@tolicodes

My Work

• Interactive CV
• Neurodivergent’s Guide to the Workplace
• Frontend Infra Book
• My Dropbox Journey - Landing My Dream Job

- 12+ Years of Expertise: Offers extensive staff-level IC experience.
- Frontend Infrastructure Innovator: Develops tooling, libraries, and architectures to streamline operations and empower engineers with meaningful work. See FEInfra Book
- Culture Champion: Advocates for a positive, neurodiverse engineering culture, promoting an environment where constructive feedback drives growth, collaboration, and innovation.

How I Achieve Flow

tl;dr: I believe that workplace culture is the key to achieving flow. And flow is the key to not just productivity, but happiness and fulfillment. No two engineers are the same. And the best companies see each engineer as a dynamic piece of the puzzle, with unique strengths, weaknesses, passions, motivation. Engineering isn’t about engineering, it’s about people.---Here’s a quick guide to what makes Toli flow:Friendly/Collaborative Coworkers
When my coworkers and I build personal relationships, we are able to drop our egos and truly collaborate. Feedback is not seen as a "personal attack". Instead it is seen as a way to grow and learn together. Companies that foster personal relationships (via frequent events, on-sites, pair programming, etc) tend to be the ones I’m most successful in.No Silos
It makes an enormous difference when coworkers aren't "protective" of their jobs and roles. Everyone is seen as a cross-functional part of the company. Of course, each employee has their own responsibilities and owns respective parts of the workload. But if they see something in the company that needs fixing or improving, or if they see that another coworker is struggling, there are empowered and encouraged to step out of their roles and help.No Two Engs are The Same
I've learned that matching engineers to the role/product/environment that fits them best makes a huge difference in productivity. There are all sorts of different work styles, interests, and passions. For example, I prefer infrastructural work, that is making toolings, boilerplate, and libraries that helps other engineers be most efficient. I thrive on open ended problems, where the solution is not yet specced out. For example, I wrote an open source testing framework (PickleJS.com), which had a huge impact in HOVER and outside of it. Nobody gave me a requirements list. I built it, because the nature of my job at HOVER was to solve a broad problem — how do we make our app more stable, and make engineers more productiveType of Problem
Other problems I tend to enjoy include writing common libraries, design systems, infrastructural work (where FE meets DevOps), solving complex/unique bugs, refactoring old code, data architecture, system architecture, and documentation (yes I’m one of the few engineers who actually loves documentation)Loose Timelines, Great ExpectationsSome people need tight deadlines to motivate them. The type of work I excel at (large open ended problems), tends to require more rough timelines. Often times I’ll be at the gym, or skiing down a slope, or just laying in bed listening to music, and suddenly I think of an elegant solution to something I’ve been working on for weeks. I refactor often, consult and work with many members of the team, and don't stop until I have a solution that truly fits everyone, in a simple and elegant way.Direct Feedback
You don’t need to sugar coat things for me. Really. My strongest relationships are with people who aren’t afraid to tell me the truth as they see it. I will take what you say at face value, so with me, say what you mean. Likewise, I will be very direct about what I say to you.1:1 interaction
I’ve found that I personally get more out of small (ideally 1:1) meetings. - Positive Affirmation: if you’re already thinking “wow, Toli reminds me of a dog” you’re not wrong. I love community, challenges, direct feedback, and last but not least, positive affirmation. Nothing makes me happier or perform better than someone saying “good job, this really helped me out!” It’s so simple, yet, often forgotten.Looking forward to working with all of you!

• Read - Scaling FE Team @ HOVER

Vetted By

"I can't recommend Toli enough. He is quick to adapt and understand our problems and is always accommodating in terms of scheduling appointments (because hours can get pretty weird in start-ups)! If you want someone who won't run your billables and get results quickly, you should reach out to Toli. My only regret is that we don't have more projects for Toli to help us out on."-- Minh Mai, Data Architect, 0ptimus

Stats:
100 reviews on CodeMentor
>5000 StackOverflow Points
14 LinkedIn Reviews

Vetted By

Fun Facts

Favorite Snack
I try not to snack too much. It’s so easy to get carried away. Especially when I worked in an office with free snacks, I gained a bit of weight. Now I try to keep to 3 meals a day. But I do drink a ridiculous amount of La Croix.How I Like My Coffee
Like any engineer I love my coffee. If I get it at Starbucks/Blue Bottle, iced latte with a lot of oat/almond milk and 3 sugars. Otherwise I just use a French press @ home and might put a few ice cubes in a Yeti tumbler and sip throughout the day. Some days I like a hot coffee. I prefer the Blue Bottle brand when making my own. Less dark with fruit notes.What I Listen To
I love EDM and House music. Whether I am at the gym, coding, or just lying on my bed, it’s just the best for tuning into what I’m doing.What I Can't Live Without
I would say social interaction. In case you couldn’t tell yet I’m an extrovert. Nothing gives me more joy than interacting with others. I can’t really see myself becoming one of those Buddhist mountaintop hermits.What I Binge Watch
I’ve always been fascinated by psychology. Why do people do what they do? But most importantly, why do I do what I do?As I grew in my understanding of myself, there are a few shows that withstood the test of time. Each time I re-binge them, they gain new meaning.One is Burn Notice. It’s about Michael Weston, a burnt spy who tries to find out why he was burnt, helping people along the way, who were burnt by life. I love how Michael thinks outside the 📦. I first watched the show in high school. And it was my dream to work for the gov’t. I kind of got my dream before my 21st birthday, when I joined the Fed. And sadly it wasn’t at all like Michael’s life. It was very much inside the box. But as I grew, the show helped me reflect on all sorts of things in my life, career, friendships, and understanding of who I want to be and why. What types of people I want to surround myself with and why. Looking back, past the McGuyver antics, it was actually a much more accurate depiction of the world than I thought.But my favorite show is Darling in the Franxx, a romantic coming of age action anime set in the dystopian future. If you look past the fighting robots on surface, DarliFra has a deep psychological component, analyzing interpersonal relationships, romantic relationships, friendships, and community. It helped me through some dark times as well. Like Burn Notice, it helped me reflect on what it is that I really value in life, and what values were instilled on me throughout time.I have a few other runner ups, Dragon Prince, DOTA, ATLA. These shows generally share those same elements. The heroes go through a journey where they realize over time, the world is not as simple as they were taught it was.As a mentor of mine at the Fed once put it “Toli, the world isn’t all black and white”. She printed out a gray square and posted it on my monitor to remind me of this.

How I Think

Let's Chat

I'm open to speaking engagements, mentorship, advisory roles, and other partnerships