Community Connection - Mario Hernandez

We’re featuring some of the people in the Drupalverse! This Q&A series highlights some of the individuals you could meet at DrupalCon.

Every year, DrupalCon is the largest gathering of people who belong to this community. To celebrate and take note of what DrupalCon means to them, we’re featuring an array of perspectives and some fun facts to help you get to know your community.

For our third connection in this series, we feature the insight of Mario Hernandez.

Mario Hernandez (mariohernandez) is a Senior Front End Developer at MediaCurrent, which offers open source strategy, design, and development to grow digital ROI.

His Drupal experience dates back more than 12 years, when he took it upon himself to test several CMSs, and found that that Drupal “offered the most flexibility, control and security,” and subsequently launched his career as a Drupal developer.


 

Why was it you continued down the Drupal path, and how does it shape what you do currently?

Back in 2007, I was tasked to find a platform to build an emergency preparedness website as part of the Continuous Of Operations Planning (COOP), which is a Federal Court's effort to resume normal service for the Judiciary System in the event of a disaster. At the time, I had never heard of Drupal. I began by testing several CMSs, which also included Wordpress, LifeRay, Joomla, and others. At the end of my assessment, I made the recommendation to begin using Drupal, which led to building other projects, and thus beginning my career as a Drupal developer.
 

What is a piece of advice you received that influenced your career?

Probably the most important advice I received is to determine if the technology you want to use actually solves a problem. Often times we lean toward a technology because is the hottest thing out there and everyone is using it; that's the wrong reason for selecting a technology.

These are exciting times. Get fired up about what you do and share your knowledge with others.  The world will be a better place because of that.
 

What book or piece of writing have you read in the last year that impacted the way you approach your work or colleagues? Why?

I don't have a book recommendation but I read online content all the time. Most of the content I read is based on the current trends or challenges I am currently facing on a project. For the past two years, my focus has been working and teaching about component-based development.  Naturally I spend my time reading and learning about that topic in particular in order to be able to resolve issues and also teach others about it. I usually read content from: Chapter 3, Previous Next, Mediacurrent, Lullabot, and others.
 

What is one thing you think people of today will miss in 20 years?

Given how the landscape is changing with the evolution of advanced Javascript frameworks such as React, Vue, Angular, etc., I feel that Drupal-specific events will not be as big as they are now or will not exist all together. The Drupal community has done an amazing job putting events together for everyone to gather at and get to see each other, but I think we are moving toward a world where Drupal will become another tool in the toolbox.
 

What are you most looking forward to for DrupalCon Seattle?

As with any Drupal event, the thing I look forward to the most is seeing my friends and meeting new ones. I have been an active speaker for many years and as much as I enjoy doing that, the thing that excites me the most is talking and learning from people I respect and look up to.

Join us April 8 - 12, 2019 for Drupalcon Seattle!