Welcome, Karan Joshi, Software Engineer!
We are so pleased to welcome Karan Joshi, Software Engineer, to the team. You can learn more about Karan below.
Tell us about yourself. Where are you from?
I consider myself to be multi-faceted and interested in many different hobbies. I love tennis, traveling, trying new cuisines, fitness, food blogging, reading, etc. I’ve lived in many different states, but I’ve spent the majority of my life growing up in a small town called Portsmouth, Ohio. Living in big metropolitan areas then downsizing to Portsmouth, a town of about 20,000, was somewhat of a culture shock. Seeing different cultures and perspectives as I grew up has really molded me into the person I am today. I’ve always been interested in technology but never imagined myself being a programmer. The universe had different plans for me in the end.
Where did you go to school?
I attended Wright State University for my undergrad education. For graduate school, I studied at DePaul University then transferred to Boston University. My continuing education was through Scrum Alliance, Y-Combinator’s Startup School, and Cornell University.
How did you get into software engineering? What areas of your field do you like to focus on?
I got into software engineering completely by accident. My first job after finishing undergrad required me to do some programming. While in that scenario, I realized that programming skills were essential, and I decided to go back to graduate school to strengthen my knowledge on the subject. After grad school, I gravitated towards startup environments for my career and have remained in adjacent spaces. Due to this career alignment, I tend to focus on the startup-oriented aspect of software of bringing value to the end-user as quickly as possible.
Do you have a code of ethics or a mantra that you live by when doing development work?
The philosophy that I follow is being able to provide meaningful value to the end-user that uses the software products when doing development work that I have an active stake in.
How do our core values (collaboration, initiative, ingenuity) align with your own?
I believe that collaboration, initiative, and ingenuity are a combination of traits and abilities that when put together, will result in great outcomes in project-based work. These core values bring forth the best value for the stakeholders and foster a sentiment of working together versus harboring intrinsic gain. These are qualities I try my best to bring forth when working with others to ensure success in software development and other aspects of product development.
What do you want to learn in the next 12 months as a software engineer? What do you want to learn about the web development industry?
In the next 12 months I’d like to strengthen my front-end skills with reactive javascript frameworks. In web-development in general, I’d like to learn more about the javascript and node-related ecosystems that do a lot of the heavy lifting nowadays.
What is your favorite movie and why?
The Butterfly Effect! Watching this movie early in life really drove home the point that the actions of today can affect the later outcomes in life as well as trajectories of how things can work out. There were a lot of themes of growing pains and mental health, which can be relatable for many youth.
What is the one thing most people don’t know about you?
I didn’t know how to swim until I joined my high school swim team in 9th grade. My coach thought I was lying and had me go into the deep end, which resulted in being forced to learn at that very spot.
