Angus Perkerson - Senior Software Engineer at REX

David and Angus discuss career development, interviews, and contributing to a team.
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