Each month, we spotlight one of our amazing team members who work hard to bring you great results. Today, we interviewed Matt Smith from our development team. Let's get started!
1. What’s your role at Mediacurrent, both internally and client-related?
I’m a Lead Architect, which means that I’m involved in communicating with clients and the team regularly. I’m often involved with creating functional specification documents during the proposal phase of new projects, along with leading existing projects from the development side of things.
2. Give us an idea of what professional path brought you here.
I was originally planning to be a 3D artist/animator and work in game development, but during college I pivoted towards graphic design. That led to my first job as a designer and front end developer at a small agency, and then I joined Mediacurrent as a front end developer several years later. I then ran a start up for several years working on calendars for public libraries using Drupal, before coming back to Mediacurrent with a pivot towards back end development and DevOps.
3. How did you first get involved with Drupal?
The first agency I worked at was a Drupal shop that also picked up WordPress projects, so I got started with both Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 in 2012. I had dabbled in Drupal 7 the year before, but that was my first professional experience.
4. Is there a go-to Drupal module that you like to incorporate whenever possible?
I install Twig Vardumper on every project I lead at some point or another. I’m a big fan of Symfony’s vardumper output for quick and easy variable output, and this module allows it to be used in Twig templates (where it’s usually significantly faster than Kint is for testing variables).
5. Do you have any recommended reading or books that you would suggest to others?
I don’t have any specific books, but I recommend reading in general, regardless of what your specific interest is! It’s a great way to keep your brain active, and it always helps me when I’m trying to do something creative.
6. Any mobile apps that you use regularly?
Procreate is an excellent painting app on iPad if you have an Apple Pencil, and it’s really enjoyable for me to dig back into that aspect after moving away from art and into code. On my iPhone, Discord is a staple that I try to use to stay involved in a number of communities — it’s similar to Slack in a lot of ways, but it’s much more focused on fostering communities.
7. What do you like to do in your spare time?
Tabletop RPGs are my main hobby by far, and I also spend a lot of time towards developing digital character sheets for both the 13th Age and Dungeon World RPGs on a virtual tabletop known as Foundry VTT. It’s an interesting experience because it’s very JavaScript heavy development (whereas Drupal is primarily PHP), and I’m interacting directly with my end users (which is both very rewarding and great at keeping you humble).
8. What do you like about Mediacurrent?
Everyone here is excellent at what they do and great fun to work with too! The culture from all levels has always helped facilitate that, and it was a huge factor in why I chose to return when the opportunity presented itself.