Hi there! You have landed on the blog of Christos Matskas, a developer, speaker, writer, Principal Tech Keynote Lead at AWS (Amazon Web Services) and geek. I currently live with my family in Seattle, WA. This blog is the testimony of my journey to reach in tech, fitness and life in general. As I grow, I document my problems, troubles, obstacles, bugs and worries and then I do my best to come up with a solution, a hack or a cool trick. And then I blog about it!
Within these pages you may find the answer to your problem or read something that helps you come up with your own solution. If that’s the case, then I will be happy I helped one more person in the world: YOU. In some cases, you may disagree or find my code ridiculous. Feel free to let me know and I will do my best to fix it. Oftentimes, I find my code ridiculous too; especially when I look back to something I wrote yesterday, 6 months or a year ago. And this is great, because it means I’m a bit better.
BACKGROUND
I have been working as a developer for over 18 years across most popular technology stacks but I love working with C#, Node.js and Python. I have a degree in Software Engineering and a Master in Advance Computer Networking. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to work on some really cool and high profile projects with great companies such as Microsoft, MarkIT, Strathclyde University, Amor/Lockheed Martin, Ignis Asset Management, Barclays etc. However, my love for coding extends well beyond my day job. It's not uncommon to find me coding on side projects and exploring new technologies on and off the cloud. I work, maintain and contribute to a number of Open Source projects. If you have time, check out my GitHub profile: cmatskas.
CAREER
I currently work at AWS as a Keynote Tech Lead, where I help our leadership team find the right message and voice to speak to the millions of developers, builders and architects that build solutions on and with AWS technologies and services. Prior to joining AWS, I worked as a Program Manager for the Microsoft Identity division, in the Developer Advocacy team where I helped spread the voice, raise awareness and help customers and developers build better, more secure solutions. I still get to do a lot with the community and open source as part of my job description and I constantly learn about new things.
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS
All my OSS projects are available on GitHub and some are available to download through NuGet. I make a conscious effort to contribute to other OSS projects whenever my schedule allows it.
I recently published an amazing course on "Securing Python Fast API solutions with Microsoft Identity". It goes through the basics of authentication and authorization as well as teaching how how to secure your APIs using Azure AD or Azure AD B2C.
I also love public speaking so it's not unlikely that you may find me speaking at one of the local user groups or conferences near you :)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Always on the cutting edge of technology, I’m one of the first people to download and run Alpha and Beta software resulting in a lot of fun, frustration, laughter, excitement, tears and swearing (when the kids are asleep or can’t hear me). I recently became a triathlete competing in local and global events. On my downtime, I spend most of my time with my family. Weekends are totally dedicated to my wife and our two girls. My wife makes sure I don’t forget this!
SUMMARY
This is my exciting journey trying to learn something new and useful every day. There's still an insurmountable amount of knowledge lying ahead of me. I urge you to join me on my quest to grow both professionally and personally. You can find me on twitter, or you can email me should you have coding, Identity or Azure related questions or need help with anything.