QuarkWorks: Meet the Team Series — Paul Gillis
Meet one of our most recent software engineers to join the QuarkWorks team!
Name:
Paul Gillis
Role:
Software Engineer
When did you join QuarkWorks and what led you to take on this position?
Unlike most, I’ve been lucky enough to join QuarkWorks two times. The first time I joined QuarkWorks in August 2017 but later left in January 2018. In 2018 I chose to focus on getting my degree. More recently I joined the company again in January 2021. I came back because I missed the company culture and developers at QuarkWorks. Working at QuarkWorks has been amazingly collaborative and I feel that it encourages me to further my understanding of developing software.
What excites and energizes you about the company?
Collaboration has always been a huge energizer for me. I like to understand how things work at every level I can, and at Quark I can easily reach out to the other developers. I enjoy being able to learn about new technologies through others and sharing what I’ve learned with others.
What has been your favorite project to work on or are currently working on?
I’ve worked on about 3 or 4 different projects with Quark but Handshake Android has been the most fun. The Handshake team and android team is amazing to work with. Our team strives for a clean codebase and our project lead is great at keeping us organized.
Advice you would give someone working at a startup?
Review your own pull requests once before getting others to review them. Every time I do this on a large feature or refactor I find something that is just slightly out of place or could be made better. I find it makes the review process a lot smoother. It also leads the review comments to be issues or suggestions in areas you never thought of, and makes your code to be better in the future.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Outside of work I enjoy playing video games with my friends. Right now it isn’t as easy for us to meet in person, so we found a way to still hangout through online games.
If you could pick up on a skill in an instant, what would it be?
I would be great if I could learn how to meal prep/cook. I’m terrible at managing my time but also enjoy food, so I’d be nice if I could learn to cook food in a time efficient way.
As ever, QuarkWorks is available to help with any software application project — web, mobile, and more! If you are interested in our services you can check out our website. We would love to answer any questions you have! Just reach out to us on our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.