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Portrait of Ferry To

๐Ÿ‘‹ Hi there! I'm Ferry. 

Nice to meet you. ๐Ÿ˜€

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ’ป About Me

A software engineer with two decades of experience in the industry, I love solving problems and building things. I aspire to work for myself one day to transform all my ideas into actual products.

My tech stack is .NET-focused, with C# being my current favorite language. I am also curious and continually exploring various aspects of software development such as DevOps, Cloud Infrastructure, Test Automation, and AI.

Coding is the reason I wake up every morning, right after my wife and my pets. I hope to continue working in software development for as long as I can.

I currently live in Milton Keynes, UK, with my wife and three cats. I relocated from my home country, Hong Kong, around May 2025 to experience a different lifestyle. During the pandemic, I also lived in Taiwan for about two years.

My name, Ferry, comes from a nickname given by my family members when I was young. It is an abbreviation of my legal name in Chinese and is pronounced the same as โ€œferryโ€ in Cantonese (ๆธก่ผช โ›ด๏ธ)

Fun fact: Although I have three cats, I do like ๐Ÿญ rodents very much. I had a few hamsters and mouses in the past but I was heart-broken whenever they had to go due to their relatively short life-span.

๐Ÿš€ My Career

I'm not going to delve into all the details of my professional career. For my CV, you can check out my LinkedIn profile at the bottom of this page.

Several roles throughout my career have been related to gaming. My first job after graduation involved R&D for casino slot-machine software, where I worked on both the Flash frontend and Java backend. Following that, I joined one of the largest horse racing organizations globally, also the largest taxpayer and charity in Hong Kong. Over three years there, I honed my skills in C#, the .NET stack, and various web technologies. In my sixth year, I transitioned to a mobile gaming company specializing in online betting and live video streaming of betting tables from a Cambodian casino. Interestingly, despite the nature of my work, I've never been a fan of gambling.

In 2012, my fifth year in the field, I took on a System Analyst role at an airline company. However, I quickly discovered it wasn't a good fit and resigned after three months. It wasn't until three years later that I took on another non-pure-developer role.

After leaving the mobile gaming company, I spent a year attempting to launch a dining POS system using ActionScript and MXML. Unfortunately, my technical knowledge fell short for a project requiring deep hardware integration.

Next, I served as a System Architect at Hong Kong's largest public housing developer for three years. In 2018, an opportunity from a former supervisor led me to start my own business.

Founded in 2018, VerdantSparks began as a digital consultancy, employing up to four full-time employees at its peak. During my two years in Taiwan, I ventured into building a Vet & Pet SaaS business. However, despite pitching a prototype to the Invest Taipei Office, we failed to secure funding. Eventually, resource constraints forced us to halt MVP development.

Facing significant financial setbacks, I suspended my company, returned to Hong Kong, and spent about two years as a Senior Staff Software Engineer at a SaaS startup before relocating to the UK. My tenure at the startup marked another career peak. With a fantastic team, I became a respected leader who influenced cross-team dynamics. The CTO mentored me extensively, and I experienced rapid professional growth.

However, rapid growth took a toll on my health. Stress from workload and office politics led to high blood pressure. Consequently, I decided to resign after the CTO's departure, taking a six-month career break while planning my move to the UK.

Today, I am a mid-level software developer at a large private corporation in the United States, working remotely as an individual contributor. Quietly preparing for my next career milestone.

๐Ÿ—๏ธ My tech stack

My tech stack slowly shifted from being Macromedia/Adobe-focused to .NET-focused between 2000 and 2010. I taught myself Flash and ActionScript during secondary school. When I attended technical college at the start of the 21st century, my primary IDE was Flash 4. The main languages I used during that time were VB6, VBScript, ASP, ActionScript, and some C. Over the years, I progressed from building animations to developing Rich Internet Applications, transitioning from ActionScript 2 to ActionScript 3. However, Apple's decision to phase out Flash in 2010 brought significant changes. I began learning C# around 2002, shortly after the release of the .NET Framework 1.0. Since then, it has become my primary programming language.

My main tech stack:

Technologies I'm familiar with but haven't used extensively in production:

๐ŸŽ“ My Background

WIP

My Values

๐Ÿ  My Family

๐Ÿ‘ฐโ€โ™€๏ธ My Wife Elaine

Elaine is a lovely, cheerful and clever lady. She is good at driving ๐Ÿš— and cooking ๐Ÿณ. She is my best friend who knows me better than anyone since I met her at her twenty. She married with me at age just twenty four, giving me so much love and support for all the years.

Image of my wife Elaine with me, celebrating my birthday

๐Ÿˆ Sheldon

Sheldon is a Scottish Fold & British Shorthair mix. My wife took him home shortly after the time we first met. Marking how long since I and Elaine met each other. A polite boy that is not a picky eater. He is friendly to human thus being our receptionist.

Image of my cat Sheldon

๐Ÿˆ Shamy

Shamy is a pretty domestic ginger white. Elaine adopted her from a young korean lady after a year we get married due to I like ginger cat. Her name is a combination of Sheldon and Amy from the Big Bang Theory. Resumbling her shy and quiet personality.

Image of my cat Shamy

๐Ÿˆ Seven

Seven is a lucky tabby white kid we saved during the time we lived in Taiwan. He was just a month old baby, jump into the middle of a highway, in front of our car just a couple of seconds away. Elaine stopped the car and pick him up such that he don't follow the tragic fate of his parent and siblings. Seven is playful and always hungry. He is the biggest in size among three.

Image of my cat Seven

๐Ÿ‘พ My Hobbies

Hobbies with my wife

Sports

๐ŸŽฎ Video Games

During my youth, I immersed myself in video games. Countless hours were spent in arcades enjoying games like the King of Fighters and Gundam VS Gundam series. I competed competitively in Age of Empires and StarCraft before the term eSports gained popularity. My gaming adventures extended to World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and the challenging realms of Diablo. Besides, I strived for ranks in games like League of Legends and PUBG. However, the game that occupies most of my gaming time now is Minecraft and Magic: The Gathering Arena. Playing Minecraft with my wife is a particular joy. Compared to a decade ago, my gaming habits have significantly reduced as my attention is now dedicated to coding and family life.

๐Ÿ“š Other Hobbies

I started playing and collecting Magic the Gathering cards since 1995. During some long holidays, I built Gundam Model Kits. I also enjoy reading technical books and comics before bedtime. And last but not least, I love petting my cats. ๐Ÿˆ๐Ÿˆ๐Ÿˆ