When he's not mowing the lawns LOLing to his fave poddies or dreaming about spending a year on the road with his wife, Chris is Junior Full Stack Developer here at SwipedOn HQ. We caught up with him to find out what a day in the life is like at SwipedOn HQ in Tauranga, New Zealand. ๐ง ๐ โ๏ธ
In a nutshell, what do you do at SwipedOn?
I'm a Junior Full Stack Developer.
What does a day in the life of you at SwipedOn look like?
When I get in and setup, first things first is coffee ๐
Then a typical day will be checking slack/emails, then carrying on with any tickets from the day before. Depending on the day there could be standup, then somedays there may be meetings around upcoming sprints/phases for the team or it could be someone in the company giving a demonstration on a new technology or company update. The rest of the time is working through tickets to either fix something or add a new feature to the product.
What are some of your favourite things about being part of the team here?
The culture and people for sure. Really nice atmosphere. Lots of laughs throughout the day usually. Also the Snacks! ๐คค
What do you particularly like about what weโre doing with SwipedOn?
The fact that we have this product that's being used globally and it's based here out of Tauranga at the bottom of the world, pretty cool.
The product itself is slick and the new features that are being built into it are interesting. Looking forward to some of the upcoming features being released.
What three words would you use to describe your role?
1. Chat GPT
2. Learning
3. Typing
Do you have a favourite motto or mantra you live by?
"This too, shall pass"
What did you do in your previous working life?
For the past 8+ years I trained in and worked as an Industrial Automation Engineer, primarily in the Food Industry. Automating process plants, process design, project management, data collection and reporting etc. Most of that time I spent in the Edible Oils industry (cooking oil, margarines, etc). Edible oils sounds incredibly boring on the face of it (I certainly thought so when I started) but there was a huge amount to learn and know about what goes on in the end-to-end process and how FMCG Manufacturing works so it was a pretty interesting time overall.
However Automation is pretty full-on and quite a small industry. I enjoy it but wanted to stretch out a bit and try something different with larger career prospects. A lot of the same skills from Automation Engineering seemed to line up with Software Development so I've been studying software on-and-off for the past couple of years. Eventually managed to sweet talk someone to give me a chance at it and here I am :D
What do you do in your free time?
Outside of work is pretty cruisy. Exercise, reading, learning new things. Spending time with my wife, dog, and family. Swing by on a sunny day and you'll probably find me mowing my lawns laughing to a podcast looking like a crazy person. Or there's also a very high chance I'll be napping on the deck ๐
What are three things still left on your bucket list?
1. Finish my degree ๐จโ๐
2. Spend a year with my wife travelling โ๏ธ ๐
3. Visit space ๐
Whatโs on your SwipedOn playlist?
Unless it's something totally monotonous, I can't work and listen to anything. So whilst my noise cancelling headphones are often on, it's just for the noise cancelling... However when I am listening to music, I'm a sucker for early 2000's rock/punk rock. Blink 182, etc
If you were stuck on a desert island and you could choose one person from the SwipedOn team to come with you, who would you take and why?
I'm going to have to say Reece. If nothing else other than for the laughs and his positive can-do attitude. I'm sure there'd be tough times and he seems to only have one mood (lets go!) so I think that'd be the energy you'd need to get through the days haha.
Letโs end this with a random fact about youโฆ or a random fact you love!
Straight out of school I trained to be a Commercial Pilot and had a very brief career as a Flight Instructor ๐จโโ๏ธ
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