Hey! My name is Hayden Ives & I'd first like to start off by thanking you for visiting my site!

That picture over there is of me, although I'm typically wearing glasses. On top of being an avid glasses wearer, I also enjoy developing software. Professionally I work as a Software Engineer at Southwest Airlines. Non-professionally I like to work on passion projects that challenge me & make my life easier. I'm going to start my story from the very beginning, so brace yourself for some riveting history.

History

I began programming when I was about 12 years old. While a lot of people start their programming journey on a personal computer, my first programs were written on a TI-83 Calculator. Using the TI-BASIC interpreted language, I wrote practical programs like formula shortcuts, but also more exciting programs such as snake & simple platforming games. Writing these simple programs opened my eyes to how powerful & exciting software can be. After that, I started to look into more heavily-adopted languages like C++ & Java. Since then I have messed around with a wide breadth of languages including: JavaScript, Python, Rust, Perl, Lisp, & Assembly.

Professional Work

These days I'm working heavily with Java (Spring): writing APIs to retrieve data from an ELK Framework backend. My professional experience consists of dipping my toes into big data, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and a couple of less sexy domains that investors don't care too much about.

My Work

While 95% of the software development I do at work is Java, I rarely touch the stuff after hours. For the past couple of years, most of my personal projects utilize a MEN Framework (MEAN stack without the AngularJS). I try my best to not give into package addiction, in which your solution to any problem is to install a package. A big part of the thrill/challenge of software engineering for me is developing my own* solutions. Partially to reduce code-bloat, but also to gain a better understanding of the underlying concepts that we take for granted everyday.

This website, for example, was created in pure HTML, CSS, and JS. Feel free to snoop around with your browser's dev tools if you'd like! I will drop a link to the site's git repo once it's at a presentable state. Please also check out what I've been working on recently in the projects tab. Also feel free to drop me a line at hayden@haydenives.com!

* "my own" implies a responsible dose of Stack Overflow

If you want to drop me a line for any reason, this is the place to do it. I'm always happy to talk tech with others so don't hesitate to reach out! You can reach me via any method on the contact card.