Name: Andrei Tapai
Hometown: Bucharest, Romania (alternatively: Brooklyn, NY)
Joined: May 24, 2021
Department(s): Engineering
Spoken Languages: English, Romanian
What excites you about being part of the Cherre family?
For me, it’s the culture and values, 100%. While I was interviewing, every person I spoke with stressed the importance of it at Cherre and it has been refreshing to see that the values are upheld every day by all members of the team. Everything that is done is done as a team first and foremost. Everyone demonstrates a great deal of empathy and desire to teach you what they know. Ultimately, having a solid culture on which to build is probably the most important feature of any company.
At Cherre, we are all snow leopards – what are you working on, and what makes you unique?
I’ve been at Cherre for almost half a year now. In that time I’ve worked with a few different teams as a Data Engineer and seen all of the various projects going on. Right now I’m working on address and geo services to enable better data connections across our internal and client data sets.
If there is one thing that makes me unique among Data Engineers it would have to be that I’ve become the de-facto Python and general computing environment wizard. If it’s broken, I’ll fix it!
How do you give back to the community to change our world for the better?
My go-to in the past for giving back to the community has been contributing to charity. I contribute regularly to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Heifer International, and the ASPCA. In the future, I would like to contribute by teaching software engineering to anyone who would like to learn.
What keeps you curious and engaged to grow personally/professionally?
I am innately curious. Engagement for me usually comes from seeing energy and excitement in others or being presented with a novel problem/challenge. Either of those things will grab my full attention.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Outside of work I like to travel, hike (especially in Pennsylvania), and bike. I am also a big nerd and love video games – though I have less time now to engage with them than I used to.
What is the last book you read/movie you watched?
So the Friday prior to writing this I went to see Dune with some friends. It was a great experience and mapped solidly to the book. If there is one thing I would criticize about it, it would be that the movie had a bland color palette and relied too heavily on grand landscape scenes and its soundtrack.
If your life was being turned into a movie, who would play you or narrate your story?
I’ve always been a huge fan of Jude Law since I saw him in Enemy at the Gates. If I wanted anybody to play me it would be him!
