Alex Crooks
Software Engineer
- Role
- Full Stack Developer at TCWGlobal
- Location
- San Diego, CA, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Alex Crooks
Hello there! My name is Alex Crooks, and I am a former political staffer turned software engineer with a passion for making simple solutions to complex problems.My resume demonstrates my versatility and mastery of several coding languages, both front-end and back-end, as well as relational databases.My most recent experience was a contract with Prepango, using an incredible amount of data from their hundreds of vending machines in international airports and Greyhound stations across the United States. I worked with years of legacy data to build internal tools for their staff to monitor restocks and machine deploymentAs a software engineer at Activate, I was given an exciting new project building white-label platforms tailored specifically to brands including Walmart and Amazon Music, with the frontend in React/Vue, backend in PHP, and a MySQL database management system. I knew none of these languages before my start date with Activate. Working collaboratively with other teams gave me excellent experience pair programming. Combined with maintenance and building out new features on the existing website, this was a unique and thoughtful experience that gave me a fantastic grounding in OOP & system design.After porting existing features from the React frontend of Activate, we worked with an unexpectedly short deadline from the client to ensure that each facet of the site was no longer hardcoded, but stored within our database. This allowed me to know the platform intimately from the ground up and participate in the entire product lifecycle, from conception to deployment and maintenance, frequently collaborating with product designers and the clients themselves to ensure the project met guidelines and expectations.At the beginning of the pandemic, I decided to move back to California to retrain as a Fullstack Software Developer. Upon completing almost every Comp Sci class at De Anza College in the heart of Silicon Valley, specializing in Java, Python, and C++, I decided to hone my full-stack skills by attending App Academy, a coding boot camp. This intensive training gave me the perfect experience working with frameworks in a professional environment and manner. In that time, I developed three full-stack web apps that I am extremely proud of. These projects include cutAbove, a MERN stack web app connecting customers to local barbershops and stylists, Rillow, a Ruby-on-Rails clone of Zillow, and a JavaScript game to improve touch typing skills.I am very excited to apply my talents in the field and work to build the best possible product.
Experience
Full Stack Developer
Aug 2024 — Present · San Diego, CA, US
Implement new features and debug current StaffingNation application, built using PHP frameworkLead architectural and product meetings as a subject matter expert to define project roadmapsUse AI agents such as Anthropic Claude Code and Github Copilot to accelerate outputMigrated & documented from PHP/Yii stack to NextJs/Nest JS/MySQL as part of a platform overhaulTransitioned to third party authentication service, Zitadel, for MFA & SSOIntegrated Clerk, Auth0, and Keycloak into proof of concept app to gauge scalability and suitability for business needsImprove existing CI/CD pipelines via Vercel & Jenkins, Github actions, and deployment strategiesBuild and maintain features for in-house developer kit with DockerCommunicate with external clients to create and refine API endpointsRecognized as Engineer of the Quarter in Q3 ‘24 for outstanding work assimilating to company culture and work ethic
Education
De Anza College
Associates - Computer Science, Computer Science
California State University, Northridge
Bachelor's Degree, Political Science and Government
2013 — 2017
App Academy
Computer Science, Fullstack Development
California State University, Northridge
Bachelor's degree
California State University, Northridge
Bachelor of Arts - BA, Political Science and Government
Monta Vista High School
High School
2009 — 2013
Skills
- Marketing
- Microsoft Office
- Microsoft Excel
- Swim Instruction
- Lifeguarding
- Teamwork
- Event Planning
- Writing
- Social Media
- Research
- Video Editing
- Innovation Management
- Podcasting
- Organization Skills
- Ideas Development
- Political Science
- Fundraising
- Presentations
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