Name: Joe Rankin
Position: Software Engineer
Barracks Username: DatBear
How long have you worked at iCOMBAT?
I started at iCOMBAT in December 2016, so about a year and a half.
What do you enjoy most about working at iCOMBAT?
I love that every day is a little bit different. I’ve worked on a point of sales system, a lighting system, a membership system, and also just worked on fixing bugs and adding features to ICE and Barracks in general.
What are some of the challenges you face as a software engineer?
Sometimes bugs in our system are hard to reproduce, especially since both software on the computer and firmware on the devices are involved in the problem, and sometimes we aren’t sure which side is at fault when we start working on solving it.
Describe a typical day at iCOMBAT?
A typical day at iCOMBAT for me involves a few things. In the morning when I get in, I check what is assigned to me in our project management system, Asana, and get started on it. Sometimes this involves testing to try to reproduce a client issue or an issue that one of our iCOMBAT Extreme fields was reporting. Other times it is working on new features that are being implemented, it varies. We’ll usually get lunch around noon, then I’ll keep working in the afternoon. I’m not usually in very many meetings and don’t get too many emails, so I have a lot of time to work on ICE and Barracks.
What is something people wouldn’t guess about you?
I have a giant family: 5 siblings, 10 nieces/nephews, 5 uncles/aunts, and a ridiculous amount of cousins.