Meet the Team: Kwasi Danso, Headforwards .NET Developer

Microcontrollers to programming

Kwasi’s dad first brought a computer home in the late 90s and piqued his interest in computers and technology, much like our Co-Founder Craig and Dynamics Developer Mike.  It started with trying to find computer games with his sister, and quickly developed into wanting to figure out how computers worked.

Kwasi went on to study Computer Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, a subject he chose due to his interest in Microcontrollers. However, programming was first on the curriculum: “They first introduced us to programming, and I realised I loved it. For some reason I was drawn more to the software development side of things than I was the embedded systems, and that is where it took off.”

Corporate hold-back

Prior to joining Headforwards, Kwasi worked with a Ghanian software development company in both front and backend development roles carrying out application builds.  After 6 years he moved into the banking sector as a Data Engineer where he worked closely with the Data Scientists and Business Analysts building solutions onto their models and providing solutions for moving data from source to source.

Kwasi was looking for new opportunities to learn from software development peers when the opportunity to join Headforwards came along and is relishing the chance to work in a team of developers enabling the ability to have open discussions with his peers, bouncing ideas, asking questions, receiving, and giving feedback. “I felt some things were missing, especially in terms of somebody challenging me on some of the things you are doing. So, I thought in terms of what I wanted my career path to be, I would want to be somewhere where I was in a team of developers so I can learn as much as possible from them. So, when the Headforwards opportunity came along I just grabbed at it.

You are free to come up with any design or any technology that you think will fit best for the situation, and have your teammates discuss it with you to see if it is a good idea. That is always the greatest part, you are not blocked by some hierarchy where you must get everything approved.

Kwasi Danso

.NET Developer

Just the beginning

Kwasi is at the beginning of his career with Headforwards as he only joined us in May. Since joining his main responsibilities have been helping to fix bugs and build new features to existing platforms. 

Kwasi and his teammates also spend some time working together doing mobbing and pairing activities, which he has found to be a very refreshing culture change from having to work as the sole developer in the team in his previous roles. He says: “It was a big shift from a corporate environment to this kind of culture, it’s been quite refreshing.”

Software development = fulfilment

Kwasi believes that being a great developer also comes down to morals and being a good person. “I apply that to who a developer is, for me a developer is someone who seeks out to build a solution that can make the clients and users happy, build software that serves a purpose, and to some extent make some impact and change lives. I believe that if you’re doing that, that is the greatest fulfilment in life.”