Simon Bruins

Simon was raised in a small town near Utrecht, in the center of the Netherlands as oldest of four.
After finishing highschool he went to University College Utrecht where, besides tracks in anthropology and neuroscience, he majored in Computer Science. He continued at Utrecht University with a master in Game and Media Technology but switched halfway to start an Air Traffic Controller Traineeship at LVNL (Amsterdam Airport) after being selected as one of 30 candidates (from 1500 applicants). After passing the initial training, he didn't make it through the final procedural ATC selection test. This experience taught him a lot about how to manage stress and prioritize effective over efficient solutions.

The following months he worked as a tester for a project at EA Games in Madrid, Spain after which he joined Cimsolutions BV. as a Junior Software Engineer. Here he followed a .NET development bootcamp, including classes in RUP, Agile and Testing. It was shortly after graduating from this bootcamp that he started his professional career in Software Engineering. Various positions have since taken him through a wide range of responsibilities and have garnered him a large amount of experience.
Recently Simon has been working remotely as a freelance software engineer while traveling between Netherlands, Spain, California and Montreal, Canada, where he lives with his long time girlfriend.

Outside working hours Simon enjoys an active lifestyle: Besides enjoying motorcycles, climbing, wintersports and games, Simon is an instructor at the McGill Kendo and Naginata clubs.
In his remaining free time, he enjoys coaching students at computer programming courses and online projects.