Christina DeMello

Another page in the process of being updated.  Why did I make things so complicated?

Let's start with a brief bio (there is certainly a LOT missing, but you'll get the general idea):
 

• I was born in Washington, DC - which is a lot of fun when filling out goverment forms and they insist on a US state for one of the fields - in 1971.  My parents were living in Falls Church, VA at the time and continued to do so until just after my brother was born in 1973.
• We then moved to Hamburg, Germany (where my mother is originally from and most of my relatives still live), followed shortly thereafter with a move to Puerta de Santa Maria in Spain.  It seems the ship my father was assigned to was supposed to dock near there rather frequently, but as far as I can remember it never did.
• In 1976 we moved back to Virginia, though this time Virginia Beach.  I attended kindergarten and first grade here, but don't remember much besides the address and phone number ingrained into my head by my mother, that I lost my first tooth when mom tied a string to it, the other end attached to the bathroom door, and then slammed it shut, and that I was convinced I was going to marry 'Chris' - someone in my first grade class.  Of course, now I can't even remember his last name.
• In 1978 it was back to northern Virginia - Fairfax County to be specific.  We lived there until 1984 and during this time I started playing soccer, was taking ballet and tap dancing, and determined to excel in school.  No more marriage proposals though, but I do remember the names of various crushes (I'll refrain from naming them to avoid embarassment on either of our parts).  I actually lead a fairly idyllic existence, convinced I'd never move - unlike all the other military people we had coming in and out of the area on a regular basis - until I was ready to go to college.  At that point I also knew I wanted to go to Harvard - we all make mistakes.
• In the spring of 1984, for work related reasons, we moved to Panama City, Florida.  It really should be considered lower Alabama though it does have its good points.  I continued with dance and soccer, then added karate to my repetoire (until an orthopedic surgeon told me I had to give it all up due to knee problems).  I was also extremely active after school - keeping in mind that it would only help with my college applications.  I also remember that the first time I met my guidance counselor, Ms. Pittman, I told her that I was going to be valedictorian of my class.
• In the fall of 1986 I thought I would try spending a year of high school in Rheinbach, Germany. Unfortunately, never having been very good at meeting knew people, home sickness drew me back after only three months.  It was probably more than just that, I think I was worried about the impact this foreign system might have on my graduating first in my class and getting into a good college.
• In fact, it wasn't until the end of my junior year that I even thought about going to MIT after they sent some material to me because of my PSAT scores.  It was my interview that made up my mind though (I still thought I wanted to go to Harvard) - and I don't think I would change a thing if I could go back and do it again.  I had a lot of fun in high school, though there were definitely some pretty down times, but I am not sure I'd want to do any of that again.
• MIT on the other hand I'd love to have an opportunity to go through once more.    Even the excitement of going through Rush, trying to find housing, meeting new people, and no longer standing out as being any brighter than anyone else are worth repeating.    Most importantly, I wouldn't give up the friendships formed with classmates who also joined  Alpha Chi Omega or the knowledge gained while spending so much time online on Athena.  It wasn't until my junior year that I convinced myself that I knew enough to be an online consultant - in fact a friend of mine turned in my resume.
• In the summer of 1993 I took a full time job with Information Systems after having been a student consultant.  This meant doing user accounts related work, and managing the student consultants. Not real people management, but more scheduling and training, as well as representing consulting on other IS teams.
• The job wasn't technically challenging, and while exploring other opportunities within IS that same friend convinced me to let him submit my resume to his group at Oracle (he left MIT to work at Oracle in the summer of 1993).  This meant coming out to California and working phone support for AOL and AutoInstall - the installation, upgrade and core component of Oracle Applications - Oracle's suite of financial, manufacturing, distribution and HR applications.
• While doing phone support, then queue coordination (involving the tracking and assigning of calls coming in to various analysts), I also migrated a Forms2.3 application to the web using a precursor to the current PL/SQL Agent shipped with the Web Application Server.  This received enough management attention that I, along with a coworker, was asked for input on Support's web offerings. This in turn led to a transfer to the IS part of Support, then a management position leading the team of developer's responsible for the web system. After a few harrowing months with a director lacking people skills, a new management team convinced me to stay and agreed I wouldn't have to be a manager anymore. Of course, it took six months before a replacement was put into place to handle those administrative details.
• So now, I am paid to keep current with technology and business requirements within support, and provide input on future directions while building prototypes of potential systems.  I'm getting paid to have fun and learn, so I can't complain (but don't let my boss know!).

Major Interests

• To be completed... some day...