Andrew Phillip

Background

About Andrew Phillip

In grade 11, I took my mother’s advice when she suggested I take a computer course and learn to type. They taught us Turing, and by the end of that course, I knew I was going to be a programmer. That summer, I taught myself QBasic, and wrote a clone of a mini game from an RPG. Ever since, I have always had a personal programming project that I work on in my spare time. Programming is now therapeutic, a need. When I attended college, I wasn’t attending to learn how to program, because I already knew how. I was attending so I could get a piece of paper so others would know I could program. While there, I learned other languages, design patterns, and new technologies that made me a better programmer. I also gained an understanding of how to structure my code so others can read it, something that contributes to the productivity of development teams. Early in my career, I was asked to suggest methods of how to turn a single language program into a multi-language one. I suggested that, instead of rewriting significant portions of the application, we could pre-parse each SQL statement just before executing it, and then execute an augmented version of it. Their initial response was, “That’s impossible!” After I assured them it could be done, they took a chance on young dev me and let me implement it. It took less time to implement than alternative methods, did exactly what was needed, and the code was used for 8 years before the product was rewritten in a different language. I continue to apply the same outside the box thinking when solving problems today. If I could sum myself up in a few words, it would be: “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.” Specialties: Java, HTML/CSS/Javascript, SQL, React Native, C++, Delphi, Linux, Windows, Mac