Punchmark recently hired Aaron Plocharcyk as a back-end developer to supplement the Development Team. Aaron is a hybrid developer too, with a lot of front-end experience as well, which will be a great asset as we work to finalize some of the new features in SiteManager.
Aaron started out young as a self-taught web developer in 2007, and he graduated from UNC Chapel Hill a decade later with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. When he codes, he is driven by the feeling of accomplishment that comes from making tools that others find useful. In his free time, he enjoys solving puzzle boxes, repairing old video game consoles, and anything that offers him a logical challenge.
Michael Burpoe, Director of UX, sat down with Aaron to talk about development, side projects, and his role at Punchmark.
Michael Burpoe: Hey Aaron! Where does this interview find you?
Aaron Plocharczyk: I'm in the conference room at the Punchmark office in Charlotte. I hopped in here thinking this was going to be an auditory conversation, and I didn't want to bother anyone. Now I'm just usurping the conference room.
MB: The audience can think this is a real conversation instead of a “fake” Slack conversation. The magic of editing.
How has your first week at Punchmark been?
AP: It's been great. I've gotten the chance to learn a bit about our technical setup here and even tackle a few tasks, but the people stand out the most. We have a great crew.
MB: What sort of tasks do you hope to be involved in as a Back End Developer?
AP: Anything that has a direct effect on the end user's experience. I like making others' lives easier, and it makes me feel useful.
MB: For sure! It’s so validating fixing things! You’ve been a dev for quite a while right?
AP: Yes, it's been nearly fifteen years now. I started teaching myself at the age of twelve, and I've made more projects than I could count since then. I also picked up a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from UNC Chapel Hill in 2017. I don't think I've had a day without coding since I started.
MB: Wow that’s inspiring!! Have you made anything in your free time you are most proud of (that you can tell us about?)
AP: You mean I get to promote a side project in this interview? Absolutely. One of my favorite recent side projects is Rando.js. I think it's fun, but non-technical people won't have a use for it. Basically, the backstory you need to know is that when computers pick random numbers, they're not actually random. If you know what you're doing, you can actually "predict" what a computer's next "random" number will be. Rando.js is a project I made to make random numbers more unpredictable and help other coders deal with randomness easily. Was that too much tech gibberish?
MB: I only understood 20% of that paragraph which means it was perfect! Thanks for your time Aaron! Really excited to work with you more in the future.
AP: Same here!
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Meet the rest of the Punchmark team here!