Company: Leonard’s Photographic, Inc.
Location: Saint Augustine, FL
Industry: Media and Marketing
Duties: C# developer. Database Developer. Database Administrator.
I worked at Leonard’s Photography, a family owned business, for about seven years. That was easily the longest job stint of my life. The company’s main focus is school and military photography… think Year Books. They create merchandise as well, but photography is their bread and butter.
My duties at Leonard’s were primarily database related, MySQL, MariaDB, and Microsoft SQL. There was also a lot of text data that needed to be manipulated into the system. Mostly DBF, CSV, and Excel (XLS) files.
My biggest accomplishment at Leonard’s was the creation of a data synchronization program, written in C#. It maintained one large database of almost all the company’s information by monitoring for changes in text data and replicating them, in real-time, into the database.
Why did I leave?
On occasion, I was tasked with working in “the field”. I’d go to school photo sessions and monitor the photo archiving software and hardware. This triggered a desire to work outside my dimly lit cubicle. After a few years, sitting at a desk became quite unpleasant. I wanted to get out more, but pay increases made me too expensive for that.
The biggest reason I left? COVID. It changed everything and everyone. Life never went back to normal. I felt isolated from people while at work.