John French, or “French” as we call him, likes to make things. At DocStation, he makes software, and outside of work he’s building his own software projects. He also makes music — playing bass in threedifferent bands. On top of all that, French is usually tinkering away on one or several other random projects (like building lighting setups for shows) at any given moment. With all of this making and tinkering, French’s mind is uniquely adept at blending the analytical with the creative — making him a great programmer and a wonderfully interesting guy to be around.
It’s time to get to know John French — Software Engineer at DocStation!
**He was DocStation’s first hire! **French has been around since the beginning! In the very early days, Samm and Josh brought him on and even paid him out of their own pockets before the company really got off the ground. #StartupLife
**French studied physics. It didn’t go well… **Some people choose a major in college, go to classes, and then use what they learn to build a career. Some people, though, choose to study Physics, hate it, skip class and then join a band. French is one of the latter.
No worries, though! He may have learned close to nothing about Physics, but he learned a heck of a lot about coding in Flash. Why the sudden urge to code? His band needed a website. And that’s where his career in engineering began. Since the beginning, music and programming have intertwined and balanced each other in his life.
French plays bass in three different bands full time. One is a neon indie pop band (And we definitely know what that means because we are super hip to the skip on all the cool music styles…). One is a blend of jazz and rock, and the third is pure indie rock.
He likes playing music that he doesn’t like. French has been a musician for over 20 years. That’s a lot of music. And while he enjoys most of it, he admits it’s not all music that he, himself, would listen to. Sometimes it’s more about the people with whom he plays rather than making music he would sit down and enjoy as a listener.
He’s teaching another musician to code, and he’s amazed. There have been studies that demonstrate that musicians may have a certain aptitude for programming, but French sees it first hand. While on the road, he’s teaching the keyboard player in one of his bands to code, and he can’t believe how crazy fast he’s picking up on it. (We told him he should start a blog called “Code from the Road,” but he wasn’t convinced.)
He’s got major ping pong swagger. Not much to add here except he can probably stomp you at some ping pong.
We’re so lucky to work with talented people like French at DocStation. We’ve still got more team members to introduce you to, so check them out here on The Pharmacy Standard!
Profile written by Katlyn Whittenburg of HoneyHex.co
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