👋 Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you get started?
I remember a strong desire to be an inventor as a kid. I thought I could make anything. In fourth and fifth grade my best-friend and I spent our free time at school (a perk of Montessori school) trying to learn how to build a video game. I vividly remember waking up before school to replicate tutorials on 3D modeling.
As a driven kid from rural Maine, I always feel like I have something to prove. I have always challenged myself. For example, I spent my last two summers of high school working in biological research labs. When I wrapped up my five AP classes senior year, I had a month left of school without much work to do. I hated the boredom and started teaching myself graphic design and created a YouTube channel. Montessori taught me learning as a way of life and since my later years of highschool, I have taken my knowledge and found ways to explore and challenge myself constantly.
👋 Our community is curious about all that you do: what do you do in your current role? What was it like working at Pallet? Walk us through a day in your life!
I am a third-year computer science student at Middlebury College. I would be graduating this spring, but I took all last year off to explore my interests in startups and software. I spent half of my gap year working as an engineer at Pallet. I truly enjoyed the youth of the company — being around for pivotal offsites and product conversations.
For the past six months, I have been working part time as an engineer at Paella Labs. We have recently launched our product CrossMint (crossmint.io). It’s been a great learning experience working there while juggling classes. Since I don’t work full-time, I get to take on a lot of fun experimental tasks and projects.
As far as my typical day goes, I wake up religiously before 6:30AM. My routine is very important to me and I love my mornings — it’s likely due to my 5:30AM hockey practices in highschool. I like to do the NYT Spelling Bee game when I wake or read for a bit with some hazelnut coffee. I often workout with my roommates in the afternoon and spend my night working in the library.
👋 Tell us more about the field you’re in!
Software engineering at startups is very exciting. Everything is constantly breaking and also moving forward at the same time. There are always tasks to do and as an engineer you have a lot of ownership of the product. Working at Pallet and Paella have helped me learn better engineering practices and build a better decision making framework.
👋 What is something you love about what you do? Any favorite projects you’ve worked on?
I like the rapid iteration of software. If you make a mistake or have something you want improved, it’s often straightforward to get to your end goal. I am currently working on an app to help people clean up their twitter profiles by systematically deleting their low engagement tweets. It’s a funny idea.
👋 If you could tell gen z one thing about making career moves, what would it be?
I haven’t made a lot of career moves, but while I was making the decision to go back to school rather than drop out and enter the workforce, it was really important for me to know my “why”. I find journaling really helpful or talking to others to figure out what values and virtues I am chasing or aspiring to. Knowing why you want to make a change or not helps to provide justification. Writing it down helps to provide a record. I also find that when I write things down I can separate my mind from myself and analyze my process with a little more accuracy.
👋 What is a superpower you know we have as a generation?
Agility. Being brought up in a fast-paced tech-centered world, our brains are changing to adjust to rapidly shifting environments and inputs. This is going to help us optimize our TikTok comprehension speed, but more importantly, it’s going to give us the ability to wear many hats and easily perform context switches. With new industries and new professions, I’m positive this will prove to be a superpower for the coming changes in our world.
👋 Here at Pineapple, we’re firm believers that we’re more than our work: we’d love to know one fun thing that gets you through the week: (a friend? stellar music? etc)
A combination of my friends and exercise propels me through each day. My friend group has started a trend of doing a very intense workout on Friday mornings. It’s the perfect cap to each week and makes you feel great heading into the weekend.
👋 Is there anything you’re manifesting this year?
I really want to run a marathon this year.
👋 Where can others find you?
Pineapple: pnpl.io/ben
Website: benji.ar
TikTok: @benj.eng
Twitter: @beeejar
