Career Timeline - JustinRidgeEdu

June 2012

Graduated High School – Started at McDowall Company

After high school graduation, I was unsure what I wanted to do. Growing up on a farm, I wasn’t afraid of manual labor and getting my hands dirty. I decided to work at McDowall Company as an HVAC/Sheet Metal Tech to save up some money while I pondered whether or not I wanted to go to college.

August 2014

Leave McDowall – Started Class at St. Cloud Tech.

After spending a moderate amount of time staying out of town, I decided HVAC was not the career for me. Due to striving to one day have a family of my own, I decided to pursue a job that would allow me to be home every day. I decided to go to college to learn about architectural drafting.

August 2015

Begin Working at Coldspring

One year into my college experience, I got hired at Coldspring, a granite/bronze manufacturing company, as a drafting intern.

May 2016

Graduated St. Cloud Tech

After two years, I graduated St. Cloud Tech with an AAS degree in Architectural Construction Technology.

January 2022

Started Class at Ridgewater College

After working for a few years as a Drafter, I started teaching myself how to code. I saw many ways that I would be able to implement coding into my drafting routines at work to save the company time and money. My employer liked where this was heading, and offered to send me to classes to further my knowledge in coding. I gladly accepted and started my first class at Ridgewater: Into to Programming

January 2024

Promoted to Drafting Supervisor

After several more years as a drafter, and after implementing numerous time saving solutions from the coding knowledge I was gaining while taking more programming classes at Ridgewater, I was promoted to Drafting Supervisor.

August 2024

Job Change – Software Developer

After just about a half a year after my promotion, my dream job opened up at Coldspring when there was an opening for a Software Developer. I applied for the job, and got it.

May 2026

Graduate Ridgewater College

While this date is in the future, my goal is to graduate from Ridgewater College in 2026 with an AAS in Computer Programming, as well as another AAS in Web Development.