As I was working for a company as a Sales Manager, my company was using a database management system using an Access database. There were some issues with the program, so I studied Access and was able to make the corrective programming changes. So, I started to delve into database design.
Then, I went to work as a Business Consultant for a small business consulting firm in Chicago. I would travel all over the country to various small businesses and show them ways to improve their management, productivity, profitability, and improve their life's happiness. This required me to make weekly long plane flights and many nights in hotels alone. To pass the time, I read books on how to design databases and I developed a database project for each client that I had which enabled me to run my projects in excess of 100%. My Corporate Consulting Director then decided to bring me in to the corporate offices and design a database system for him. He was so pleased with my work that the Company Owner asked me to evaluate their corporate database system. Their system was a joke and basically consisted of multiple spreadsheets that needed to be updated daily. I suggested that we design a SQL based database system and I was asked to make it happen. After several weeks of design and preparation and a long weekend converting the company's current data into the new database, I was successful. The company Directors and Owner were so pleased with my work, that I was eventually promoted to Corporate IT Director. I was now responsible for managing all computer systems, corporate phone systems, all database development, all software programming, and generating numerous payroll and accounting systems.
One highlight involved the Consulting Department. Each evening, 10-20 Consulting personnel would sit in a conference room and make nationwide consulting assignments for its Consultants. The Consultants would be sitting in airports calling the office to see if they had an assignment and where they would be flying to that night. This usually required numerous calls until their assignment was determined. I developed a web software program where all jobs were posted to the program, and Consulting made the assignments on the software, and then when all assignments were completed, the Consultants were then notified online and then they could accept those assignments online. It worked and saved a lot of management and consultant productivity.
Another highlight involved the development of software to manage our in-house call center of 300+ telemarketers. This was spearheaded by another member of our management team outsourcing the development of the software programming to an outside company. After startup of the new software, several issues developed due to poor programming. My programmer and I remedied the issues of poor design and made it work.
Today, I am retired but still dabble in website design and database programming.