Stephen Hara

Background

About Stephen Hara

My journey in learning how to program began with C++ at the age of 11, making basic applications and text-based games. While attending Ohio State University for a bachelor's degree, I picked up a variety of other skills, such as Python in my time as a research assistant, data structures and algorithms, some Javascript frameworks like AngularJS and EmberJS, and game engines with Unity. My professional career began at JP Morgan Chase as a member of a Unix deployment automation team, writing scripts in bash or Python, or Java applications to perform application deployments to save human time and remove human error from deployments. After around a year, I transitioned to a.NET team, helping to support and increase testing of legacy applications in C# and VB. I also designed and developed new applications for internal usage to turn complicated tax forms and processes into simple, intuitive AngularJS/C# apps that compiled a business client's relevant tax information into an obscure, fixed-width file for client processing. I then took a position at Aver Inc, a healthcare analytics startup. In my time at Aver, I helped to first discover and then increase test coverage throughout their legacy applications, worked on several original products and platforms for new, inspired methods of solving client deliverables, and was part of developing for key initiatives as far as client-requested features, process certification, and various other valuable work as a full-stack engineer. Since then, I have moved to Osaka, Japan, where I work as a freelance full-stack developer for Japanese as well as United States-based clients. In my free time, I enjoy playing guitar, playing all kinds of video games, skateboarding, and making video games. In high school I won a local Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament for a $20 gift card to Gamestop.