Get to Know: Michael

October 14, 2020

Read all about the awesome members of our team and get to know the different personalities that work every day to make sure our customers and farmers always have a smile on their face. 

Like many others, we are a small business run by people who could very well be your neighbours! Meet Michael, he’s one of our developers and a part of the hard-working team that brings all of our NIKU website designs to life! 

Tell us a little about yourself!

Hi! I was born, raised, and educated in Toronto. I graduated from the University of Toronto St. George in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. Shortly after, I pulled a 180 in my career path and began studying computer programming. I learned the fundamentals on my own and then completed a coding boot camp to ready myself professionally.

Do you have any hobbies, interests?

 My interests include video games, travelling, cooking, sports, hanging out with friends & family, and learning new tech to add to my tool belt. If I’m not doing any of these things then I’m probably asleep.

Are you a part of anything outside of work? Or What do you like to do on your weekends, time outside of work?

I typically spend my weekends relaxing at home or out seeing friends. I try to spend at least some time every day learning; this could be cooking (probably burning) something new, or building mini-applications with tech I haven’t used before.

What is your role at NIKU Farms? What are some of the responsibilities you take on for NIKU Farms?

I am a full-stack web developer at NIKU Farms, although my role has gradually shifted toward primarily backend and dev-ops oriented projects.

 The web dev team and I handle the design & implementation of many types of software including web pages, server-side APIs, third-party integrations, database infrastructure & maintenance, and internal operational tools.

Can you walk us through what a day at work (from home) looks like for you?

 My work day at home starts with a pot of coffee. The web dev team has daily morning video calls in which we discuss the status & next steps of the current projects being worked on. After this, I typically have some dev-ops maintenance to carry out and some bug tickets to resolve. I can then focus on the bigger scale projects for a few hours. Lunch at some point, a short meeting or two, a couple of small tasks here and there, and that’s the day!

Why do you like working at NIKU Farms?

 The NIKU Farms team consists of hard-working and motivated people which definitely facilitates getting things done. I’m given the freedom (and responsibility!) to implement new projects using whatever technologies I want. This allows me to learn new things and so grow as a programmer.

 Before the world fell into quarantine NIKU Farms was operating out of a co-working space that helped companies with environmental and social initiatives. The values held by these people and companies have definitely influenced my own thinking and actions for the better. Also, getting such great quality meat directly from a local source just can’t be beaten by grocery store products.

If you could pick one song to play when you walk into a room – what would it be and why?

 A Tribe Called Quest – Award Tour. This album (Midnight Marauders) is one of the first hip-hop albums I listened to. I liked it so much that I credit it for getting me interested in the genre.