Ronnel Ilagan

I have been contracting since 2012, mostly full-stack work for agencies and companies that need someone to come in and finish something. That means I have seen a lot of other people's code and almost no greenfield, which I have made peace with — the interesting part is usually the thing nobody wants to touch. My default stack is deliberately boring: a relational database, a server that renders most of the page, and JavaScript only where it earns its place. I do my own estimating and client conversations now, which I was genuinely bad at for about six years. Two kids and a house that is permanently half-renovated, so the side projects that exist are small and mostly solve something in my own week.