Introducing, Ryan

It is always important for us to give you a bit of insight into the team members who are working away behind the scenes. Ryan has been getting to grips with the multitude of projects that we are working on at the moment and has taken some time out to answer some questions so we can give you a bit of a glimpse into our latest arrival to the team. 

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The first one is easy……describe yourself!

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Hi, I’m Ryan.

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“I’m a full stack software engineer specialising in both Javascript & PHP. 

I currently work at Elixel where I’m picking up new projects and learning both Vue & Angular frameworks as fast as I can. It's the perfect environment for thriving and I can’t wait to look back in a year and see how far I’ve come.”

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What did you want to be when you ‘grew up’?!

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“For the longest time I wanted to be a Barrister, I studied Law at Sixth form, I took an extra course at a college for Law, I went to University for Law, I took on pro-bono work and then finally realised after 2 years of it, I no longer wanted to do Law.

It could’ve been worse, I could have realised after the full five years instead!”

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Tell me how you have ended up in a development role, what other jobs/decisions led you to this type of job?

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“I’ve always enjoyed computers, and would spend the majority of my time growing up on one. Always saw it as fun and something I enjoyed, not something I would associate with working when I was younger, so I never really saw a career in tech as something I’d want.

A few years ago I was extremely fortunate to be in a position where I could make a career change and even more fortunate that a company local to me was offering to train software engineers from scratch, the only requirement being you passed a basic Javascript tech test.

Fast forward 3 years and I’m a Fullstack developer specialising in PHP, life comes at you fast!”

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What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

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“I’ve been a massive fan of MMA for the majority of my life, it ramped up a lot when I went to university and joined a Muay Thai society, I ended up being Vice President in my final year and loved it.

Since then I’ve found a nice local Muay Thai gym where I spend a lot of my free time, both competing and teaching. 

I’ve also got a very demanding Labrador who makes sure I get my 5k in a day, so a lot of the time I spend taking him places on the weekend.”

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Do you have a favourite app at the moment? If yes, why is it your favourite?

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“As the husband of a massive swiftie, I recently went to London to watch her at Wembley. It was probably the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve ever been there and if it wasn’t for an app called Tube Map I’d have had no idea how to get anywhere.

Minimal ads, works offline, does exactly what it should, I don’t think you can really ask an App for more, especially when it’s built for a single purpose.”

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If you had to pick your favourite food, meal or cuisine, what would it be?

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“I absolutely love Thai food, Pad Thai specifically, I could eat it everyday. When I make it myself its okay, when I eat out it’s good, but the best I ever had it was in a market in Prawet, Thailand.

I don’t know if it was prepared a certain way or if it was because I was starving after seeing about 6 different temples in 40 degrees heat.”

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I hope you enjoyed getting to know Ryan a little bit. He has been a brilliant addition to the team and has really hit the ground running.