Hi, I'm Jan. My pronouns are He/Him. I speak German (mother tongue) and English fluently and can do a tiny bit of swedish.
What I do
I am a seasoned web developer with a current focus on frontend technologies but with experience through the proverbial full stack.
I am currently dividing up my time between four different endeavours:
- I work on Depfu.com, the friendly dependency update robot factory I founded with my cofounder Florian.
- I work as a freelance web developer for various clients.
- I work occasionally as a teacher for the Hamburg Coding School, teaching foundational programming courses and giving workshops on creative coding.
- I try to make time for all kinds of other endeavours such as dabbling in 3D printing, fiddling with electronics and microcontrollers, making music with computers and synthesizers and also trying out content creation.
I am generally available for hire, but my time is currently very limited. Feel free to ask, though, especially if you have something that you might think would interest me.
My daily rate pretty much depends on the customer, the timeframe and the work that needs to be done, but please don’t ask me for a daily rate of 400 EUR or to work purely for equity. For one I am relatively risk averse and also I know very well what I’m capable of.
What I don’t do
I am very picky about the jobs I take - mostly because I can, and I am aware that this is a very privileged situation. In general I am not willing to work for any company or business that actively tries to harm people, animals or the environment in general in any way. This is a bit of a blanket statement and things get a bit fuzzy at the borders sometimes but if you feel attacked or aggravated by that statement, you are probably better off not asking me for help.
What I am good at
I am, even in my mid fourties, a very fast learner. At the same time I have a uniquely wide background in different technologies. This combination means that I usually hit the ground running and I can help make decisions relatively quickly.
I move through different levels of abstractions easily and can be useful as an external consultant both in in-detail problem solving and high level architectural discussions. With my experience ranging from working on tiny microcontrollers to building and maintaining complex web appplications (and everything in between), I think I bring in a unique perspective that allows me to find creative solutions especially in mixed environments where different abstraction levels usually clash.
I have seen a wide variety of different organisations from large corporations to small startups and agencies as both employee and freelancer. I am very sensitive to organisational issues of all kinds and am able to voice my concerns in ways that turn them into possible actions instead of additional tension. I can help shaping processes where needed and point out unneeded organisational overhead where I see it.
I am a firm believer in diverse workplaces and the benefit they bring for organisations. As the whitest old dude possible, I am probably neither your diversity consultant nor will I budge your diversity metrics but I will clear the low bar of not making things actively worse and can probably point out ways to make things better as well if needed.