Olaf Minkowicz / About Olaf Minkowicz - Software Engineer & Tech Educator

const olafMinkowicz = {
  pronouns: "he" | "him",

  currentRole: {
    title: "Senior Software Engineer",
    company: "Rise8",
    startDate: "2026-01",
    focus: ["Fullstack Development", "SRE", "Cloud Infrastructure"]
  },

  previousRoles: [
    {
      company: "Microsoft",
      role: "Software Engineer II (62)",
      team: "Power BI Copilot",
      duration: "1.5+ years"
    },
    {
      company: "Microsoft",
      role: "Site Reliability Engineer II (62)",
      team: "Frontend Focus",
      duration: "1.5+ years"
    },
    {
      company: "U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs",
      role: "Ruby on Rails Developer",
      duration: "1+ year"
    }
  ],

  militaryService: {
    branch: "U.S. Army",
    unit: "1st Special Forces Group (Airborne)",
    mos: "35T - Military Intelligence Systems Maintainer/Integrator",
    years: 8,
    clearance: "Secret (former)"
  },

  code: {
    primary: ["JavaScript", "TypeScript", "React", "Node.js"],
    frameworks: ["Vue", "Svelte", "React Native", "Express", "Next.js"],
    backend: ["Python", "Ruby", "Java", "C#"],
    gameEngines: ["GameMaker Studio", "Phaser", "Three.js", "Pixi.js"],
    databases: ["MongoDB", "PostgreSQL", "SQL Server", "MySQL"],
    cloud: ["Azure", "AWS", "GCP"]
  },

  specializations: [
    "Full-Stack Web Development (MERN Stack)",
    "Game Development & Design",
    "UI/UX Engineering",
    "Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)",
    "Shader Programming (GLSL/OpenGL)"
  ],

  teaching: {
    former: "Full-Stack Instructor @ Nucamp (2018-2024)",
    rating: "4.6/5.0 across 889 student evaluations",
    coursesTaught: "6 Bootcamp | 3 HTML | 4 React Native | 2 Node.js | 7 React | 2 Python/SQL | 1 Python DevOps | 1 Cybersecurity | 1 Cybersecurity Defense",
    studentsHelped: "100+ aspiring developers and transitioning veterans"
  },

  business: {
    name: "RookTKO LLC",
    role: "Founder/Owner",
    focus: "Independent Game Studio"
  },

  certifications: {
    microsoft: 13,
    comptia: 5,
    google: 1,
    total: 27  // View all at credly.com/users/olaf-minkowicz
  },

  passions: [
    "Making pretty boxes that make you feel all good and jelly-like inside",
    "Whether they be checkboxes (UI/UX) or hit boxes (Game Dev)"
  ],

  availability: "Remote only",

  links: {
    portfolio: "https://olminkow.com",
    linkedin: "https://linkedin.com/in/olaf-minkowicz",
    github: "https://github.com/RookTKO",
    devCommunity: "https://dev.to/rooktko",
    certifications: "https://www.credly.com/users/olaf-minkowicz/badges",
    gemcore: "https://store.steampowered.com/app/2019200/GemCore/",
    dribbble: "https://dribbble.com/RookTKO"
  }
};