What better way to ring in the new year than a fresh start with an amazing team at DEV? I'm very excited to announce that I have joined the DEV team as a Software Engineer!
Why I joined DEV
My greatest passions are teaching and community. DEV is very much the ideal intersection of both.
Coming from (in many ways) a non-traditional background, I was very fortunate to have a couple of really good mentors to help welcome me into the community when I first got started with Software Engineering. Since then, I've always had this burning desire to give back and help others to land the same or better opportunities than what was available to me.
Further building on the community, I love that DEV is open-source. After dipping my toes into the open-source world by writing a Ruby gem to perform technical analysis on security prices, I was eager to contribute more and DEV is a fantastic community to contribute to.
In short, I'm hoping my skills and my unique background will be a value-add to the DEV team and the DEV community as a whole. I'm stoked to get started!
A quick bit about me
A borderline cold brew coffee addict and a Florida native currently residing in Los Angeles, California, my name is Alex and it's a pleasure to e-meet you. If I had to describe a "personal mission statement", I'd say that mine is to provide others with opportunities - especially if it helps them move up the so-called socio-economic ladder.
While I've been doing Software Engineering for a few years, I actually started my career in Finance and I used to work on Wall Street. I'm always excited to learn new languages and I have varying levels of experience in several languages including Ruby, JavaScript, Python, Elixir, Java, and C#.
If you ever have any questions, comments, or just want to chat, feel free to reach out!
In the spirit of the new year, my resolution/biggest goal for 2020 is to rescue a dog. Feel free to hold me accountable to this in any way you see fit (including, but not limited to, endless pictures and memes of dogs) 😀
Top comments (13)
Welcome to the team, Alex! We are delighted to have you, and we're excited about everything we'll do together.
I'm also pumped that we now have two DEV team members based in LA (with the recent addition of @lisasy ). All the more reason to come visit my hometown for some IRL cold brews and meetups.
Welcome Alex! I discovered cold brew coffee for myself recently. Do you mix it with anything else? And if, with what do you mix it?
It took me a couple of tries to find the right kind of coffee for it (flavor and intensity) and now I'm at the point where I start looking how to enhance the recipe.
I buy grinded coffee, mix 100g coffee with 1L water and let it sit for 8-10 hours overnight. Then I filter out the coffee grounds.
Hello and thank you, Robin!
I usually mix in almond milk. Sometimes I'll add a splash of creamer if I'm feeling like I need a change-up. Other times I'll even have it just black.
I tend to buy flavored and ground coffee (hazelnut, vanilla, etc.) so I don't need to add much.
I use the Toddy Cold Brew Coffee maker (12oz of ground coffee and 7 cups of water) and let it sit for 24 hours. It might just be in my head, but I've noticed it's much stronger and flavorful if I leave it for 24 hours instead of 12 hours.
This actually makes a batch of concentrate which I then mix with water. You're supposed to do 1 part concentrate, 3 parts water. But I kind of adjust that as needed. If I'm in dire need, I might go 2 parts concentrate, 3 parts water. I don't pass a 50/50 split, I've done that once and it was way too much for me 🙈
Thank you for sharing this, the Toddy Cold Brew Coffee maker looks interesting, maybe I can get my hands on one in Germany.
Buying flavored coffee is indeed a great choice, I didn't think of that before. Maybe I'll try flavored coffee first and then try to let it sit longer 😊
No problem! I got mine from Amazon (not a referral link).
They (somewhat recently) added paper filters and I LOVE that. The double filtering makes it smoother and much easier to clean up. With this set up I just leave the class decanter in the fridge and pour the concentrate into a mug as needed. Drinking 1-2 coffees a day, a single concentrate batch usually lasts me about 2 weeks.
P.S.
While I can't really speak the language, I'm actually half German. I've been to Germany many times 💯 I love it!
Thanks, I'll check it out, definitely sounds like a good investment.
Currently I use two measuring jugs. One to let it sit over night and another one to filter it into. I use the reusable filter from our "Klarstein aromatic" coffee Maschine to filter out the grounds.
This is a little bit messy and cumbersome...
P.S.
That's great! Maybe you'll learn the language some day. I'd say it'd not that hard once you got the basics.
🎉
Welcome, Alex! Stoked to have you!
Great to have you on the team, Alex!!
Also just noticed how awesome your cover photo is 😂🐶
Yay Alex, excited to have you join the team 🎉
Welcome! What kind of dog would you rescue? Big? Small?
Lap dog or a dog that would be physically active with you?
I am the proud owner of a 14.5 year old Maltese.
It's a great question and one I ask myself every day. I find that I'm partial to bigger and more active dogs, but I recognize that with my current lifestyle (living in places without a yard, bigger cities, etc.) that a smaller dog or lapdog would be the wiser choice.
I'm still on the fence. It might just end up being a game-time decision - I ultimately just go with what speaks to me at the time.