About

My name is Demetrius Papas. I am a software developer with a passion for figuring things out and an intrinsic motivation for doing things right.

I've studied software development at a university level, having completed ≈200 ECTS of courses on Computer & Software Engineering at the Polytechnic School of the University of Thessaly, Greece, gaining a solid foundation of formal knowledge.

During my studies I interned at Centaur Analytics where I had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the software development lifecycle in a professional setting. Under the guidance of a team of very talented people I contributed to the test coverage of the company's codebase and also undertook the development of an api consumer tool for internal use with nodejs, express & MongoDB. While I had already developed an appreciation for maintainable code and good practices, I didn't have a clear picture of how these concepts manifested in big complex professional projects. Experiencing test driven development in that setting was a formative experience for me at those early stages of my technical progression and it reinforced my appetite for code quality and the use of rigorous practices to ensure it. That being said I'd like to think that I am a pragmatic person and I actively strive to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I am particularly drawn to developing APIs, services, tools and applications but I actively pursue expanding my general technical knowledge and staying up-to-date with how the field of software development is evolving throughout all of its facets outside my direct ecosystem too.

Building upon my interests, I studied back-end web development principles and learnt Go on boot.dev, which is an exceptional platform that I would unreservedly recommend to anyone. There I completed several guided projects, such as building a microblogging service, and I've since been applying the skills that I acquired to develop more complex web application projects with a focus on further familiarizing myself with industry standard patterns, libraries, software & services. I am proficient with essential development infrastructure: version control, containerization, CI/CD pipelines etc.

Widening my horizons & dispelling the "fog-of-war", if you will, is a big part of my motivation. At the same time, I am wired to dig deep and really try to get to the bottom of stuff. I find joy and fulfillment in the learning, the mastering, and the productive process itself.

I strive to be sensible and purposeful with my decisions. I have a preference for planning and figuring things out, trying to be proactive about the potential pitfalls of a project and technical debt in general, as opposed to being trigger-happy with an implementation and then iterating reactively. I don't criticize the latter approach though. On the contrary I would arguably benefit from it if it would come to me more naturally a little more often. No tool is the right one for every job after all, and I am not a fan of dogma either. As a natural consequence of this I highly value collaboration and exposure to other people's viewpoints that challenge my own thinking and processes.

I am excited to explore new opportunities where I can apply these perspectives professionally and continue growing as a developer. If you think my approach would complement your team, I'd be glad to connect and discuss how I can contribute to your projects or initiatives.

papas․demetrius＠gmail․com (do NOT copy & paste the address, just retype it)