Raven Askew

Resume Contact

Raven has been a Charleston, South Carolina resident since the spring of 2010. Although she is no stranger to the Deep South, this is her first adventure on the East Coast. Born and raised in northwest Florida she also spent 5 years in Alabama obtaining her Bachelor and Master's degrees.

As a part of the Lowcountry Community, Raven is involved in the Auburn Alumni Association's local club, the Lowcountry Auburn Club. Having served on the Board of Directors for 4 years she has held the role of Vice President for one of those years as well as President for one year. She is a member of the Eliza Lucas Pinckney chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution as well as a member of the Charleston Young Professionals and a participant in their Mentee program. Raven is also an active participant in Charleston Women in Tech.

In her spare time, Raven is training in Aerial Arts as her fitness routine. She is focusing on Aerial Silks and Trapeze, however, she has a small amount of experience in all of the apparatuses offered at Aerial Fit.

Although she has a past in varied fields and professions, Raven began her stint at BoomTown in the summer of 2010 and as a result has found a passion in software. With many months of delving into Treehouse and Codecademy she has been working on obtaining skills in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Bootstrap. Feeling that these skills, although valuable, are not very practical without having formal training in the field, Raven has decided to take the leap into this new world by attending The Iron Yard Academy in Charleston for Front End Engineering which began in January 2015. After an intense 3 months she plans to put her new skills to the test at the professional level as well as work on some personal projects she has been dreaming of creating for some time.

BoomTown, 2010 - 2015, Charleston, South Carolina

Quality Assurance Analyst

  • Performs system, regression, and functional testing on front and back end web software applications
  • Finds, documents and reports bugs, errors, interoperability flaws and other issues within the software
  • Dedicated QAA for feature team within Agile Development Methodologies
  • Composes blog posts for the Marketing department as needed
  • Represents the company at local tech conferences
  • Maintains documentation for testing features

Senior Support Specialist

All duties listed for Support Specialist role, including:

  • Trained all new Support Specialists and Success Managers on all technical aspects of the robust Leads Management Software System
  • Trained new Support Specialists on written communication with clients
  • Began the vast training manual for all new Support Specialists
  • Served as an ambassador for the company in the inaugural Boombassadors committee
  • Represented the company at a local tech conference

Support Specialist

  • Built relationships with clients that allowed better Technical Support and service to help them among all of their needs, suggestions and bugs with the software
  • Troubleshot software bugs and issues as requested by clients
  • Championed customer needs and provided input to development teams for long-term planning and prioritizing of product improvements
  • Maintained strong relationships with development teams for resolutions in software bugs
  • Conducted weekly online training sessions guiding new and current client users on the robust Leads Management Software System
  • Updated and wrote Knowledge Base articles, routed client requests among company departments, and composed blog posts

COMM 1000 - Basic Public Speaking Instructor

Auburn University, 2009 - 2010, Auburn, Alabama

  • Taught average class size of 22 students. Graded informative, persuasive values, and persuasive question of policy speeches. Administered exams, created lesson plans, and managed BlackBoard online application.

Social Media Intern

Wicked PR, 2009, Atlanta, Georgia

  • Composed blogs, aided with social media maintenance (including: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs), performed media and social media research for print and online presence for clients and firm. Monitored social media interaction during live Internet video feed event for the client Krystal (national restaurant chain).

Substitute Teacher

Santa Rosa County School Board, 2007 - 2008, Milton, Florida

  • Subbed in elementary, middle and high schools. Managed the classroom, organized students work, and oversaw tests.

Promotions Director and News Caster

WVSU FM 91.1 Birmingham’s Smooth Jazz, 2005 - 2007, Birmingham, Alabama

  • Announced hourly music selections, wrote and recorded daily newscasts, organized music collections, updated website, registered song play numbers.

Page Designer

Samford Crimson, 2007, Birmingham, Alabama

  • Designed the Sports and Expressions sections of the newspaper. Worked weekly with section editors.

Intern

Alabama Governor Bob Riley’s Office, 2006, Montgomery, Alabama

  • Interned under the Deputy Chief of Staff and Appointments Manager. Composed letters from the Governor, created packages from the state to Alabama soldiers hospitalized overseas, updated the Governor’s email list, researched on appointments, drafted and presented a speech on “Perception Management” for the staff.

Student Assistant

Samford University Academic Computer Labs, 2004 - 2005, Birmingham, Alabama

  • Received “Assistant of the Week” multiple times. Technical assistant to lab patrons on software and hardware issues in all six campus computer labs. Enforced all computer lab rules and guidelines.

The Iron Yard Academy - Charleston, SC

Front End Engineering (January 2015 - Present)

Auburn University

Communication (M.A. Recipient, August 2010)

Samford University

Journalism and Mass Communication (B.A. Recipient, May 2007)

  • Concentration in Public Relations
  • Minor in Music
  • Music Major Scholarship recipient
  • Delta Omicron, Professional Music Fraternity (Social Co-Chair, 2006-2007)
  • Public Relations Student Society of America
  • Public Relations Society of America Mentor Program, 2006
  • Senior Thesis: “Perception Management” in the Field of Public Relations, Fall 2006 and Presented in the Samford University Senior Showcase, Spring 2007
  • London Study Abroad, Summer 2006

Working Knowledge:

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • GitHub
  • Technical Software Testing
  • Agile Methodologies
  • WordPress
  • Jira
  • Google Calendar
  • GoogleDocs
  • Microsoft Office Suite
  • PC and MAC

Basic Knowledge:

  • SASS
  • Terminal
  • Git
  • Responsive Design
  • Bootstrap
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • Underscore.js
  • Ajax
  • Backbone.js
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Automated Software Testing

Acquiring Knowledge:

  • Mocha
  • Chai
  • Angular

"When it comes to helping customers there is no job too big or too trivial for Raven. I had the privilege of working closely with Raven for nearly 4 years as she worked tirelessly to help customers in her support role and as she transitioned onto my team as a Quality Assurance Analyst. Raven was not classically trained in computer science or quality assurance, but she knew how to think like her client and was able to proactively help by affecting product quality. She was a great team member and was often looked to for her client-centric contributions in her Sprint teams. She often sought out additional training and was a self-motivated learner and would make a great member for a passionate and highly active and motivated team!"

Tim Wolf, Director of Engineering, BoomTown

"I worked with Raven when she was a Senior Support Specialist for BoomTown. She was able to quickly grasp new features and share that knowledge with our client base through her impeccable communication skills. Raven was always able to clearly explain our product over the phone and in writing. Her work ethic is also one of her biggest strengths. She is always happy to help out her teammates and her company. We were sad to lose her on the Support Team but glad she followed her passions, moving into a QA role here at BoomTown."

Julie Karsten, Vice President of Client Success, BoomTown