Meet The Team: Andrew Hynes, Backend Developer

Tell us a little about yourself, Andrew!

Hello everyone! I’m Andrew. I grew up in St. John’s, not far from where the CoLab office is now. I just moved back to St. John’s this spring, after living in Ottawa for five years.

My favourite sport is ultimate frisbee, which I’ve been playing for almost 12 years. I also like climbing, volleyball, and hiking.

I love playing and listening to music. In fact, working at CoLab has been great for discovering new music because there are a lot of enthusiasts here.

‍How did you first get into software development?

I wasn’t interested in programming when I first started university. My first degree was mechanical engineering. But I started working for a computer engineering professor at MUNL who later became my master’s supervisor. I was working on human motion tracking for clinical purposes (gait analysis), and I started with MATLAB. Halfway through my master’s I began looking at software development job postings, and decided to switch from MATLAB to Python because the latter was in more demand. This got me my first job at IBM in Ottawa, and now I’m still using Python at CoLab.

Why did you first join CoLab? What’s the most exciting thing about working here?

I had known about CoLab since its inception, because Adam and Jeremy were my classmates in mechanical engineering when they started CoLab in 2017. But I didn’t have as much programming experience back then so it never occurred to me to join them.

Later, in 2021, I applied to CoLab in the hope that I could eventually move back to St. John’s. I was also interested in CoLab’s product because of my past experience with mechanical engineering. CoLab’s openness to hybrid work was ideal for me, and I worked remotely from Ottawa for about a year. I moved back to St. John’s this May, and I’m still enjoying the hybrid environment because I mostly work from a home office.

‍If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs—such as food and water—were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?

Is there wifi and cell service on this island? If so, I’d take my phone and laptop. If not, I guess I’d take a canoe so I could explore the island, and a hammock for relaxing near the beach.