Conor Kelleher

I've been employed as a Software Engineer at a Waterford-based company StitcherAds since early 2018. Prior to that, I was studying Computer Science at University College Dublin in Ireland and graduated with a 1st Class Honours Bachelor of Science degree (BSc in Computer Science). Since 2018, my job has kept me focused on front-end, browser-based applications using React.JS and this uncovered a real passion for me. My interests have always been most piqued by front-end software development, but enjoy tackling complex programming challenges as well, so React has been a nice middle-ground, with JavaScript allowing for interesting, flexible coding challenges, as well as bridging the gap standing between those solutions and a visually appealing UI. Outside of University and work, I have played around with game development using C# to develop games in Unity. I have worked on a handful of small test-games for mobile devices, but prior to getting my job at StitcherAds, I was in the process of building out my first full-scale mobile game as the solo developer and with my girlfriend in charge of artwork and design decisions. This game (Little Survivors) released on App stores in 2019 to very little acclaim but gave us valuable insight into the perils of indie game development, from lack of a clear idea to eventual burnout. Following from the release of this, my game development career has been put on pause (returning every now and then in the form of brief practice with UDK courses, Skyrim modding tutorials and small game concepts that have popped into my mind). Instead, I've focused on furthering my current career, spending what little free-time where I had with programming interest looking into technologies and projects to develop my current role. This pivot in priorities has at the very least allowed me to excel in my role as software engineer, allowing for the quick climb from Graduate Software Engineer to Lead Software Engineer in just 3.5 years. As a Lead Software Engineer, I've had to embrace the transition from individual contribution to a people-focused role, devoting more and more of my time to meetings, helping to steer the work of my team, and help them stand out with their work, and forcing myself to become a better communicator. Throughout my years of experience, I've mostly focused on JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, C#, and Java (a particular favourite of mine due to my appreciation of statically typed languages and the more complex OOP concepts for which Java is well equipped), but I embrace learning new languages whenever this becomes needed.