What do you do here at RBN?
I help engineer and implement cloud solutions. In human words, I assist customers in making their software run (and run well!) in the cloud.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Any sort of professional water-sport athlete. If I could get paid to wake-board, jet-ski, and tube all day that would be great!
What things do you look for in your workplace?
A workplace should be committed to making sure its employees have a strong work/life balance. I have a wife and a child and as much as I love work; I love spending time with them even more. I don’t think I’d work anywhere that demanded hours at the expense of my family life.
What’s your favorite thing about your job?
One of the best parts is the freedom. I can choose how a project gets done as opposed to being told how to do it.
What is your office nickname, and how did you earn it?
I haven’t been designated one…yet.
If you could switch your job with anyone else within RBN, whose job would you want and why?
Adam does a lot of front-end web development work, which I am terrible at; so probably him.
What advice would you give anyone starting out in the industry?
Read about, “Impostor Syndrome.” When I was starting out I was a textbook example of Impostor Syndrome. As soon as I realized that I wasn’t just a “faker” my attitude and productivity started increasing dramatically.
What has been your favorite project you’ve worked on at RBN?
I did an Azure to AWS migration which was a super fun project. It was something that I expected to be a very involved and tedious process; but it ended up going extremely smoothly.
What would you do (for a career) if you weren’t doing this?
Hmmm, I really can’t see myself doing anything outside of computers so probably something tangentially related.
Three words to best describe you:
Coffee, unhealthy-foods, atoms.
If you were the subject of a movie about your life, what would the title of the movie be, what genre, and what actor would you like to play you?
Title: “Moving Through Time Regularly Just Like Everybody Else.” It would be a science-fiction “thriller” about time-travel at a completely normal pace. I don’t know who I would want to play me… Maybe Chris Pratt? He could definitely make me look funnier and better looking than I really am.
What do you do for fun outside of work?
I have two Border Collies (Ramsay and Riley) and they are both pretty high energy so playing with them is always enjoyable.
If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?
All you can eat McNuggets!
Do you have any hidden talents?
I can write haikus
On-demand, extremely fast
Hidden… and useless.
What’s your spirit animal?
You know those screaming goat videos? I like to think they’re all the embodiment of my spirit.
What are your three most overused words/phrases?
Lately, “I’m tired,” and, “Peekaboo!“ has been on the list (having a 7 month old totally changes your vocabulary). Last one is probably similar baby-talk.
What is the weirdest job you’ve ever had?
I once had to remove a literal ton of seaweed from a lake. It all washed up along the shore and was a nuisance to the residents. I’m still not sure how I got roped into the gig, but it paid well!
What would you most like to tell yourself at age 13?
“Put all your money into AAPL.”