Online Resume: Brandon Helm
Summary of Goals
I'm a passionate engineer who got an early exposure to big-data technologies and enjoys solving complex problems. My current biggest goal is to leverage WebGL to make an interactive concept mapping engine. I have a page online referencing my efforts to launch this as an Open Source project here.
While I have very specific goals with WebGL and believe there is a lot of potential for those types of UI/UX designs, I am also open to exploring other areas of software development. I have a strong interest in learning more about backend development and database management.
I want to note that much of my early experience was in SQL reporting and data analysis, which has given me a strong foundation in understanding data structures and query optimization. I am excited to build on this foundation and apply it to more complex software engineering projects.
Looking forward to connecting!
Technologies Proficiency
HTML5 |
Advanced skills including utlization of canvas element for 3D graphics and animations. |
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CSS3 |
Advanced skills including full understanding of responsive media query design principles and cross-browser compatibility techniques. |
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JavaScript |
Intermediate skills including basic form validation, API integration, and data-modeling to support webGL visualizations. |
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Bootstrap |
Intermediate skills including custom component creation, theming, and responsive design implementation. This portfolio and resume site is a BootStrap project. |
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SQL |
Advanced skills including sub-query creation and complex joins in SQL databases. Much of my early career experience was in SQL reporting. |
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PHP |
Intermediate to nearing advanced skills including object-oriented programming, database integration, session management, and API development. |
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Python |
General familiarity. I love that it has a quick-test or live-run interface like Matlab. I'm confident my advanced C++ skills will allow me to quickly adapt and leverage Python for various tasks. |
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C++ |
Nearing advanced skills including memory pointer utilization and optimization techniques to facilitate my custom encryption algorithm. |
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WebGL |
Intermediate skills including 3D graphics programming, shader development, and interactive UI design with triggered animations. |
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GitHub |
Familiarity with version control systems such as Git and GitHub. Experience with branching, merging, and pull requests. Experience with Jira for project management and issue tracking. |
Education
- [Completed] The Tech Academy's Advanced JavaScript Bootcamp (2025-2026)
- [Partially Completed] Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering - Saint Cloud State University(2013-2015)
Note that this was only partially completed as I started working as a Process Engineer in my 3rd year. Though it was only partially completed, I did take a number of coding classes and deep theory on digital logic architecture. This is what allowed me to succeed in building my own encryption algorithm from scratch, which applies these skills deeply.
I was active in student organizations such as an ambitious attempt to build a Robot SCSU Husky (the school mascot).
Milestone Achievements
- Created a Dual-Layer Encryption algorithm in C++, with both Cypher-Swapping and Xor-Bit-Mask-Encoding of the data. Created completely from scratch with all my own functions. See Details
- Created an interactive concept mapping UI using JavaScript and WebGL. I see huge potential for this in education for mapping relationships between elements of a solution, as well as in psychology for mapping journal relationships and interactive records UI/UX. See Details
Featured Experience:
Junior Software Developer in Credit Scoring
Company: Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions
Dates: February 2016 - December 2016
Responsibilities: Developed and maintained software solutions for credit scoring applications, and collaborated with cross-functional teams to gather requirements. Learned a lot about architectural challenges specific to large distributed systems such as node overload and data consistency issues.
Technologies Used: ECL (Big-Data language specific to HPCC Systems), Jira, GitHub
Reason for Leaving: Three related things really factored in here...
1. Foremost, a school shooting impacted me deeply in my High School years. Losing someone I looked up to at a young age is a huge part of the reason I went into technology. I wanted to add value to the world that improved people's lives. The role I was in maybe helped some people get credit earlier, but there were really big challenges I was thinking of I knew were related.
2. I kept circling back to the challenges I had faced in my Process Engineering role at Bluestem Brands, and I wanted to find a role that would allow me to work on solutions to those types of challenges. I was particularly interested in finding a role that was more challenging... but I have to admit I didn't know enough at this stage to deserve a role like that.
3. Ultimately, I was looking for a role that would allow me to leverage more of my coding skills and creativity. I felt that the role I was in was more focused on maintaining existing software rather than developing new solutions.
What I Learned: The biggest thing I got out of this role was professional experience using large repository management systems for development and production environments... such as managing code changes & migrations through JIRA and GitHub with multiple teams across the nation. I also learned a lot about architectural challenges specific to large distributed systems such as node overload and data consistency issues.
Since this role, I studied very specific niche things with web-development and know exactly what I want to contribute to the world.
Featured Experience:
Process Engineer in eCommerce Operations
Company: Bluestem Brands, Inc.
Dates: February 2015 - February 2016
Responsibilities: In this role, I was responsible for analyzing and optimizing operational processes to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The primary tools for my research were Micofoft-SQL and MS-Excel.
I was responsible for maintaining the Standard-Operating-Procedure, and Job-Description training documents for various roles throughout the 1.5 million square foot facility with over half a million inventory locations (pallets, wearables, etc.). I utilized data analysis tools that powered our labor incentive system to monitor employee performance in the facility and conduct employee reviews for about 800 people.
During the peak holiday season, I was responsible for a dynamic area where we'd rotate the products with the largest number of active orders to reduce travel time and labor costs. I helped to frame out the business logic and build the supporting SQL queries to run the area.
Technologies Used: MicroSoft-SQL, MicroSoft-Office, HighJump Warehouse Management Software
Reason for Leaving: It was a company that didn't want to invest in technology too greatly because they seemed to have admitted it was going to be too hard to compete against Amazon. There were critical upgrades our system needed for reporting to be more accurate. We had to design complex queries to process and reconcile ghost transactions the system erronesouly generated for example.
What I Learned: There was a key problem I become aware of there... that many big companies have challenges that exist in the market that all businesses share, but are difficult to find a way to collaborate on. Universal Product Coding (UPC) grids to support WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) and POS (Point Of Sale) systems for example. This is what lead me to my SP - MMV model of democratic collaboration and the "Businesses' Bill of Rights" concepts I now believe in.