Simon Castagna

Tell us a bit about Simon Castagna
Hey, Simon here! 👋 Growing up in a fusion of French, American and Italian cultures, I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider wherever I’ve lived. Maybe that’s why I decided to move to California to study the intersection of Western popular culture, philosophy and religion. My master’s was partly introspective, but it also aligned with a nagging interest in how meaning is created. After my studies I worked for Fuller Graduate Schools in Pasadena for a few years before moving to Oslo to start a new adventure.

What made you decide to come and work for Kosli?
There were two deciding factors. Firstly, in all my interactions with Kosli during the hiring process, there was a genuine interest in me as a person beyond my skill set. The job posting I responded to started with ‘Join Team Human’. It’s a small detail, but it made me feel like human concerns would be important here and I wasn’t wrong.

The second thing is the wealth of experience behind the company. As someone fairly new to the field, I felt like it would be a great environment for me to grow as a developer. This has also proved to be true. We work exclusively in ensemble programming, so I not only get to see how engineers with decades of experience solve problems, I also get feedback from these same engineers in real time.

What were you doing before Kosli?
My journey has been colorful and varied, from Intercultural Studies, to brewing and distilling, all the way to full stack development! At Fuller Graduate Schools I worked as a web coordinator and UI designer. I led the redesign of their website, developed external-facing sites, and expanded the school’s communication channels. My enthusiasm for web development led me to complete the Code Institute’s full stack diploma in Software Development where I learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React and Python with the Flask and Django frameworks.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
When I moved to Oslo I was working at Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri, a small craft brewery located in a historical brewery from the 19th century, so as you can imagine, I do enjoy myself a nice farmhouse ale every now and then. On my time off I also like fixing up my bike and pickling or fermenting pretty much anything I can get my hands on 🧀 Holding strong to my French roots, I strive to bring France’s “bon vivant” way of life to Norway. Santé! 🥂