README for Henry
Hello! My name is Henry Baum (he/him), pronounced “Hen-re” and “Bauhm” (like how you would pronounce the end of “Tennenbaum”).
At Cadence OneFive, my role is…
Software Engineer Intern
Who am I?
Non-work
I currently reside in Brooklyn, but grew up in northern New Jersey, so I have a natural affinity for Taylor Ham bagel sandwiches. Before pivoting careers, I’m a licensed massage therapist, but have always loved working with computers. From running DOS games, building GeoCities webpages, fixing and modifying hardware, and composing music on retro video game consoles, to me, computers are more than just a tool, but a way of life.
Outside of that, I like to read fiction/non-fiction (and love taking recommendations), karaoke with friends, and whenever I make a big trip to a new country or city, I like to collect one rock or pebble as a memento.
Work
I recently received my bachelor’s in computer science from Hunter College, as well completed a bootcamp as General Assembly. During these times, I was able to learn and develop my skills in designing, building, and deploying full-stack applications, both in a solo and collaborative environment. Some of my favorite technologies to work and code in so far have been React Native, Express, Python, Django, and even just simple HTML/CSS.
At the end of the day, I just really enjoy building things that are helpful and/or fun and try to show up every day with an eagerness in accomplishing that.
Goals
One of the main goals that I am seeking from this internship is to apply my full stack development experience into a professional and distributed product.
But there is also so much I want to learn that I have never had the opportunity to yet. This includes things such as how to write unit tests, ways to measure and monitor user metrics, best practices against input injections, and ensuring accessibility.
Ultimately, what I hope to gain the most is experience working among other professionals in a cross-functional team, outside of academic or personal projects. I believe that being a good engineer also means being able to communicate and collaborate with multi-disciplinary professionals.
You can lean on me to
Looking back at my projects/experiences, the one trait that I can confidently say I have is that I’m a good collaborator. To me, that means that I intuitively keep projects moving forward, whether it be by facilitating meetings, organizing and planning tasks, brainstorming, troubleshooting bugs/bottle necks with other team members, or just simply completing a task; I am an active participator. While there may be some truth to “80% of success is showing up,” what it takes to be a good collaborator is dedication, creativity, and a willingness to learn and listen.
How to support me as we work together
Although I feel confident with my ability to collaborate, there’s still some room for growth when working solo. I can work and complete goals on my own, but when I approach an ambiguous situation, I sometimes get too caught up in thinking about the different routes and outcomes and over analyze the details, which ultimately can be overwhelming. I believe that the best way to overcome this is to gain confidence in my ability to ask for help. While I’ve been building my own personal/social circles with knowledgeable and resourceful people, I want to work more on reaching out to others for guidance.
I’m also a chronic night owl for as long as I could remember, so I may not respond right away in the morning, and if I message you or make late night commits/PRs, I absolutely do not expect for a reply/review until the next day.
Teamwork preferences
As mentioned before, I find that I’m most successful when working within a small team effectively. How that looks differs from team to team but found that I interact best when there’s a balance between a structured agenda and open candidness. I’m usually comfortable with expressing my thoughts and opinions but I also want others to be able to as well, so I appreciate when there’s a prompt to move things along.
Ways of working together
For contacting me, Slack works best for quick pings/questions, and email for longer and detailed correspondence.
Feedback preferences
Receiving constructive feedback is important to me, but what works best is usually situational. For smaller mistakes or things to look out for, straight forward email/Slack messages work best. But if there’s a serious blind spot or performance issue that needs to be addressed, I find one-on-one calls work better, because they allow me to ask questions to ensure clarity on the pain points and objectives that need to be worked on.