1. Tell us about your interviewee.

Include the following information:

a. Name : Doug Vann

b. Phone #: (765) 537-8725

c. Name of employer: Infosys

d. Official Job Title: Drupel Architect

e. Email: Doug@Dougvann.com

f. How was the interview conducted: Phone call

2. In your own words, how would you describe your job/position and what you do?

What’s a typical work day like? If there isn’t a typical day, describe the

tasks/activities that you spend a major part of your time on. Doug stated that he

processes and implements requirements for a client. He translates them into workable

information architecture model. He typically works with Drupel. He works with clients,

teams, and third-party vendors daily. His work day consists of a lot of working alone,

however. There are sometimes where he does not work alone, but that is typically how it

goes. He works a set schedule typically, but those set hours can be expanded from the

typical work week. He stated that he can commonly work weekends and evenings if there

is an important task at hand. He stated that in a typical workday, he spends the majority

of his time checking the spread log for his team and making sure what he needs to get

done is completed. He also makes sure that he does everything he can to help those in his

team. He puts constant effort into delivering a result. He also writes a lot of emails and

listens to as well as addresses client’s concerns. He spends some part of his day clarifying

people’s concerns, including both coworkers and clients, as well as tries to steer

consumers into relevant conversations.

3. What do you enjoy about your job? What do you dislike? What would you most like

to change about your occupation if you could? Doug stated his favorite part of his job

is that he provides solutions daily. The sense of accomplishment that comes from almost

having finished a task and the journey that comes with it is the most exciting part of his

job in his opinion. Doug also stated that his least favorite part of his job is the lack of

communication. He is a stickler for communication. He finds himself irritated by the fact

that his coworkers and clients often do not use the same terminology and the in-

conference calls, for example, do not always end with a clear-cut answer. The calls are

typically quite surface level and he finds that irritating as an analytical person. The

questions asked in conference calls often never get answered. Doug stated that he want

more of an authoritarian voice in his job if he were to change anything else. He feels that

management often does not listen to what the developers have to say. Management

typically does not know much about software and looks at the whole occupation as

cookie-cutter even if they do have experience. Management often does not have

experience with the concerns of clients in the software world and does not know the

specific needs of employees or clients.

4. If you were hiring a person for your job, what would you look for? What strengths,

qualifications, and/or personal qualities do you believe contribute most to success

and happiness in your line of work? Why? Doug stated being teachable is the most

important quality for his job. Teachable people are important to the software field. A

software developer should not be inflexible or a know-it-all. Employees don’t get hired fr

what they know, but what they can find out. Innovativeness, ingenuity, and patience are

the most important qualities for a software developer. People skills are also important to

be a software developer. Software may be 1s and 0s, but it was written by people for
 people. You can’t keep people out of the conversation for decision making and the

process in general. Listening to intent based on content and knowing when to just listen

are vital to a career in software.

5. What were your childhood interests? What did you think you would be when you

grew up? As a child, Doug was interested in computers, electronics, and creating things.

He was always interested in using computers and electronics to build things. He was

more interested in creating games rather than playing them. When he was a child, he

wanted to become a scientist. He also stated that his family always thought he was smart

and believed he would have the ability to cure cancer or something along those lines.

6. What was your major in college (if you attended)? How well did your education

prepare you? Does your work relate to any experiences or studies you had in

college? Doug attended college in 2004 when he had a wife and four kids under the age

of 9. He went to Ivy Tech on scholarship. He originally worked in the theater field as a

stage hand. He found theater was too difficult of a career because you weren’t sure when

there was going to work. Some of the difficulties he found with going to college is that in

person classes are vital to getting a degree. Doug couldn’t always go to class and because

he couldn’t, he eventually stopped going to Ivy Tech. He did not find his college

experience to be helpful because he only really took pre-reqs. He also stated that

technology is always changing, so a degree wouldn’t have much value anyways if he got

it in 2004. It is vital to continue your education as a software developer. You should go to

conferences and seminars as much as possible.

7. Describe your career path...What was your first full-time job What career changes

did you make? What led you to your current occupation? What decisions did you

make along the way? Doug stated that he only got serious about his career in his 30’s/
 His first job was carpet/floor care. That was when he got married and he was able to grow

a small business through it. It was a good job for quite a few years until he got back into

theater production. He got back into software after that because he couldn’t afford to feed

his family with theater wages after 9/11. There were not enough jobs in Indiana to sustain

the income he needed to feed a six-member household. He self-taught software,

especially open-source, through the internet.

8. What have been the biggest influences on your career? And who has helped or

influenced you along the way (mentors, co-workers, family members, friends...)

Doug stated that the biggest influence on his career was the open-source community. He

went on to explain that open-source is software that you can develop on without needing

to be a paid employee. You can fix and complain about anything with the software, but

you also have the ability to fix it. Linux and Drupel are important parts of the opne-

source community. We believe that software should be free to develop. He specifically

named a man named Josh Brawer from Idaho as someone who has a huge influence on

him career wise. In 2008-2009, he was instrumental for Doug in inducting him into the

open-source community. Doug stated that if Josh hadn’t given him the foundations for

Drupel, he would not be where he is today.

9. What sacrifices have you had to make for your career? What would you do

differently? What do you value most now? Doug stated that he had to sacrifice a large

amount of family time for his career. He didn’t dedicate his 20’s to his career and now he

had to make it up on the fly with a wife as well as four kids. He often had to travel for

work and he found that to be straining at the beginning of his career. He would ravel

about a week a month. He traveled about 25% of the time a year for about two year of his

software career. In his third year of software, he spent 50% of his time away from home.
 He believes there isn’t much he would have done differently in terms of his career. He is

not one for hindsight or regret. The only thing he would have changed would be having

to build the foundation he needed for his career while everything else in his life was

hectic. He values family most now after his experiences in his career. He prefers work

where he can be flexible also. He will travel, but he prefers if he can be with his family.

Sometimes when he travels, he brings his wife or one of his daughters with him.

10. Tell me about a time you failed. What did you learn? Doug stated that he would look

back to 2009 for a time he failed. He was only in his second year of Drupel and he took

on a much bigger task than he should have. He thought he had the resources to help him,

but they were all too busy. He lost a form of potential income, but that was the worst

outcome. He learned from that experience that you need to have a good team with you to

get things done. If you are going to take on big things, have a good team. He also stated

that he learned you should not bite off more than you can chew.

11. What advice would you give a recent college graduate about your occupation?

About life in general? He would tell them to connect at meet-ups and go to conferences.

Read insider’s blogs and be a part of the community as well as the conversation. Read

and share as much as you can. You will realize that talking about software is just as

important as being able to code. Software does not exist in a vacuum and a lot of recent

graduates do not realize that. It is more of an ecosystem and young programmers have to

plug-in to the ecosystem. He emphasized that that advice does not have to do with just

programming. You have to plug-in to whatever you want to do with your life.

Community is important and finding people who are interested in the same thing is vital.

Doug loves seeing people’s passionate and the communication of those in different
 communities. He emphasized that you should check out several different communities

even if you think you have found your place.

12. What education did you get to begin your career path? S Doug stated that his career

path was a lot of self-teaching. He went to lots of conferences and went to online sources.

Most cutting-edge technology is not available in a classroom. You must take on big

projects on your own, get lost, and dig yourself out. He emphasized that process is what

makes someone a software expert.

13. Why was 9/11 a major effect in your career path? He stated that the entrainment

industry did not know what to do after 9/11. Operas, big shows, and conventions could

not sell tickets. He personally worked in Indianapolis and things slowed down a lot

because of 9/11. He was not able to make a living wage. To keep the lights on, he had to

go back to software.

14. What are the people in your workplace and software developers like in general?

Doug stated that software developers are often adventurous risktakers and that they enjoy

learning about new high-tech things. They are progressive and aggressive. They are very

welcoming of new blood and enjoy sharing their knowledge with those new to the field.

Knowledge-seeking, sharing, and risk-taking are some of the buzzwords Doug used to

describe them.

15. Do you think a master’s in software would hold any value in the software

engineering world? Doug believes that that is something that would hold value in the

software world. Software has more of a sense of doing now than a thinking sense

anymore.

16. Is there any advice you would give to an inspiring software developer? Doug asking

me if I had any background knowledge about Tron. He stated that he was a huge Tron fan
and he lives by one of the quotes from the original movies. “I fight for the users” is a

quote he lives by and believes everyone should, software developer or not. He believes

that is the basis of his success and he thinks that it should be the basis of everyone’s

career. Do things fo the users and consumers of your product.