Hola! I’m Guille
Guillermo Galán Backend Engineer Ravens
Github guille galan@issuuu com @guillego
Growing
up in Spain
I grew up in a town called Torrelodones, a mediumsized town in the northwest of Madrid, Spain. Growing up I was a pretty curious and nerdy kid: I enjoyed reading whatever was around, breaking up remote controllers and other electronics around the house to see what was inside and in general loved computers and the internet when they arrived to our home. Otherwise enjoyed the usual hanging out with friends and some sports (tennis, badminton).
I studied my bachelors in Telecommunications Engineering in the Technical University of Madrid which I really enjoyed, I was finally finding out how all this magic that was technology and computer networks actually worked. It felt a bit like Hogwarts, especially since there were a lot of student associations in my school. I became part of the student council and another association called eestec and helped organize many events and provide services to other students.
Coming to Denmark
I came to Denmark in 2016 to study a Master's in Electrical Engineering. At the time I really wanted to dig deeper into electromagnetic fields, antennas and radar systems so I took that path. Eventually I figured out that those were really interesting to learn, but that I enjoyed working with software a lot more.
I did my thesis in signal processing for medical ultrasound and found a software engineer job in Radiobotics, a very new start-up at the time. From then on I've been extremely happy to work in this ever-changing field and learn so much from my peers.
I guess my initial idea was to come for my studies but eventually fell in love with the danish way of life, the danish summers, the pastries, cycling around the city and winter bathing!
Joining issuu
I have a few architect friends and they usually publish their zines and architecture publications on issuu, where they always look really neat. How cool is it to work in a product that gives real value to people?
In the past, I've worked mainly on startups at the stage where we were trying really hard to get to product-market-fit. So I'm quite excited to learn about how issuu works, how it manages to meet the needs of its users as well as ask and try to answer the inevitable question of: "what's next?".
So far, the culture seems really great at issuu and I'm looking forward to working and interacting with multiple teams (my background is in small startups), to build and maintain great products together.
On the technical side, it seems like there are many challenges coming in the near to mid-term and I really want to learn and contribute to approach those challenges as an organization.
Working with me
To my work, I believe I bring a positive attitude and a disposition to help out my peers whenever they need it. Machines can be frustrating sometimes, but if we work together and laugh about ourselves and our tech-induced woes, they can actually be a lot of fun.
When programming I try to find a balance between pragmatism and the optimal architecture. My implementations these days start out with some duplication to stay away from the wrong abstraction, which becomes unmaintainable. Eventually my goal is that my code is easy to delete, when the business needs change.
Stuff I like
The outdoors! I love to spend time outside whenever I can, especially if mountains are involved (my #1 reason for coming to Denmmark :D) I love cycling and hiking everywhere where there is nature, even better if it’s a multi-day or multi-week adventure where you can slow down and be in rhythm with nature.
Photography has been a big hobby for over 15 years. I really enjoy the way it leads me to new ways of seeing and expressing myself. I used to have a fairly active instagram account (@iamsiesta) but fell a bit out of love with the platform so still in the process of getting back into the rhythm of publishing somewhere all the things I see and capture.
Climbing came into my life around 4 years ago and I’ve been getting more and more into the sport! It’s so much fun to monkey around on the wall and learn to have a conversation with the accompanying fear of heights. If anyone wants to go climbing, please let me know!
Reading/Listening to books/podcasts! I really love diving deep into a story or a topic. I’m a really curious person and reading/podcasts are my favourite ways to learn and discover new worlds, fictional or our very own.
Music (especially live)! Like most people I go through phases and enjoy lots of different things though I’d say rock and especially some 90s grunge like Pearl Jam is probably my comfort zone. But throw into the mix anything from A tribe called quest, Parcels, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Gregory Alan Isakov, L’Emperatrice, Still Woozy, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Natalia Lafourcade, Nils Frahm, Keith Jarret... ok enough with the list :D
Other stuff (in no particular order): writing, cooking and baking, my parents’ dog Archie, watching movies with friends, poetry, picnics, dips in the sea, going for runs, cardamom buns, Prolog coffee, kayaking, Wikipedia rabbit holes, independent bookstores (ark and superbooks in Copenhagen!), racket sports, tinkering with hardware/software, the list goes on.
Bikepacking
I’ve done a few bike trips by now and it’s something that brings me so much joy and excitement so feel free to ask about! I’ve been bikepacking in Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Kyrgyzstan, Germany and France! I’ll leave some photos about these places in the next pages but ask away, I love to talk about those memories and spread the bikepacking bug :D
