Testimonials
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Derek advocates for his colleagues. I have watched him go to bat for coworkers, and be generous with them on many occasions.
He clearly communicated useful questions and concerns while scoping our projects. These improved the design and architecture of these features. His ideas ranged from backend logic and query optimization, to smart ways to build frontend components, to UX design. This gave me a lot of confidence while I scoped projects, because I knew he was thinking deeply about the work, and wanted it to be as good as possible.
John Rudolph Drexler, Founder
Thunk -
Over the past two years, I had the privilege of being mentored by Derek in my transformative journey into the world of engineering. As my assigned mentor for the Techtonica software engineering program, Derek coached me through programming problems and abstract engineering concepts which were important in helping me absorb such a large quantity of information in a short period of time. He also found extra time to answer questions asked by other students.
Past the conclusion of the program, Derek continued to guide me through pivotal career decisions as I navigated the path of a junior developer. What sets Derek apart is his excellent communication skills, making complex concepts accessible and creating an approachable environment for discussions. He is a wonderful person to work with and would benefit any organization hoping to foster and develop talent.
Lisa Lee, Associate Software Developer
Stack Overflow -
As CTO of Modern Message, I hired Derek as an Internal Technical Support Engineer. This was a unique position in that it supported our extensive and critical account representatives team in those moments when more advanced technical skills were required. Derek’s mix of technical and people skills made him a great fit for the role. His duties were diverse and often demanded deep system knowledge, the ability to quickly diagnose bugs, creative thinking to solve unique problems, and a broad set of technical skills.
Derek is loyal and a hard worker and I would recommend him to anyone.
Daniel Miller, Product Engineering Manager
egghead.io -
One of Derek’s most significant contributions at Binti was his work on optimizing the internal dashboard’s performance. Thanks to his efforts, our customers are now experiencing significantly faster loading times, which makes for a much smoother user experience. This was a huge win for both our customers and our team!
Michael Paitoo, Senior Customer Support Advocate
Binti -
I was lucky to work with Derek at The Walt Disney Company where he was responsible for building internal websites and more. I could always count on him to deliver high-quality work, meet tight deadlines and provide insight on complicated projects. His can-do attitude and grasp of online trends is a true asset to any team.
Sara Hays, Sr. Marketing Representative, Brand & Program Development
The Walt Disney Company -
Derek is every project manager’s dream. He is incredibly responsive and punctual, which is rare among developers. He quickly made changes as requested and always met deadlines. In addition, Derek’s work was impeccable. The sites he built looked good in every browser and were easy for the clients to update. Overall, Derek is great at what he does and he’s easy to work with. I highly recommend him.
Angie Rupert, Owner
Lucky Marketing Firm -
When I asked Derek to design my site, I didn’t expect that his help would also help me to fine tune my brand. He asked me several questions that I had never thought to ask myself. The specificity and care with which he took in the information about my site’s purpose and its viewership were not only pivotal in creating a successful website, it helped me to articulate my goals for the future.
He then created a site that looked amazing AND is completely practical for me to manage on my own. We had very few meetings, since he was always ahead of the curve but any notes I gave were taken and then further improved. I just can’t say enough about working with him.
Christina Aimerito, Creator
Girls' Game Shelf -
If you’re looking for a dependable, hard working, extremely talented, and a wonderfully witty person to boot, look no further than Derek.
I’ve had the great privilege of working with Derek for almost 3 years at Goldman Marketing Group and if there’s one thing I know about him, it’s that he’s a real winner. Derek faces the toughest problems with great tenacity and will not stop working until there is a solution. His focus on any task he is given is second to none, and is eager to drive results up and up. He also has a great analytical mind that ensures no stone is left unturned to be able to explain any sort of trends in his reporting.
Derek also has a great mindset for learning/working with any coding languages or working with API’s. He has an established record of project managing our programming team, directly working on complex websites, creating client dashboards, and many other complex systems/solutions.
Jason Castro, Website Manager
Goldman Marketing Group