My name is Paul Aly. I’m a software developer, mentor, and all around tech enthusiast. I’m currently a Staff Software Engineer at Kohl’s. However this blog, its contents, and opinions are my own.
Continuous learning is one of my passions, and I thought this blog would be a great way I could do that while also sharing my experiences with others. I created LumberjackDev with a few goals in mind:
- Help others learn as they journey through their software development careers
- Provide insights into learning new things
- Record solutions to (un)common problems
Interests
Outside of software development and growing my beard, my interests include reading fantasy novels (I’m a huge fan of Steven Erikson and Brandon Sanderson), coffee, weightlifting, watching Good Mythical Morning, and caring for my son and dog.
Background
Throughout my career, I’ve worked on a variety of software products. I like to view myself as a generalist when it comes to technologies - if I don’t know a certain language or stack to solve a problem then I’ll enjoy going out and learning it. I have a passion for building quality products while enabling others learning alongside me.
Prior to joining Kohl’s, I worked for Pivotal which was eventually acquired by VMware. Originally, I was part of Pivotal Labs where I consulted teams on building products and Extreme Programming principles. Eventually, I joined the Spring Cloud Commercial team to support Azure Spring Apps. While on that team, I contributed to a few kubernetes native operators that power the Azure Spring Apps platform.
Before VMware, I worked at BTI360, a mid-sized software development firm headquartered in Ashburn, VA. Here I was able to build a strong foundation in enterprise systems while learning a lot from my awesome peers. I supported a variety of projects, teams, and technologies. However, I worked primarily as a Java Developer specializing in the Spring ecosystem. Most of the projects I supported involved building RESTful APIs using HATEOAS. My experience there helped grow my passion for learning and helping others.
As far as education goes, I graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. More recently I completed my Master’s in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins.
The Beard
For those curious, the beard has been going strong since June 2018. There are currently no plans to limit its growth, so it will keep growing for the forseeable future.