Brandon Richey
Software Engineer
Brandon recently left the corporate side of holding CTO and SVP of Engineering titles to come back to his roots and focus on what he loves: Being a software engineer. He resides in New City, NY for a reason. “Close enough to go into the city when I want to and far enough away that I have my own space,” he said with a smile. “The best of both worlds.” Brandon also enjoys mixed martial arts, jiu jitsu, video games (his arcade game collection is pristine, by the way), oil painting and collecting art books. “Every once in a while it's nice when my brain is stuck on a programming problem, I can look at something aesthetically pleasing and give my brain a chance to think, and my eyes a chance to focus elsewhere.”
Least Favorite Emoji
The Dancing Woman “Very specific. It's someone who was in the product management team. Every time she had a new request, she would end it with THAT emoji. And I immediately started associating it with, 'Oh, I'm going to get asked to do something weird, aren't I?' Every time I see it now.”
Favorite Holiday Movie
Die Hard or Home Alone
Who would dress up like Santa in Echobind?
If Cully could get that onesie in red, then him.
Most Used App?
I'm a sucker for YouTube
Food that doesn't get enough credit
Poutine. “I will stand by poutine as one of the greatest foods out there. You can do a lot with it. The world is your oyster.”
Where would you like the next Echobind Retreat to be?
Somewhere warm is Brandon's hope, because he's spending yet another winter in the frigid Northeast.
Projects you loved most in 2023
Brandon started with Echobind in October, and has been working exclusively on the Annex project, helping to build an E-commerce platform for their business centered around locally storing and securing important documents on site for their customers.
Your Personal peak/high of the year
The confidence boost of circling back to an engineering role and quickly contributing at a high level, after having worked on the management side of technology for a decade. “I remember working on a really hard problem and I thought, 'Oh, right … I've solved this exact problem way, way in the past. But I've solved it.' So I put it all together, wrote it up and holy cow, it actually worked. It was the same as I remember it. It's nice to know that the muscle didn't completely atrophy.”
Advice you'd give January 2023 version of yourself
“Trust your instincts. I struggled with that at the start of the year,” said Brandon, in reference to his job search before joining Echobind. “My instincts ended up telling me I had to find the right fit. It was easy to be complacent, and say, 'I'll make it work'. But I turned down other job opportunities and I'm so glad I did. You have to trust your instincts. They're probably right most of the time. It's good to trust that again.”
Favorite work-from-home perk or accessory:
Brandon loves that he's not cut off from the rest of his life while he's working. “I used to commute into the city every day for an hour and a half to two hours each way, everyday. Just being able to have that back as a perk…and also to feel like my time is more respected as well.”