Featured Fíontan: Meet Hassan Elhassan

Hassan, you’re an “oldie” here at Fíonta – you were hired in 2015! Tell me about how you came on board.

I can’t believe it’s been that long! Lots of great memories.

It all started with Deborah. We worked together for about a year at my previous employer. She told me Fíonta (back then Confluence) was looking for a web developer to join the small DC team, sent in my resume, had a 30-40 minutes call with Lisa Rau, and the rest was history. Lisa’s excitement and energy over the phone convinced me to join :).

How’d you first get into WordPress? Do you remember the first website you developed?

I learned HTML and CSS from the early days of MySpace! I was that person with a cool custom “pimped out” profile lol. During that time, I was getting into music production and DJing and needed a way to promote my stuff online. I created my first music website (probably using Dreamweaver) in 2007 and kept improving my skills since. I was dabbling with many tools and technologies from Flash to Joomla. I got deep into WordPress at my previous employer.

Your home office setup is, if I’m not mistaken, entirely controlled by Apple Home and the newest iPhone and Apple Watch. Is it even possible to turn on a light manually in your home? Remind me how many monitors you have.

My tech home setup is complex now with 40-50 smart home devices. I can control everything from my phone, laptop, watch, voice, and from anywhere around the world. Yes, it is still possible to turn stuff on/off the old-fashioned way, but you wouldn’t want to do that. I’ve created multiple scenes and automation to make things easier. 

For example, I just say “bedtime” to Siri, and it will dim the lights in the nursery, shut unnecessary plugs, start the humidifier, and HomePod play a specific bedtime playlist at a specific volume. There are also other automatic actions for air quality, temperature, humidity, and so on. Imagine having to do these things manually daily! You can do so much with home automation.

My clean, minimal home office desk is awesome, too. I have a huge 38” curved ultrawide monitor with the laptop screen to the side on the biggest sit/stand desk you can find (70.5”x30”).

You’ve worked with many inspiring clients during your tenure. Share a bit about a project you’ve worked on that was meaningful to you and why.

I have worked on lots of websites, from small restaurants to huge associations, over the years. They are all meaningful in different ways. However, there is one special pro-bono project; “Dating Abuse Stops Here”. A small awareness organization by a local mom who lost her 19-year-old daughter from dating abuse by her ex-boyfriend. You can read the story here: https://www.datingabusestopshere.com/shev-s-story 

Which of Fíonta core value(s) makes you sing and why?

Do what’s right even when hard. If I don’t do things right, it will haunt my mind till I make it right, no matter what. 

What new skills do you want to pick up over the next year?

I want to dig deeper into Drupal, web/SF integrations, and toy with React in my off time.

You have taken some epic vacations over the past several years. If you had to pick, where’s your favorite spot on earth?

Hmm, that’s tough. It depends on what I am doing there… 

I’ll go with Hawaii because you have lots to do, multiple islands, beautiful beaches, great food, and I got married there 🙂

Binge watch or weekly episodes?

Binge

Soup or salad?

Soup

Car or public transportation?

Car

Packed itinerary or open schedule?

Packed itinerary

Favorite nut butter?

Hazelnut