Get To Know Austin Gil
Austin studied Kinesiology in school, but after discovering web development, he never looked back. For about 3 years it has been an ever-growing passion of his which started as a hobby, turned into an internship, taken him into freelancing, and has now landed him as a full-time, lead developer at an agency in San Diego — Visceral.
We’re thrilled Austin will be speaking at WordCamp Sacramento 2016 on Web Performance: Three Stages to Success!
Speaker Q&A With Austin
To help you learn even more about Austin, we asked him to answer a few questions for us, some WordPress-related, and some others we think you’ll appreciate 🙂 Be sure to give him a shout out on Twitter and don’t forget to use our hashtag #wcsac.
What inspired you to give this talk at WordCamp?
Since becoming a developer I find myself feeling very passionate about performance and really enjoying working with WordPress. I also come across a few tricks or see areas of improvement that I would like to share with the rest of the community.
How did you discover WordPress?
At my first internship, WordPress was the CMS of choice. Im glad for that too.
How has WordPress Or WordCamp impacted you?
I was introduced to WordPress very early on in my career and am glad about it. It has taught me a lot about open source, best practices, community, giving back, and so much more. It also makes building sites incredibly easy.
How do you primarily work with WordPress?
At my company, Visceral, we primarily build custom tailored websites for nonprofits and cause-driven organizations. I am a lead developer so I build custom themes and plugins most of my days.
What does the WordCamp theme Discovery mean to you?
I think the nature of every developer is to be curious and try new things. WordPress has so many features and functions that I discover on a regular basis, it’s awesome. Discovery could be learning something new about core, learning about a new plugin, or finding out how other people are building their businesses.
What is the latest book you read?
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (re-read). Currently reading Our Final Invention by James Barrat.
What is your favorite restaurant? Favorite menu item?
Hikari Sushi (Brescia, IT); All you can eat sushi!
What TV series are you current binging on/into?
I don’t really watch television. Stranger Things is pretty good.
What do you do for fun?
I travel a bit, hike, play soccer, and I like to play around with other technologies outside of WordPress. Currently working on a NodeJS project.