Work(ing) at Wealthfront: Allison Hume
Allison is a Software Engineer on the DevOps team at Wealthfront. She grew up in the Philadelphia area and received an undergraduate degree in Astrophysics and a certificate in Applications of Computing from Princeton University. She also received a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She enjoys reading and doing yoga, and loves all types of live music.
How did you hear about Wealthfront?
I’ve been a client for a while now! A friend who was a client before me first told me about Wealthfront.
You received your undergraduate degree in Astrophysics. What compelled you to pivot and pursue a Master’s Degree in Computer Science and join Wealthfront?
It’s actually funny because the first computer science class I took my freshman year of college I didn’t enjoy at all. Over the next year or so, however, I became obsessed with working on an astrophysical simulation for my undergraduate research project, so I realized it would be helpful to take a few more CS classes. I was amazed during my second class to realize that I was actually loving it! A few classes led to a few more and I became more and more interested in CS and decided that I wanted to go in that direction, rather than continuing to study astrophysics.
I first looked into working at Wealthfront because it is a product that I think is both meaningful and exciting. Learning about the engineering team and culture made me feel that Wealthfront would be a place where I could continue to learn and grow as an engineer for a long time. Finally, when I came to interview, I was amazed at how warm and welcoming every single person was.
What is the most valuable thing you have learned at Wealthfront? What surprised you the most about working here?
Something that I am learning more every single day is how to think about breaking work into small, digestible chunks. That is definitely not a skill that is emphasized in school, but it is essential to both the code-review and continuous deployment culture at Wealthfront. Every day I think I am getting a little better at it, and the better you get, the more important you realize it is to be able to break a project into small pieces that are understandable by yourself, your future self, and your colleagues.
The most surprising thing about Wealthfront has been how many opportunities there are to learn about the work happening outside of your area.
What is your favorite tradition at Wealthfront?
Formal Fridays! Maybe it’s not quite a tradition yet, but it should be.
What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on so far at Wealthfront?
I’m really enjoying the project I’m working on right now, which involves adding monitoring around our VPN. Adding new monitoring is fun because it feels like turning on a light in a room that you have been in before, but never been able to fully see.
What do you want the world to know about you?
I love very, very dark chocolate. I think that Trader Joe’s “The Dark Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate” is the best quality per dollar but I will gladly take up any challengers for a taste-test.
Interested in working with Allison? Check out our open roles.
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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on November 10, 2016.
