murph37

Location: Hudson, OH

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: React.js, React Native, TypeScript, JavaScript, C#, .NET Core, Node.js, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, HTML, CSS, Tailwind, Next.js, Expo, Azure, AWS

Resume/CV: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pbXwcSMnvfDdy20TLdXwFgHN...

Email: Contact(at)MarkMurphy.io

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/MarkRMurphy/

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I am looking for Senior Engineer and Engineering Manager opportunities.

Currently operating as a Senior Software Engineering Manager, one-third of my time is devoted to managing development teams in building, testing, and deploying custom web and mobile applications. I work with stakeholders to turn ideas into reality through project planning, resource management, cross-functional collaboration, and execution.

My remaining time is dedicated to operating as a Senior Engineer where I lead development, provide mentorship, review code, and architect solutions. I am comfortable working across the stack whether I am building robust integrations and APIs in C# and .NET Core, writing queries and optimizing stored procedures in SQL Server, or crafting user-friendly experiences and components in React. My primary expertise includes but is not limited to React.js/React Native, TypeScript/JavaScript, HTML, CSS/SCSS/Tailwind, C#/.NET Core, SQL Server, and Azure.

As a former Big-Ten athlete, my strong work ethic, desire to get better every day, and positive attitude drive my detail-oriented and process-driven leadership style. Over the past eight years at MorelandConnect and General Motors, I have successfully managed, developed, and delivered over 35 successful projects for more than 20 satisfied clients.

"...determining what distinguishes the side project from competing or similar apps..."

I think this is a simple point, but an important one. For the Hacker News App example, I really need to try and show why someone would download 'Hacky' as opposed to all of the other Hacker News reader apps of there. Ultimately, that's what captures users, especially when the apps are similar.

I agree! I think 'word of mouth' marketing is very powerful. Although, I don't think I've ever thought about building product features with it in mind. Thanks for the input!

You're right I should give ProductHunt another go. I listed Hacky on ProductHunt a long-time ago by it's former name 'Dark Hacker News'. It's a much different and better app now so it'd be worth listing it again.

Do you have any tips for listing it on ProductHunt?

I've heard of Seth Godin a lot and read his short blog posts here and there. However, I've never read any of his books. Which of those 3 books is your favorite?

I've heard this one brought up before, but I've never read it. I didn't realize it was the founder of DuckDuckGo either so that's pretty cool. I'll add it to the list!

Thanks! :) I figured if I could market and learn about marketing at the same time then why not go for it?

Never heard of this one, but I'll check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!

A lurker logging in just to recommend a book? As a fellow lurker, now I'll have to give this one a whirl. To echo my comment above, what is your favorite part about this book in particular?

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm always game for a good read. What is favorite thing about this book in particular?

Yes, currently bookmarks are local to the device. I'd like to update that in the future so they are synced and stored for safe keeping, but I'm not certain how I want to tackle that in react native yet. Any suggestions?

Thanks! That's awesome! Haven't tried it on a M1 Macbook yet, but I bet it'd be fast.

Hacky is a user-friendly Hacker News Reader for browsing Hacker News stories and comments.

Some of the features include: Bookmarks, Bookmark Folders, Bookmarks Search, Collapsible Comments, Color-based Comment Threads, Hold to Copy Comment Text, Light/Dark Theme

To celebrate Hacky paying for my Apple developer license for the year, I decided to make it free to download!

Thank you Hacker News community for the positive reviews and support! If there are any features you'd like to see implemented, please let me know! I want to make this the best Hacker News app out there. Enjoy!

Yeah for sure. I've been able to tackle the html comments now just wanting to implement auth. Any recommended resources?

Thank you!! So glad you like the folders. I really felt like bookmarks were missing something until I added folders. Let me know if you have any other feedback or features you'd like to see. Enjoy!

Yeah I've thought about simplifying the icon or at least making it look less sinister. Maybe take away the red eyes or something. Appreciate the feedback!

That's interesting. It's back down to #11 for me now. So it seems then like it is personalized to user to some extent.

On Dark Hacker News you collapse threads by tapping anywhere on the comment you want to collapse and it will collapse that comment's thread. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Can you check the top paid news chart now? Thanks to the HN support we are back up to #8! I'd be curious to see if it is at #8 for other people as well.

Thank you for the support!

That's one of the reasons I really wanted to make it a paid app so I had more of an incentive to support it long term and keep it updated.

If there's any suggestions you have or features you'd like to see added just let me know. Enjoy!

I'm still using the managed workflow for the time being. I've considered ejecting to the bare workflow, but haven't made the jump quite yet. Wow that's awesome! At the very least I should try ejecting to see how slim I could get the app size.

No problem!

Sure thing! My stack for Dark Hacker news is React Native and Expo. Since I've primarily been a web developer and have some React Web experience, React Native made the transition to mobile development a lot more seamless.

From building this a year ago to today, I've learned so much more about React/React Native and in general my technical skills have gotten much better. There are definitely things I can refactor to make more performant that I'd like to do.

I'd also like to make a pass through the code to convert any remaining React class components to functional components using React hooks. I'd also like to update to React Navigation 5 which recently released.

Let me know if you have any technical questions about some aspects of the app and I'd be happy to answer them. Thanks again for the download!

That's a great question. Let me try and find an example post to see if it does. If it does not, I'll definitely add that to my backlog because I'd love to have that feature as well.

That was my thought too. The listing have to be more localized or personalized for a small indie app like mine to climb the charts for a day. I'd like to talk with someone who has more experience with the app store rankings and algorithms that drive them. I'd be curious to know all of the factors that are in play.

Yeah I'm really not sure on this one. I was only at #7 for a brief moment during a weekday. I have to imagine the apps that are consistently high in the rankings are making much more on a daily basis. On my post on IndieHackers I included screenshots showing the #7 ranking (https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-made-my-1st-sale-and-mad...).

Awesome!! The bookmarks folder feature was one I really wanted to get into the app so I'm happy to hear you like it! Let me know if you have any features you'd like to see added and I can add them to my backlog.

Thank you! So it turns out I had it free on the app store for about a year before I made it $1.99 this May. Having it free for so long gave me a chance to get it in front of more people and add more features in the meantime. I'd definitely consider making a free trial option so that users who wouldn't otherwise buy it could try it as well. I appreciate the feedback!

Thank you! It was definitely a fun one to build and learn React Native along the way.

Awesome! Thank you so much for the support!