Vasile is a Senior Full-Stack Developer and currently the longest tenured employee at Three29 (besides Kevin himself)!
We caught up with Vasile to hear about what led him to a career in coding and how his personal life influences the work he does with us.
3 Influences
Soccer – I really enjoy soccer (go Manchester United! haha). I think there’s a lot of similarities between a soccer team and a team like ours. Yes, it’s nice to see some professional soccer player’s individual skills (and you can tell the same about a Developer, Designer, Digital Marketing Strategist, PM etc), but it’s more important to see the collaboration between the team mates. And what makes a successful soccer team? – having a good coach/leader and communication on the field. The same can apply to any team in our IT industry. If you have selfish team players which lack soft skills, then such people won’t contribute much to the overall success.
Be nice with people – That’s something I always tend to do, and I encourage others to do as well. It’s always a pleasure to chat and collaborate with someone who is just a nice and normal human being.
Share knowledge with others – It always makes me feel good when I can help someone. That doesn’t necessarily mean in a professional way, it can be anything really. That’s a good thing to do inside and outside of work.
2 Strengths
- Willingness to learn new things
- Willingness to help others by sharing my knowledge
9 Things Vasile Loves
- 👨👩👧👦 Spending time and taking care of the family
- 🇲🇩 As someone who grew up outside of the US and spent 20+ years in Moldova (Europe), I’m trying to always keep in touch with my relatives and friends we left back there. Even though we are thousands of miles apart, keeping the relationship is very important.
- ⛺ 🏖️ Being outdoors and exploring new places – after we moved to California back in 2013, my wife and I always try to explore the places around us (museums, parks, beaches, etc). That helps to understand the culture and see beautiful things around us. I tend to share some photos on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djvasile/
- 🍖 🤪 🎲 Having some good times with friends (making some barbecue, playing some board games)
- 🍺 + ⚽ Watching soccer with a cold and refreshing beer
- 💻 Learning and have some personal projects you experience on always helps you keeps your professional skills up to date
- 🎮 Playing on my PS4 console
- 🚴♂️ Riding my bike – having a good ride (or even a good walk) in the morning definitely helps you be positively prepared for your entire day
- 👏 Be a good example for your kids and people around you.
Vasile’s Personal Spotify Playlist
This is my personal playlist with 170+ songs currently. I keep adding new songs that I discover. It’s a mix of EDM music, as well as some Russian and Romanian songs.
Go-To Resources for Industry News
Apple News – since that’s the default iOS and Mac OS app, I like to read technology related news in there. I’m subscribed to channels like “Mashable”, “TechCrunch”, “The Verge”, as well as the “Technology”, “Software” and “Video Games” topics.
Twitter – I tend to only follow well-known people from the IT community which always share good tips and blog posts about Web Development. You can find me on: https://twitter.com/dev_nope
In terms of learning platforms I use and recommend at least these ones:
- https://laracasts.com/ – a platform with a lot of video content about PHP and JavaScript
- https://codecourse.com/ – the same content as Laracasts
- https://wesbos.com/courses – a list of Free and Paid courses to master your JavaScript skills
- https://codepen.io/trending – this is also a great source of inspiration for Front-End development techniques
- https://dev.to/ – a Medium-like blogging platform designed for Developers. There’s a lot of good content to read here on various topics.
Vasile’s Must-Have Apps
I do have plenty of apps I use every day, but I think these are the most used ones:
- Visual Studio Code – this is my Code Editor of choice. It’s Free and works really well for my day to day job. There are hundreds of extensions you can choose from to adjust the editor based on your preferences. It’s very popular amongst developers at the moment and the Microsoft team makes a really good job by constantly updating and improving the application.
- Toggl Track – this is the time tracking software that I use for both my day to day job as well as personal projects. It has a very intuitive and easy to use interface. It also has a Free plan which works really well for my needs.
- Firefox Developer Edition – this is my browser of choice when it comes to Web Development. I do like the Web Developer Tools in this browser more than the ones Google Chrome provides.
- 1Password – This is the password manager I use both at work and for my personal stuff. I know there are a few other options out there as well, but this one works really well for my needs.
- Slack – as we all know communication is the key in any team, so Slack really helps us in that regard on our day-to-day job. I have to mention: posting GIFs in Slack is probably one the best and most used things 🙃
- Spotify – this is my music platform of choice. I listen to music from favorite and recommended artists all the time while coding.
- Rocket – this is a free Mac app that makes typing emoji faster and easier using Slack-style shortcuts. I love emojis, so this app is easier one of the most used apps for me.
- Spectacle – This is another free Mac app that allows you to resize windows easily using keyboard shortcuts (note: it looks like the app is no longer maintained, but it can still be downloaded and used).
- iTerm2 – this a replacement for the default Mac Terminal. It has a lot of nice features and you can customize it using various themes.
- TablePlus – this is a Desktop app that serves as a tool for Database Management.
Vasile’s WFH Set-Up
I tend to keep my desk free of unnecessary stuff that can potentially distract or get in the way of doing my work.
- I definitely wouldn’t be able to work well without music, so I always have my Bose QuietComfort 25 noise-canceling headphones (you definitely need that when you have a little baby “signing” around the house 😄)
- My 15” MacBook Pro and Dell U2415 as an additional display
- A little magnetic whiteboard which is part of my desk setup, where I can make some notes or pin some paper notes for myself
- A paper notebook where I can write down some quick notes if I can’t write them in the Mac Notes app for some reason.
- IKEA MARKUS Office chair – I’ve been using this chair for over a year and it’s pretty comfortable.
- For the desk itself, I use IKEA’s THYGE Desk in combination with MICKE Add-on
