How would you describe your role to a toddler?

• I have a little piece of a website that I need to create and in order to do that, I need to bulk change the makeup of the page (how it looks) and the brains of the page (how it works).
• This work is very important because it’s how people who pick your food get paid accurately

What’s a favorite memory from working at PickTrace

• I’d say a core memory would be driving down to the Steed’s farm and meeting everyone who’d been working at PickTrace before I started my internship. It was the first time meeting the people I would work with.
• Riding the farm tractor and picking fruit – climbing up the hills to pick grapefruit

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

• When I was in first grade I was into battle, war, destruction. I was drawing diagrams of little bugs that we could engineer to help save our soldier’s lives
• I drew one that was a giant bug with pinchers and had a lighter inside of it so it could infiltrate enemies and light a fire. As a kid I was like ‘why aren’t’ we doing this?!’ – there was also probably a gun bug, and an exploding bug.
• I was into spy stuff. I think being a spy was one of the bigger things – with all the tools they were selling to kids – like voice recorders. It seemed so cool. 

What was your first -ever job?

• First professional job in tech was with PickTrace, but my first job ever was with my dad .
• He was an engineer – so I was working at his company with the assembly team.
• There are spot welders who attach pieces of cars together and I was doing more mundane tasks like wrapping tape around screws to make sure fluid didn’t leak
• It was only a summer job, but I had so much anxiety going in every time – I just didn’t know what I was doing and it was hot in that warehouse! 
• It wasn’t THAT bad, but it was a very long time doing repetitive work
• Then I got a job at a boba shop, it was air conditioned and I knew what I was doing – a much nicer way to earn a minimum wage. 

What are your hobbies? / How do you like to spend time when you’re not at work?

• Everything is going to be ‘with the girlfriend’ – we’re living together now
• So we used to eat at restaurants a lot- but the food that her grandma cooks is just so good that that restaurant food just isn’t good anymore
• She only cooks Vietnamese food – so now it has to be REALLY good food of a different cuisine to be worth it. There’s no point to going to Vietnamese food ever
• A lot of video games 
• Kana – she’s our 9 month old husky – she’s a fun little girl to take care of – except when she chews the trees. She’s about 9 months old
• We got her from another family that didn’t have the time or energy to take care of her. It’s a lot of work to take care of a husky. You have to put so much effort into them – they need so much exercise and have so much energy. The sheer amount of energy they have makes them makes them really time consuming
• It’s like a full time job 
• Kana – I love this name – my girlfriend and I were going to name her Katana and shortened it to Kana for family buy in. Katana is her ‘in trouble’ name. 

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received – or do you have a mantra you live by?

• Another day another battle – we gotta work hard. Today might not be easy – the grind is inescapable 
• I don’t *really* have a phrase that resonates
• Timo [another PickTrace enhineer] once told me that you should always read documentation, even if it’s not good. Helps me from being lost for too long

If you were a fruit or vegetable what would you be and why?

• Bell pepper – less spicy than expected