About Me

Hello there! My name is Paul Coroneos. I am a professional front end developer and passionate learner who likes to solve difficult technical challenges in conjuncture with a diverse and multicultural team. Before I became a FE I had a fairly long career as a test engineer in the semiconductor industry. So I would like to give a little history about my journey.

Growing up as a kid I was very into computers. The first computer I remember truly loving deeply was my father's IBM Aptiva. It was state of the art at the time using a blazing fast Pentium I processor. Many a hour were spend playing Lil' Howie's Great Word & Math Adventure. It was from continue to tinker around with this computer (and slowly become my family's IT support technician) that I found a passion for electronics.

So it was no real surprise that in 2007 I applied to several colleges with the intention of majoring in electrical engineering. I had developed somewhat of an aptitude for working on computers and electronics and it seemed to be a natural path to start a career with. I spent four hard years (2007-2011) studying and graduated with BS in EE and Applied Mathematics. I landed my dream job at the time working at a large semiconductor company called Texas Instruments.

My first 2 and a half years of my career I spent working as a process engineer in one of the oldest wafer fabrication factories in the world (DFAB). I worked with an extremely talented group of engineers and technicians cutting my teeth in the engineering world. It was quickly apparent what I had learned in school was not sufficient for every challenge at hand. I received an incredible amount of mentorship I feel I was never able to truly pay back. But it taught me how to think critically about a variety of technical challenges.

A common trend in my life is my inability to not be learning something at all times. Around 2012 I started my Masters in Electrical Engineering while working full time. Let me tell you this was not easy. I think I would rank it second to my bootcamp experience (more on this later) but it came darn close. I had thoughts of being an integrated circuit designer and focused heavily on circuit design. After a lot of late nights and hard work I managed to graduate in December of 2016.

But as I started to mess more and more with cadence I realized circuit design was maybe not for me. 3 years after starting with a factory role I transitioned into a test engineering role. It was here that I finally was able to start coding in a C++ environment or more modern tools. I cut my teeth in somewhat modern coding using visual studio code 2005 and 2010 on tools such as the Eagle ETS364 and ETS88. I designed PCB's for testing semiconductors, did customer return analysis, performed qualifications, and even provided remote factory support for a variety of issues.

But after several years of being a test engineer I realized I was ready for new challenges. I stopped and asked myself what part of my job I felt truly passionate about. And between the circuit design and software development I realized I enjoyed software development more.

In 2018 I started a part time fullstack bootcamp to explore transitioning to a career in web development. To be honest even at this time I was not sure whether I would leave semiconductors. Similar to when I started my masters degree I wanted to challenge myself. Worst case I would be able to tell myself I gave it a shot and continue looking for my next opportunity.

In hindsight this was a silly concern. I immediately fell in love with software development. Over the next 6 months when work was over my life was in person classes, coding my weekly homework challenges, or consuming article after article online learning about development. Four months into my bootcamp I started applying to roles. Ultimately I accepted an offer with Hilton where I have been ever since!

Today my primary focus involves primarily front end concerns (React, Typescript, Redux, React Query, Graphql, Tailwind, css-in-js, etc.). But as a constant learner I am also looking into backend technologies, AWS and even machine learning. It is my hope over time to have a wide range of knowledge that can be applied to a variety of problems.

The best part of development to me is that there is always a new challenge to be solved. And often we don't have the right answers right away. It is working hard and learning how to solve these problems that excites me about being in development. And I do feel I am at home finally.

Thank you for reading my about me. Please feel free to check my blog where I will continue to share my learning or my portfolio. Take care!