Background
A bit more about my technical background- 2023 - 2024
Senior Software Engineer
TiliaAt Tilia, I had the opportunity to work on different parts of a leading virtual economy backend, which included payment processing, invoicing systems, tax processing, as well as accounting and PII management. The company provides services to power virtual economies using payments, virtual tokens, and in-app purchases in a highly distributed system. My experience included being on week-long on-call shifts responsible for responding to alerts and outages.
- 2020 - 2022
Senior Software Engineer
Mitek SystemsIn 2020 I wanted to try something new and decided to change direction and move away from web development and into another branch of software engineering. At Mitek Systems in San Diego, I joined the internal tooling team responsible for building tools to help the development of an industry-leading digital identity verification system. This experience allowed me to get a good understanding of a highly available system with strict security and protection of PII data. I also had the opportunity to be a technical lead on a project and mentor fellow team members.
- 2012 - 2019
Webitects.com (now out of business)
Fullstack Software EngineerI started my career in 2012 as a Fullstack Web Developer at Webitects.com (now out of business) where I stayed for almost eight years. I spent a lot of time at that company crafting my front and back end skills primarily in .NET (first ASP.NET 4.x, then .NET Core) and various JavaScript frameworks ranging from jQuery to KnockoutJS, to Angular, to ReactJS, and NextJS.
I have to admit it was a lot of fun learning all the different technologies, and applying good coding practices to a wide range of projects. But the most satisfying aspect was to receive feedback from clients about how useful our work was to what they needed.
Languages
A passion for languagesSpoken and coding languages have some things in common, such as having specific syntax and shortcuts. I was fortunate to grow up in a bilingual household. I was born in Poland to Polish parents, and when I was two years old, my family moved to Germany. Living most of my childhood in quaint villages near Hamburg, I learned the German language, but never forgot Polish.
Then, starting in fitfh grade, English was added to my repertoire of spoken languages. Living in the United States as an adult, I've developed a deep appreciation for the art of multilingual communication, and my gratitude for speaking multiple languages has flourished.
More recently I have started to learn the Persian language after it became apparent that my mother-in-law would not learn English so quickly (giggle).
Interests
Things I love to do outside of techBesides my career, I do like to challenge myself and learn new things whenever time allows it. Here are a few things that caught my interest in recent years:
3D printing
This is a rather new hobby of mine, and it has brought out a new creative side of me. In my late teens and early 20s I really liked 3D modeling, and one of the things I always wanted was to hold a piece of my designs in my hands. With the advent of 3D printing at home, this has finally become a reality. I'm spending a lot of time 3D modeling and printing, and it's fun!
Mindfulness
Practicing meditation and simple activities with mindfulnessLet me emphasize the significance of how much meditation has helped me in calming down that inner chatterbox. Having made it a daily practice, the calmness has brought with it increased focus as well as an open awareness of the things around and within me.
Meditation is not for everyone. However, you may practice other activities, but with a mindful attitude. For example: I love cooking. Experimenting with new flavors or cooking my favorite dishes is such a satisfying activity. When I cook, I'm being mindful and use all of my attention for just that.
Electronica & JDM
Absolute joys: driving and musicOne of the purest joys since I can remember has been music. It fascinates me how much music can influence our emotions and mood. My favorite genre is electronica, which in itself has many, many subgenres. I love the sound of synthesizers - those spacey, lofty, otherwordly sounds - and I have been dabbling occasionally with keyboards, hoping to some day be able to create my own electronica composures.
For me, driving has perpetually symbolized the essence of freedom: That feeling of being able to go anywhere, anytime. Cars have always interested me, and although I am not much mechanically talented, I love the tuning scene, in particular that of the JDM community: The sound of a Japanese twin-turbo inline-6 engine has to be among the things I enjoy the most.