About

Hi ✌️, I’m Matthias!

tl;dr 32y/o, 💻 webdeveloper from 📍Bonn, ❤️ javascript, 🐶🐶 2 dogs

Me and my two dogs at the river

Why I love what I do 😍

I love building beautiful things on the web and I do that mostly with JavaScript, CSS and HTML. Currently I am pretty happy with React and Node.js, but I always have an eye open for the new stuff.

Actually, I not only love to build beautiful things on the web. I love building, creating things in general, because I love to see what I was able to craft. And with web development this feels exactly the same. As the internet, websites and apps are a so widely and naturally used medium in our times, building something in and for it feels as good as building something from wood or metal or bake or cook.

What I do for a living 💼

Currently I am employed at Dynabase Technologies GmbH. Together with the team I am working on state-of-the-art javascript applications 🚀. Between all these great guys, I tend to be focusing more on the frontend part of the work I learned lots of stuff about node.js (express/fastify etc.) for the backend, so I would consider myself fullstack with a little preference for the frontend part.

Where I come from 👶➡️👨

I grew up in Neukirchen-Vluyn, a small city between Duisburg and the Netherlands. I was always fond of computers. At 7th grade I learned Visual Basic und taught me the basics of HTML later. It was fun, I started several small projects, but to be honest it was just a hobby, nothing serious. There were lots of other interesting things to do as well: Like inline-skating, kiting or just playing video games. Time went by and I had a happy youth.

When I was graduating from Gymnasium with a not so bad grade and my main interest in Math and Physics, I moved to Aachen and started studying B. Sc. Maschinenbau (Mechanical Engineering) at RWTH Aachen. It was the obvious next step.

After way to many years, while my motivation to do something as theoretical as studying has vanished, I quit. What followed was some time of re-orientation and beer and tutoring for money and not knowing what to do now but finally I started learning programming as an apprentice at TIMETOACT Software & Consulting GmbH in Cologne. Finally I knew what I wanted to do all day. 🎉

While my 3 years in apprenticeship I worked on a product that enriched the enterprise social network IBM Connections with a completely integrated intranet sourced by user-generated and curated content. In 2017 IBM bought that software, which is now called IBM Connections Engagement Center. I learned a lot in these years, but needed a change none the less.

What I do when I am not coding 👨‍🍳📚👷‍♂️

Generally I am a pretty interested guy. I learn quickly and learning things is fun. Therefore I tried many things in the past: juggling 🤹, playing the harmonica 🎶, wood turning, picking mushrooms 🍄 and much more. But most of these things can not count as real hobbies any more. There is just not enough time. But there are a few things I really enjoy apart from starting a new coding project.

Cooking and baking for example. I love food. And I love to make food. Both, cooking and baking, are so relaxing for me. Maybe that’s because it is different enough compared to webdevelopment but at the same time there are some skills that help you in both worlds. Recently I was even cooking in the German TV show 📺 Das Perfekte Dinner and had a wonderful week.

Apart from that there is always something to fix at our apartment, something to do in our tiny garden or somewhere to hike with the little Shih-Tzu dogs Lotti and Karlsson.