I grew up in the greater Boston area for most of my life, but I was born in Haiti, a beautiful island shared with the Dominican Republic.
In High School, my name got shorten to Jules and though a lot of people know me by Jules, it’s not correct. My first name is Jules Andre. Professionally, everyone knows me by Jay. After high school, I pursued engineering at Cornell University and continued my graduate studies in Information Systems at Northeastern University.
I got interested in computers when my dad’s friend was throwing away a bunch of old, bulky computers, but my dad took them to Haiti to open a school for kids to learn computers. This was back in 1999. When I moved to the United States, I deepened my knowledge of computers and programming during high school. At home, we had a Compaq computer that could be connected to the internet via a dial-up phone line. Back then, the only way I could access a copy of Visual Studio was through a friend who burned a copy for me. That’s how I learned Visual Basic and C++. The only other option for coding was to use the computer lab after school.
Fast forward to today, I’ve amassed 15 years of experience as a software engineer, working with notable companies such as Akamai Technologies, Putnam Investments, General Electric, and various early-stage startups. My interests predominantly revolve around open source projects, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and cloud-native solutions. I have a wealth of experience in designing and architecting applications for both frontend (using React, Redux, and Typescript) and backend (utilizing Python, Java, and Scala), as well as working with structured and document databases like Elasticsearch, MongoDB, MySQL, Postgres, and Oracle.
On a more personal note, I have 2 sons and 2 nieces. When I’m not working or doing anything important, I enjoy spending quality time with my family, listening to music, hitting the gym, playing basketball, and indulging in a good read.
Here are some things I do for fun:
Strength training
Since the pandemic hit, I haven’t been able to hit the gym as frequently, but there’s something about weightlifting that brings me a deep sense of peace and purpose. Just in case you’re curious, my combined total for the “big three” lifts, which are the bench press, squat, and deadlift, stands at a solid 1000 pounds.
Music & concerts
Not much to say there, other than I like music. Here is Ziggy Marley performing at Bold Point Park in Rhode Island.
Hiking
To me, there is something majestic about mountains. Here I went hiking in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. This specific trail is Mount Willard, overlooking the Crawford Notch.
Watch Sports
I’m generally a big fan of the Celtics and Patriots. I don’t watch as much college sports, but I’ll watch Basketball during March Madness.