Biography – Ryan Zernach

BIOGRAPHY

(an ever-evolving work-in-progress)

WRITTEN BY: RYAN ZERNACH

LAST UPDATED: 09/05/2020

My name is Ryan Zernach. I'm a Machine Learning / Data Science Software Engineer, who is remotely working full-time for Vanderbilt University & Trilogy Education as a Teaching Assistant, Tutor, and Grader for a Data Science & Visualizations bootcamp curriculum. I'm eager to work as professional in the software/tech industry.

With an educational background in mathematics, I've most recently been endorsed by Lambda School for completing their remote Data Science program, which was twelve months of full-time, intensive learning. Additionally, I've earned other relevant technology certifications: DataRobot's AutoML Academy, TensorFlow Developer, and AWS Cloud Practitioner.

For as long as I can remember,

I've deeply enjoyed creating and organizing.

It started as a kid with creating and organizing a wide variety of extracurriculars in high school,

which evolved into creating and organizing a handful of local small businesses,

which taught me to create and organize websites and creative projects for clients.

Nearly ten years ago, after graduating from high school, I attended Georgia Southern University to earn my Computer Science degree. After two years of university, I followed my dream of creating my own landscape design business (instaSod.com) and professional Christmas lighting business (CustomizedChristmasLights.com) — and was financially independent for three years because of it! Most of my time was spent remotely managing every digitized facet of my business, so I've inherently been more computer-savvy than the vast majority of people for most of my life.

However, I felt as if I was being drawn back to the tech/software industry because the scale at which I can help solve problems is far greater — instead of solving a thousand people's residential landscape problems, I can now help to solve millions of people's problems using software's economies of scale. That's what led me to re-embark on my Machine Learning / Data Science Software Engineering journey.

MINDSET MATTERS MOST

Having built small businesses, I am magnetized by biographies about civilization's most influential people, and have noticed certain key characteristics among them that I have concluded are components for professional success, however you may define that. These are not necessarily skills nor abilities, but they are characteristics. Skills and abilities can usually be learned very quickly! But characteristics, on the other hand, take time to gradually evolve in oneself — they're more of a mindset that I've consciously chosen to embrace over the years...