed like a reasonable fit for my new language skills. Now, with 18 years under my belt, I've amassed 17 years of deep specialization in airline control center management and am currently the control center department leader at my location; and I have loved every minute of it.

While there is always more to learn, the opportunity to do so in this role decreases wildly without peers or superiors who are conversant in my area of expertise. The control center world is a lonely place: it is the smallest of the three operational departments despite it being the nucleus of the operation; the work is specialized and those that have deep experience are few and far between; and, above me, there is no centralized oversight of our organization's various control center locations. I and my counterparts at our other hub locations operate in silos with limited interaction and no overarching control center-specifc guidance. As it stands, outside of minor polishing details, I am no longer learning and there is no higher role in my organization that keeps me in the vein of control center management. It's time for me to make the argument for that position.

What I've learned in my career is invaluable and has provided me with clear insight into necessary procedural and organizational improvements that cannot be realized without putting novel and compelling data analysis in the hands of corporate finance. During my tenure, I've produced important analysis specific to control center operations, but have reached the limit of what's possible with my current skillset and the selection of established metrics our organization utilizes. I've also introduced impactful automation through low-code solutions to improve control center processes and communication, but more is needed to harness the full power of a well-trained and properly resourced control center team. To that end, I've made it my five-year goal to learn the coding skills necessary to build a suite of analyical arguments in engaging formats to secure the requisite financial support for critical improvements.

This repo will become my greatest hits of stumbling, falling, and getting back up again as I learn to produce terrible code, functional code, good coode, and, finally, portfolio-ready code. Buckle up - this is bound to get ugly!