As part of our ongoing Employee Spotlight Series, we sat down (virtually) with Caleb Scholze, one of our team leads and lead developers for our custom software group.
How long have you been with Atiba and what is your role?
I’ve been with Atiba for almost five years and serve as a Team Lead and Lead Developer in our custom software group.
What is your favorite part about working at Atiba?
Being new to the field, I wanted my first software gig to be a consulting company to get as much exposure to the “tech business” as possible. Atiba has fulfilled my expectations in every regard from working with the full gamut of software technologies, helping clients see their visions become reality, and getting to learn from, grow, and work with incredible talent every day.
What motivates you to wake up and go to work?
Besides my mortgage, it’s the need to rise to a challenge. Software is one of the most unique environments I’ve worked in as I’ve never been faced with the same problem twice. Waking up each day I know I’ll have to help find the solution to an unknown issue, continue to set the bar higher, and end up accomplishing more than I thought I was capable of.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I am and always have been afraid of heights, yet proposed to my wife after jumping out of an airplane. I’m still afraid of heights.
What’s one movie quote that you always use?
“I’ll be back” – used most often to ensure dinner guests that I do, in fact, intend to return from a mid-meal trip to the restroom.
What was the best vacation you ever took?
My best vacation has to be the surprise birthday trip my wife (then fiancée) planned to New Orleans for my 30th birthday. Over a long weekend, we lodged in the heart of the French quarter at Bienville house, had fresh beignets and coffee at Café du Monde, toured the bayou, had a jazz quartet sing me happy birthday at the Court of the Three Sisters, enjoyed a Sunday brunch Steamboat Jazz cruise up and down the Mississippi, and so many other incredible memories I haven’t mentioned, but will never forget.
What led you to get into your work today?
I came to Nashville with a background in electrical engineering and enthusiasm for music and wanted to get into the recording scene. After a few months of waiting tables and pursuing internship opportunities with local studios, I hooked up with a local metal band playing bass. The lead singer happened to be a data analyst (guru) for Change Healthcare at the time and told me I needed to reconsider what I was doing in Nashville. After putting me in front of some incredible people to illustrate his point, I got turned on to the idea of software development. After falling in love with the Nashville tech community and a rigorous tenure at Nashville Software School, I ended up at Atiba and have been here ever since.
