Senior Software Engineer Jake Faulhaber has been collaborating with the Flower Press Interactive team since 2021 and has more than 25 years of experience. Jake received a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and has worked with a wide array of organizations including Bank of America, General Motors, and the United States Marine Corps.
What got you interested in a career in tech?
As a kid who had fun with decoder rings and creating things with legos, eventually learning to write programs on a personal computer was fun. Even then it seemed like a good hobby that could turn into a “career choice.”
What’s your favorite part of the job?
Finally solving the mystery of a bug. When a bug is found, I start by rounding up the usual suspects that may be involved, and then look in log files for additional clues as to what is going on, and why unexpected behavior is evident. When a hunch is followed up, and finally the fix is in place and working, it’s a satisfying closure to the issue.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your work?
Uncertainty. Many parts of work are well defined and have clear boundaries, but there are also elements of unknowns that one can only take a best guess at, and then watch carefully to be sure things run alright.
What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?
Activities in “the outdoors.” From heading up a steep hill, to multiple days of hut-to-hut hiking, I enjoy getting away from technology and screens as a break.
Are there any projects that stand out to you?
Setting up the Before the Field project involved a lot of newer technology that was fun to get working. It was a lot of existing concepts, ideas, and technologies, but in a new paradigm with some great methods that made a lot of things much easier, and a few things surprisingly difficult.
What would surprise people about your job?
The variety of tasks and problems to solve. There are a surprising number of details and potential problems when getting a project into production. Like many large endeavors that can be summarized in a phrase, working a project requires a fair number of small tasks to be completed, and different solutions have different tradeoffs to be considered.
