Angus Perkerson - Senior Software Engineer at REX

Featuring Angus Perkerson, js.la co-organizer and senior software engineer. Talking Points: What are aspects to consider regarding the longterm value of companies that you apply to? What is the interview process with a startup like? Does it matter if the company is %100 tech? Explore a day-in-the-life of a Senior Software Engineer. What is Agile Development? What are the values in an engineer that matter the most to Angus? How does Angus manage his team? What does Angus look for when hiring? Advice to new devs. What are the new technologies Angus is looking forward to? Quotable Quotes: “If you look at the company, what are they selling? What is the market that they are in? What is that exchange of value?” - DG “The CEO convinced me. He knows his business, he knows his market, he knows where it is going.” -AP “If there isn’t a business to provide value to with your software engineering, what is the point?” - DG “In the world that we live in where software has eaten the world, it is rare to find a business that isn’t affected by software in some ways and a lot of the great places to work are going to be not 100% tech plays, but just have a good amount of tech to make everything better.” -DG “DSU stands for Daily Stand Up” - AP “We use the term ‘Agile’ just to be like: ‘Hey, we think weekly, we deliver weekly’.“- AP “What you planned for in the beginning, may not be what you needed at the end.“- AP “The reason I joined this company was to start from the ground up, provide huge value to it, and help the architects” - AP “You have to make these mistakes before you learn.” - AP “I bet if you talked to the experts in the field, all of the experts would have scars on their hands” - AP “Move fast, break things: be agile” - AP “We want generalists. Full Stack engineers that we can make highly flexible and redistribute where needed” - AP “We really like to use the right tool for the right job. And that means constant evaluation.” - AP “We look for high impact, low cost solutions.” -AP “Being the person in charge of how we build things out, you really learn to think as: “How do I evaluate this? Can I get this done today? No? Ok, how long is it going to take me?” - AP “We adapt the engineer position to the person.” -AP “Do you look at the problem and understand what the ask is? What the root problem is?” - AP “Ask questions, there is nothing wrong with that. You do not have to code quickly.” - AP “The problem solving and communication in that team is the most important.” - AP “When I first graduated, I thought I had to go out and prove that I was the smartest person in the room to get the job, that just isn’t true.” - AP Notes: Junior-to-Senior Community community.juniortosenior.io