Technology: Software developer – He didn’t know that the mic was on! – An interview with Alex York

Alex York is a Software Developer from Yorkshire, England, currently living and working in Oslo, Norway.

He did a BSc in Computing Science at Manchester University, and has more than 10 years of experience making software in both the UK and Norway.

He mainly works with web and mobile development, writing in computer languages such as JavaScript, HTML and CSS.

He loves gadgets, technology, science and Tottenham Hotspur. When he’s not writing code, he enjoys cooking food and watching movies. In just a few weeks, he and his Nepalese fiancée will fly to Kathmandu together to get married.

Some time in 2017, Alex wants to travel to Asia to visit every major city on the continent!

Let’s go chat with him!

Links and other useful resources

• Why software is eating the world, an essay by Marc Andressen,  an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer.
• Codeschool, an online learning destination for existing and aspiring developers that teaches through entertaining content.
• Code academy, an online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 11 different programming languages including Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, and Sass, as well as markup languages HTML and CSS
• Waking up a podcast by Sam Harris. Join neuroscientist, philosopher, and best-selling author Sam Harris as he explores important and controversial questions about the human mind, society, and current events.
• Wonder what a Software Programmer does for a living? Here’s an article by CollegeGrad that is filled with useful information about the career path of software development
• Here’s a list of “14 things I wish I knew before I Started My Career as a Software Developer” by Lifehacker.

Books mentioned in the interview

• Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
• The Godfather by Mario Puzo
• Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris.

Software and other applications mentioned in the interview

• Microsoft Azure,  is an open, flexible, enterprise-grade cloud computing platform
• Amazon S3, provides developers and IT teams with secure, durable, highly-scalable cloud storage.
• Trello, a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process.
• GitHub, a web-based Git repository hosting service.
• Slack, a cloud-based team collaboration tool that allows communities, groups, or teams to join through a specific URL or invitation sent by a team admin or owner.
• Blinkist, an app that lets you read the key lessons from 1000+ nonfiction books in 15min or less.
• Atom, an Android and iOS app designed to make going to the movies easy again.
• Visual Studio, a rich, integrated development environment for creating stunning applications for Windows, Android, and iOS, as well as modern web applications and cloud services.

Videos

See what a day in the life of a software developer is like at American Fidelity Assurance Company.

Want to become a software developer? Check out this video that has some useful tips that you can follow!

Thanks for checking out this episode with software developer Alex! We hope that you found it useful!

Keep it mind that if you want to have a mentor, it could even be someone who is a professional software developer, to give you advice or to help guide you on the right path, you can do that on 99 Career Options! All you need to do is to go on “Get a Mentor”” and you’re one step closer to what could be your dream career!

Do you want to become a software developer? Tell us why! Leave a comment below, we would love to hear your story!

Thanks for listening!

Until next time! 🙂