David Schoutens
Mentor
(25 reviews)
US$25.00
For every 15 mins
87
Sessions/Jobs
ABOUT ME
Software Development Skills and Career Mentor
Software Development Skills and Career Mentor
Full-stack software craftsman and technical leader with over 15 years of experience. Equally adept at system design, programming, technical leadership, mentorship, and business collaboration. Have a wide breadth of technical experience, but specialize in backend API development, relational databases, and web applications. Passionate about simplicity and efficiency.
I have worked at over a dozen companies large and small, in a handful of different domains. Also participated in hundreds of interviews, about half-and-half as the interviewer and the interviewee. I have given dozens of talks and training sessions on a variety of topics, mostly focusing on distributed systems, caching, and testing.
My top skills are Java, SQL, testing, and refactoring.
I have experience with formal academic and professional mentorship, and would love to help you skill up, solve a problem, or just nerd out with you today!
English
Eastern Time (US & Canada) (-05:00)
Joined February 2017
EXPERTISE
15 years experience | 9 endorsements
I have been hands-on with Java from version 1.5 up to Java 22. I can help you basics, advanced concurrency, and everything in between.
I have been hands-on with Java from version 1.5 up to Java 22. I can help you basics, advanced concurrency, and everything in between.
15 years experience
Most projects in my career have leveraged a relational SQL database. I have considerable expertise in SQL query performance optimization.
Most projects in my career have leveraged a relational SQL database. I have considerable expertise in SQL query performance optimization.
15 years experience | 1 endorsement
I have spent several focused years on JavaScript, Typescript, and web frameworks. I can help you navigate around the rough edges.
I have spent several focused years on JavaScript, Typescript, and web frameworks. I can help you navigate around the rough edges.
15 years experience
I can help you get more value out of your test suite and avoid pitfalls that make tests annoying and expensive to maintain.
I can help you get more value out of your test suite and avoid pitfalls that make tests annoying and expensive to maintain.
10 years experience
After training on refactoring, my approach to programming transformed. I can teach you this superpower (or fix your legacy codebase).
After training on refactoring, my approach to programming transformed. I can teach you this superpower (or fix your legacy codebase).
15 years experience
I can advise you on when to use a Factory, Builder, Proxy, Visitor, Strategy, etc (and how to avoid going overboard on patterns!).
I can advise you on when to use a Factory, Builder, Proxy, Visitor, Strategy, etc (and how to avoid going overboard on patterns!).
8 years experience | 1 endorsement
Git is ubiquitous, but most people only know the basics. I can help you go deep, or get you out of trouble if you fear you've made a mist...
Git is ubiquitous, but most people only know the basics. I can help you go deep, or get you out of trouble if you fear you've made a mistake.
REVIEWS FROM CLIENTS
(25 reviews)
Geridog
January 2025
You won't find a better mentor than this guy. He is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the field and I never could have expected him to have been this good at explaining a concept to me.
James Mitchell
January 2025
David was ready with everything I needed to know, explained it in a way that was crystal-clear and easy to understand and gave me several options on ways to solve the problem. Along the way I learned a lot that will be useful for other projects. He is a pleasure to speak with and learn from. I highly recommend him to anyone needing help. He is a natural educator.
Julian Madrigal
November 2024
Excellent mentor! He is very patient and understanding.
william spencer
October 2024
Couldn't have asked for a better mentor.
Joe
October 2024
Very enthusiastic about teaching coding. Thank you David.
Removed User
October 2024
As always, a good session, he was able to assist with utilizing long arrays in a method for my project. Would recommend.
Removed User
October 2024
Another good session, we were able to cover enhanced for loops which were new to me. This helped streamline alot of code for my project.
Alejandro Suarez
October 2024
He was able to help me with my project after other tutors were not able to.
Removed User
September 2024
I really liked working with this instructor, he took the time to explain what was going on in the code. Then, explained the why behind the changes for code implementation. I will be messaging this instructor directly again in the future.
Eric Snidecor
September 2024
Money very well spent. Even had a good reading of the problem before our session even began. If you want a problem solved quickly within his skillset your time will not be wasted.
SOCIAL PRESENCE
devbox
Shell
1
1
simple-jdbc
Java
1
0
EMPLOYMENTS
Sr. Staff Software Engineer
Fanatics Betting & Gaming
2023-05-01-Present
- Designed new mission-critical system serving majority of application traffic
- This system has one of the lowest incident rates of any ...
- Designed new mission-critical system serving majority of application traffic
- This system has one of the lowest incident rates of any system at FBG
- Saved at least 5 person-years of development time by simplifying architecture
- Built a custom caching solution which hugely improved network efficiency
- Optimized a few key database tables, transforming them from pain to asset
Java
MongoDB
Spring
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Java
MongoDB
Spring
PostgreSQL
WebSocket
React
Apache Kafka
AWS
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Staff Software Engineer
Crossbeam
2022-04-01-2023-03-01
- Achieved 100x optimization in PostgreSQL, avoiding a costly re-platforming effort
- Re-developed reporting system which drastically red...
- Achieved 100x optimization in PostgreSQL, avoiding a costly re-platforming effort
- Re-developed reporting system which drastically reduced overall system load
- Developed a technique to cut team's production debugging time in half
- Simplified testing framework to make testing complex scenarios easy
- Improved team velocity through mob programming and pair programming
PostgreSQL
Elasticsearch
GitLab
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PostgreSQL
Elasticsearch
GitLab
Clojure
Apache Kafka
Vue.js
AWS
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Principal Software Engineer
ZoomInfo
2020-11-01-2022-03-01
- Hands-on technical lead & architect of new product from inception to launch
- Got project actually moving through clear communication (...
- Hands-on technical lead & architect of new product from inception to launch
- Got project actually moving through clear communication (diagrams are great!)
- Established org-wide standards for Java, tests, build tooling, and static analysis
- Leveraged gRPC (Protobuf) and bytestreams to speed up key services
- Thrived in an environment using a dizzying array of different technologies
Node.js
MongoDB
Angular
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Node.js
MongoDB
Angular
PostgreSQL
Grails
Google BigQuery
Big Data
Google Cloud Platform
Spring Boot
DynamoDB
Solr 4
Apache Kafka
Java 11
AWS
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