Justin Becker was studying nursing, with the goal of moving into nursing informatics, when he realized he liked the IT side of the work more than the medical component. He proceeded to  switch his major to software engineering, where his instructor—a veteran RPG programmer—introduced him to the welcoming IBM i community. That community can now cheer Becker’s decision.

 

Becker is now a junior programmer analyst at Innovative Software Solutions Inc., where his open-source utility project, WRKQRY2SQL, is under development. Having spent two years working on IBM Power, his favorite project so far has been helping to develop a modern web UI for an ERP system using a React.js, Python, SQL and SQLRPGLE tech stack.

 

As Becker looks for future projects to take on, he is in talks with COMMON community members regarding the creation of video tutorials—the kind that he, as a visual/auditory learner, wishes there were more of when he was getting his start on IBM i.  

 

Becker found IBM’s official documentation dizzying as a new student, and credits his N2i mentor Jasmine Kaczmarek and college instructor Char Parker for helping him overcome this challenge. Simon Hutchinson's RPGPGM.com blog helped, too. (His advice: Add “RPGPGM.com” to every web search when seeking IBM i tips.)

 

As an active member of the COMMON Education Foundation Board of Directors, Becker also advises newcomers to find a mentor like he did, someone to guide them through all the "cute little gotchas and quirks” that are plentiful on IBM i.