About me

I am a “Mathematisch technischer Assistent” with a strong background on Database Design, SQL and PL/SQL Programming as well as on Java and Ruby. I’m a certified Java programmer (OCPJP 8.0) as well as a certified PRINCE2® practitioner. Coding is one part of software development, architecture and the documentation thereof another. I am a certified professional for software architecture (CPSA-F).

Everytime i ran across some troubles concerning software, development or compiling stuff, i always get annoyed if i didn’t write the solution down. So i opened this blog as my personal scratch pad for some more or less usefull solutions i’ve found or developed.

Since 2016 I am a member of the NetBeans Dream Team and since 2018 I am a recognized Java Champion, an achievement that has made me extremely happy. I work as a software engineer at Neo4j.

In April 2019, Oracle invited me to be part of their Groundbreaker Ambassadors program, supporting me in promoting Java and the ecosystem even more.

If you like, have a look at my current CV:

Michael Simons CV 2018.

A CV including certificates is available at request as well. You may not redistribute or share my CV without my written permission.

Books

I co-authored arc42 by example, a collection of uses of the arc42 template for architecture and I am the author of the bestselling, first German book on Spring Boot: Spring Boot 2 – Moderne Softwareentwicklung mit Spring.

Contributions

Thanks to our great open source community, I could actively contribute to many of my favorite projects. Among them are Spring Boot since very early on, Spring Security, Testcontainers for Java, some of the Spring Data modules and many more.

Working in open source also means connecting with and connecting people. Being able solve problems, get ideas across projects its invaluable. For the projects itself but also for personal growth behind beaten paths.

List of talks

I do talks usually with a corresponding GitHub repository, but I also have a Speaker Deck as well.

Spring I/O 2016: It’s a kind of magic? – Custom Spring Boot Starter
NetBeans Evening Cologne 2016: NetBeans, Maven und Spring Boot …mehr Spaß zusammen
W-JAX 2016: Keine Magie: Individuelle Spring-Boot-Module
DOAG K+A 2016: Database centric applications with Spring Boot and jOOQ
Spring Community Meetup Munich 2017: Database centric applications with Spring Boot and jOOQ (english version)
JUG Essen 2017: Datenbankzentrische Anwendungen mit Spring Boot und jOOQ.
Spring I/O 2017: Bootiful database-centric applications with jOOQ (Video), super nice recap by Ordina JWorks
Transylvania JUG 2017: Get The Most Out Of Your Data Layer
JUG Hessen 2017: Datenbankzentrische Anwendungen mit Spring Boot und jOOQ
Ordina Belgium JWorks 2017: Live with your SQL-fetish and choose the right tool for the job
JUG Darmstadt 2017: Die Magie hinter Spring-Boot-Startern (YouTube), Blogpost von Jörn Hameister
JAX 2018: Spring Boot 2 – Hot Topics
Spring I/0 2018: Micrometer: New insights into your Spring Boot application with a transcript here and a video there
Devoxx Ukraine 2018: Going from relational databases to databases with relations with Neo4j and Spring Data with a video here.
JavaLand 2019: Von relationalen Datenbanken zu Datenbanken mit Beziehungen, shorter and German version.

Other publications

Other activities

JavaLand 2017: Part of the program committee
JavaLand 2017: Organizing JavaLand 4 Kids (Mentoring a group of about 20 kids programming Lego Mindstorms)
JavaLand 2018: Mentor for the newcomers program at JavaLand 2018
JavaLand 2018: Part of the program committee
JavaLand 2019: Mentor for the newcomers program for JavaLand 2019
JavaLand 2019: Part of the program committee

You’ll find a list of featured and noteworthy posts on the start page.

In case of any questions, drop me a line at michael@simons.ac. You may also add me on LinkedIn or XING, but really, follow me on twitter:

Follow @rotnroll666