Welcome to the team, Chris!

Chris has joined the team as a developer. Before starting at Bad Dinosaur, Chris worked at ShareIn, a customisable investment platform that enables you to raise funds directly from your network of investors. ShareIn are based in CodeBase, where Bad Dinosaur started out! We gave Chris a quick grilling to get to know him a bit better:

Why did you move to Bad Dinosaur?

It looked really interesting to make apps from scratch, rather than focusing solely on one just project. The culture seems really nice too, and I’m really looking forward to getting back into the office so I can make the most of the working environment.

How did you get into development?

I left uni during the height of the financial crisis, so I went looking for some stability. I joined the civil service with vague aspirations to work my way up, but nine years later I was a bit bored, my skills weren’t being used and I felt things weren't really going anywhere. I started to dabble in coding in my spare time and eventually I decided to go back to uni, studying a masters in computing at Napier. 

How do you feel about starting remotely?

It’s tricky in some ways but I have worked remotely before so I know the script. Before my computing masters I would collaborate with random people on projects who were based all over - including the USA and Czech Republic. We would try and build a game together in a two week sprint, using Discord and trying to organize across multiple time zones. Collaborating using zoom and standups in one time zone is a lot easier!

Got any interesting hobbies?

I occasionally go outside (when we are allowed to) hill walking, and I like composing music. I play the keyboard, but you don’t need to be great at a musical instrument to compose music, you can just bring together libraries of samples of instruments and you can create all sorts of interesting effects. 

Favourite computer game?

Ocarina of Time - although Breath of the Wild is pretty magical too. I’ve heard about the lunchtime Mario Kart tournaments that went on in the office before lockdown. I'm looking forward to getting involved in those, just all depends who gets the blue shell... 

What was the last book you read?

The Hydrogen Sonata, it’s the last one Iain Banks wrote before he died.

If you could live anywhere aside from Edinburgh, where would it be?

Some small village in Tuscany, in the arse end of nowhere.

What gig are you most looking forward to once we can again?

I’ve never actually been to T in the Park and I have no excuse for that so I reckon that needs to be remedied.

What’s your favourite dinosaur?

Pachycephalosaurus, it’s the bone-headed one that just headbutts everyone. My nephew really likes them so I’m fond of them too.

Finally, would you rather have constantly itchy feet or constantly sticky hands?

Both sound like a total nightmare but I’ll have to go with itchy feet. 

Bad Dinosaur are hiring more developers! If you'd like to join our lovely team please check out our current openings on Linkedin and get in touch for more info.