About me

I got my first computer when I was 12 years old and I have been hooked on computer science and programming since then.

In high school I was a very frequent visitor to the physics and computer labs, spending long afternoons and many weekends there, while we implemented many computer controlled experiments. We did some very cool stuff, using low level programming languages like Assembly (needed to be fast), but also Pascal and C. It was still DOS time then :). There were also many opportunities to learn about hardware, as we built a complete computer network having available a lot of old computer parts (some of which we had to fix). I gathered a very good basic knowledge and a way of thinking that helped me a lot later.

At the university I studied a lot of programming languages like: C/C++, Java, Lisp, Prolog, Assembly. We also went deeper into understanding how processors are functioning, learned about compilers and lexical analysis, and many more. I enjoyed the diversity of the topics, but what I enjoyed the most were the practical programming assignments that we did in pairs, where we had the possibility to work together and combine our ideas and knowledge.

I gathered most of my work experience at three companies, one placed in Cluj-Napoca (Romania), the other one two based in Berlin (Germany). In more than 20 years, I had the opportunity to work on a large number of projects, having to deal with many different technologies and solutions, creating many small and relatively large-scale applications, being involved in the full lifecycle of the projects. I gathered experience in team leading, training junior colleagues, sometimes being the contact between clients and end users on one side, and development team and managers on the other side. I worked together with many enthusiastic people with different skill sets and I had the opportunity to teach a 6 weeks Flash course to the junior developers of another company in Cluj-Napoca. I could experience different working environments, different work languages (German, English, Romanian), as well as working remotely for several years.

The technologies I have used are mostly from the web application development area (PHP, MySQL, Adobe Flex, HTML, JavaScript, CSS), but also Mobile apps, etc. I must admit, the most fun I had with Adobe Flex. We have created some advanced web applications. It was the best technology at the time, but unfortunately it was discontinued. Switching to JavaScript felt like a setback, and it took a while for the new web technology to get to the same level.

My next dream job is in a professional team working on challenging projects, ideally in a field that is in public interest like education, medicine or new technology.

For more details please check my CV and Portfolio. Feel free to contact me at andrea@narancs.net.

Yours truly,

Andrea