01Life-long Learner

Whether it be AI flows, a new trade, or anything related to one of my many hobbies, I love to go down rabbit holes and learn how things work at a deep level, and pick up new skills. As a developer, I would say this is reflected by my being a generalist. I’m mainly working on backend projects but have plenty of experience jumping in on the front end as necessary.

• In grade 7, my family got our first computer. It came with QBASIC installed, and the snake game was one of my favourites. I subsequently learned to program by modifying the game, sans manuals or Internet. Thus began my interest as a developer.
• We’re now in our second home, and I’ve made a habit of jumping into some pretty large DIY projects. I like to get my hands dirty, and consider myself reasonably competent in most trades (framing, plumbing, electrical for example).

02Builder

I love the craft of planning a concept and seeing it come to life, digital or otherwise. During the day, the computer is my tool, being used to build a feature or piece of software. Outside of my career, the building continues. It can be a piece of furniture in my woodworking shop or a shed on my property. I get excited when working with product managers or clients to plan our features, and then working through prototypes and seeing them through to production.

• While we were house-hunting for our first place, I was dismayed at the performance/features of the Realtor.ca website. I took a weekend to put together my own application to help us track new listings that met our criteria, as well as cross-referencing them with our realtor’s web application.
• I have an extensive home automation setup in our house, but I’ve gone the next step and built a number of custom devices over the years: a controller to make a basic range hood fan smart and directly work with my gas cooktop, a custom sliding-door pin-lock sensor, and an actuator-driven roll-up door lock.
• As the main renovation projects wrapped up at our prior house, I took up woodworking as a hobby to fill the void. My first project was a bed frame crafted from rough milled ash boards, and I was hooked.

03Problem-solver

Sometimes to my wife’s frustration, I am constantly noting problems large and small and looking for solutions. It can be something as simple as finding a way to improve an inefficient storage space, tweaking a poor workflow in our kitchen, or more recently having the chance to design our new (to us) house from the ground up. I love to work within the realm of constraint and find solutions that are practical and useful.

• As a senior and staff developer, I’ve learned the real challenge is not coming up with complex solutions for tricky problems, but finding a way to have simple solutions to complex problems.
• I love the problem of designing a space, especially kitchens. I like to spend a great deal of time thinking through how a space is used and optimize every bit of it.
• Solving functional problems like “how can I keep my workshop from getting super messy/dusty”, or how can we not forget to lock a door.

04Relationship-builder

There was a time, when considering my next step after senior developer, that I thought I would lean towards being an engineering manager. This was driven by the enjoyment I had working on great dev teams with other great managers, being aware of the need to build good team culture and where that may be failing. Ultimately I decided to stay on the technical side, but the people aspect will always be a part of me.

• I always enjoyed having the chance to work closely with clients. This was innate in my time at Deversus, but I also had many opportunities at Shopify to work closely with our merchants, working to understand their needs or just walk through some deep technical problems.
• As we transitioned to remote work at Shopify, I worked hard to maintain relationships with those outside of my current team/area. It was so easy to get stuck in a small bubble and I felt that it was valuable to hold onto those relationships regardless of our work crossing paths at that exact time.
• Outside of work, I often fall into the role of “people gatherer”. We built our space for hosting and I love to find ways to connect with others and bring groups together.