Who are you, and what do you do?

Justin Welsch
Lead Developer for Shared Code/Recorder SDK/Anti-Piracy

How did you find out about TechSmith?

I saw TechSmith on Monster.com way back in 2001. I called the number listed and spoke to Bill Hamilton himself.

What do you like most about working at TechSmith?

I like that TechSmith is a relatively small company (or has a small company feel) that has many people who are passionate about what they work on. I have also enjoyed watching it grow from a 35 person company to a 200+ person company.

What setup (hardware + software) are you using?

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad running Windows 7. I use Visual Studio 10 for most development work.

What was the most interesting thing you’ve seen and/or done while at TechSmith?

The most interesting thing I did was develop the .SWF output for Camtasia Studio back in 2002-3. Back then we were one of the first applications that let you output a video to .SWF. Since .SWFs were easy to give to other people to watch it immediately made a splash. The engineering challenge of shoehorning video into essentially an animation container was a real challenge.

What is a trick that you do all the time that you think not very many people know about?

I’ve seen a lot of developers use “Find All References” in Visual Studio when they are looking for a piece of code like a method or a member variable. I find that it is way faster to use “Find In Files” (Ctrl+Shift+F). I also use Ctrl+Shift+L to delete a line. This is better than Ctrl+X because it doesn’t put anything on the clipboard.

Explain how a feature goes from conception to completion on your team

Since I am the only member of my “team”, it usually starts with me or my manager identifying a problem. We work together to get it solved.

Explain how your role as a lead developer differs from a regular developer

Lead developers own the code, serve as mentors, act like mini-project managers, and handle communication outside of the developer team. Lead developers do a lot of the overhead that allows “regular” developers to do their job.

Is there anything else you think people should know about being a developer at TechSmith?

Always be on the lookout for how you can make a difference on your team, your product, or the company. Do not rely on other people to give things for you to do. Be proactive and seek out useful projects.