Written by: André Søndergaard
I’m André, but people refer to me as Andrew or Drew.
We might have already met each other in the Umbraco Support chat where I cast my spells and incantations to help people solve their Umbraco issues and bugs.
Speaking of support, I’m here to let you know that I am the newest addition to the S.W.A.T Team at Umbraco HQ which means that I am not leaving the support chat anytime soon ;)
You might be wondering why I chose Umbraco in the first place? And who am I really? Do I have a lightsaber? All good and obvious questions which I will answer for you now :D
Why I chose Umbraco is pretty straight forward; because of the people there and the fact that Umbraco is anything but “corporate”. The atmosphere is very welcoming and open, everyone is considered equal and there is time and place for having a good time at work, while still being serious about it. It’s awesome! Especially because I am the straight opposite of a corporate person.
I’m a young guy at 29 years of age who comes from an island called “Langeland”. It’s south-east of Funen. I moved to Svendborg in 2009 when I was 19 and have lived there ever since. Svendborg has always felt like the city I belong in which is still the case to this day.
I first lived alone in a dorm, until a good friend of mine asked me “Andrew! Want to move in with me and two other guys in a house?”. Are you kidding me? YES! I was thrilled!
The two other guys were also good friends of mine, so this was a perfect opportunity to have great roommates and a whole house to share, in which we both threw parties and held LAN parties. We lived in that house for about five years, and it was some of the best five years of my life!
I highly recommend people to try that out themselves if they ever get the chance as I did.
And what about studies? I’m very interested in technology in general, so it was quite natural for me to take an education within IT - specifically web development.
Aside from my IT education, I have a background in sales as well. Here I learned a lot about providing good customer service, which is what I aim to bring to the S.W.A.T Team here at Umbraco HQ along with my technical skills :D
I do karate in my spare time 🥋. The branch of karate I am practising is called Shinkyokushin or just “kyokushin”. I am a 6.Kyu which means I have a yellow belt rank.
I also play video games like LoL, WoW and Rocket League, but you might have guessed that from when I mentioned the part about me and the lads throwing LAN parties in our house :D
Yes, yes I do. I know, it’s probably super nerdy, but I’m also a big fan of Star Wars. The lightsaber is from something called SaberForge. It has the lightsaber sound and when you turn it on and swing it, it makes the legendary “vooom” sound :D
Did I pay too much for it? Probably. Does my girlfriend think it was a great purchase? No, but she means that in the kindest way, of course :D I guess some people, like me, just don’t grow up ^^.
Anyways, this is becoming a long origin story about me and I’m actually not the kind of person who likes to just talk about himself all the time :D
So, I just wanna finish it with the fact that I am excited to join the Umbraco S.W.A.T Team and I look forward to helping you out with whatever issues you might have - mostly Umbraco related, of course :D
See you in the chat! Or maybe at a future Codegarden (fingers crossed!) :D
