What are the main responsibilities of your position? What’s a typical day like for you?
As the development manager, my overall responsibility is to ensure that the development team is delivering the best set of features and fixes to benefit the Liberty, illumin and Aurora Product suite communities. This means I don’t actually get to write much code anymore. Instead, I focus on making sure development is working on the right features/fixes, review what has been done to check that we’ve thought of everything, help people when they’re stuck, and try to limit the things that keep the developers from working on the product.
When did you join SoftlinkIC and what do you like most about working here?
I joined Softlink in 2010 after spending the prior 10 years with Boeing. Generally, I love the analytical problem solving you get each day when working in Software Development. But with Softlink specifically, I like the people that I’m working with and the culture where we’re trying to deliver a quality and professional service, but within a relaxed and playful team environment.
What was the last book you read (or listened to)?
For myself, I mostly read Science Fiction and Fantasy (classic developer, hey?). But the last book I read was Roald Dahl’s The Witches, which I read to my son. So much fun terrifying him right before bedtime. If it counts (it was only a half hour read), I also read Tim Minchin’s You Don’t Have to Have a Dream, which is a set of 3 speeches he’s delivered at different graduation ceremonies.
What’s one thing about your job that surprises people when you tell them?
How much is involved in a library system! People tend to imagine it as you create a record or catalogue a book with just a title and author, and then it’s ready to loan to people and that’s it.
But then you start talking about managing patrons and system authentication, acquisitions of new items for the library, integrations with other systems, reservations and security and you see how their eyes just glaze over with surprise (it may just be me, but I’ve never found software development to be a topic that really engages most people in casual conversation).
What is your favourite type of food? (If there’s a list, even better!)
Italian. Lasagne, pizza, bolognaise, risotto, ravioli – you can’t go wrong. Especially cooking it at home.
Which 4 people, alive or dead, would you love to share your favourite food with and why?
Share?!? But then there’d be less for me! But let’s go with Michael Palin and Hugh Laurie (cause they’re great), Mark Daigneault (coach of the NBA basketball team I follow – he seems really grounded and thoughtful), and…Hmm – I’ve been listening to a podcast called No Such Thing as a Fish hosted by the QI researchers – pick one of them at random cause they’re all funny and know lots of interesting trivia.
If you could be anyone else for a day, who would that be and why?
Tough. But let’s go with my son. I love the joy and exuberance that kids experience the world with. And it would be nice to have working knees again. But not on a school day, ’cause I didn’t like year 1 arts and craft the first time around.
What is one place in the world on your bucket list you most want to visit? Why?
There’s a few, but let’s go with Italy – I bet they’ve got good Italian food. Plus, I hear they’ve got a bit of history going on over there.