Meet Andrew Lewisohn

Title: Flex Team Lead

Joined Arc90 in: September 2006

Most people don’t know that: I’m an excellent snowboarder

When Andrew Lewisohn interviewed with Arc90 for the Flex Developer position, his expectations about the company were a bit askew because of its Midtown address.

“I had only worked in corporate places,” the Hoboken, N.J. resident recalled. “In that environment, you wear a suit. I came in and saw everybody was dressed very casually in jeans and sneakers. It was summer so everybody was wearing T-shirts.”

Lewisohn survived the culture shock; the 28-year-old admits that he won’t be going back to the corporate world anytime soon.

“This is my ideal work environment,” he said. “I wouldn’t know how to adapt to working in the real world again.”

The casual dress style isn’t the only reason he loves his job.

“I love the culture here,” he said of Arc90. “It’s more relaxed. It’s about productivity instead of logging time.”

“There’s no hierarchy-it’s a very small pond with a lot of big fish and that makes it competitive,” Lewisohn added. “Everybody is good at what they do so you don’t have to worry about people falling down.”

Lewisohn graduated from Muhlenberg College with a degree in English Literature and entered the world of technology by chance.

“I kind of backed into it,” he said. “When I finished school, I got a job as production assistant and they needed work done in Flash.”

Lewisohn was one of the first Flex developers at Arc90. His expertise and management skills contributed to his promotion to the role of Flex Team lead in June 2008.

“We hired more developers and I moved into the mentoring role,” he said. “I helped the new developers learn how Flex works and helped them overcome any problems they encountered while developing.”

The Flex team consists of five developers, including RIA Web Developer Sima Shimansky.

“It’s a lot of fun working with Andy because he has a good sense of humor. It’s also humbling because he knows so much about Flex and has such a tight grasp on application development concepts,” said Shimansky. “I try not to think about the fact that he’s two years younger than me.”

Working closely together over time, the two have established a bartering system where his Flex knowledge is exchanged for her baked goods.

“It kind of became a thing where she could get my attention by placing baked goods in front of me,” Lewisohn said. “Now, whenever she needs major help, she brings me cookies. I think the arrangement works well.”

Shimansky further showed her appreciation by baking a large cookie for Lewisohn’s last birthday.

“He is always taking time from whatever he’s doing to help me with Flex stuff because that’s his area of expertise,” said Shimansky.  “I wanted to give back a little in a way that showcased some of my own expertise.”

Lewisohn’s dedication to his job-and Arc90-was evident when he was willing to spend a significant portion of his day traveling on bus between Manalapan, N.J. and New York City. During his first eight months at Arc90, Lewisohn spent approximately five hours on his daily journey to and from the office.

“Whenever I get irritated with my commute, I just remember what it used to be and I feel better,” he said.

Lewisohn spent most of his travel time reading and averaged about three books per week. As an avid reader, Lewisohn would have also considered a career as a writer.

“If I weren’t a programmer, I would be writing a novel,” he said.