Gnarnian [nahr-nee-uhn] noun: An employee of The Gnar Company

In our Meet The Gnarnians series, we unravel the stories, experiences, and passions that drive the folks on our talented team at The Gnar. Through a collection of interview-style questions, you’ll get a sneak peek into daily life on our fully-remote team, some epic origin stories, and answers to some questions as weird and wonderful as our team itself.

The Basics

Where are you located? Chicago, IL

What is your Role? Software Engineer

When did you join the Gnar? December 2021

What’s the last song you played or are listening to right now?

Ballroom Blitz. The Crucial Taunt version.

What was your career journey up until joining the Gnar?

I started out in networking and servers and took a nice long education break before coming back as a developer, then worked for a nonprofit for a long time before joining an early stage startup. In general, I've just stayed curious by doing what I want and things have worked out pretty well.

In your role, do you have any specializations or areas of focus you really enjoy doing?

I really enjoy designing software systems: Thinking in terms of architectural patterns, how best to model the real world concepts involved, how you can play to the strengths of your chosen language, and so on. There's something very satisfying about producing things that are easy to understand and do what you expect, and the design phase is generally where you're closest to what stakeholders really want in the end, whether it's a feature or a greenfield app.

What is your ideal work/desk set-up?

A standing desk, (not a convertible, which I will not convert) with good light, decently-but-not-maximally clackety keyboard, enough screen real estate to read a browser tab and a terminal (dark text, light background) at the same time. Zsh, tmux, vim, asdf. Good headphones for music, which I will feel weird about wearing for meetings. Coffee, for which my taste is utterly gauche.

What has your experience been at Gnar?

I've gotten to be involved in a long standing state project with a really interesting back end architecture, which is maybe not the first thing you picture working on going into a Rails consulting shop. It's very satisfying to see features through not just to completion but all the way through fine tuning them in the real world. The best answer here though is the people--- folks at Gnar are really welcoming and supportive.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting out in your industry?

Don't let popular opinion tell you what success looks like for you. There are a ton of great jobs out there in the world, so keep an open mind and figure out what makes you happy and keeps you curious. And it's ok to go slow.

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?

Music. Listening to it, playing it, recording it, talking about it, etc.

If you weren’t in your current role, what would you be doing?

Live sound guy.

Learn more about The Gnar and our team.