Livia's Experience

I’m Livia, and I’ve been a Graduate Engineer at RecordPoint for four months. I started after finishing a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Washington. I have been interested in computing since junior high school, particularly in machine learning, database, and user interface. 

The Graduate Program interview

I was surprised to learn that the Graduate Engineer interview would include a group activity with other candidates, which was playing with Lego. While waiting in the office with other candidates, we discussed our programming skills and recent projects, all of us excited to showcase our abilities during what we assumed would be a peer-programming interview. We were astonished to find that the first section of the interview involved us working together with Lego to build things according to a set of requirements. Looking back, I can see how important that session was to assess a candidate’s problem-solving skills and to evaluate their teamwork and communication skills. Candidates also wrote code during the breakout interview sessions. The group interview showed how much RecordPoint values hiring employees who work well with others.

Rotations

After passing the graduate interview, I officially joined RecordPoint as a Graduate Engineer in August 2018. I knew the nine-month graduate program would involve three rotations with at least one technical team rotation and one customer-facing rotation. My first rotation was in the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team. I worked with six engineers and one product manager. My second rotation is in a fast-paced specialist development team of four engineers, spearheaded by the CTO. We’re currently focused on improving our product using machine learning.

Onboarding

The onboarding process with both teams was smooth. RecordPoint invests resources to ensure graduates understand the company’s business, products, customers, and the full software development lifecycle. The first week in any rotation always starts with several meetings to get an in-depth understanding of the team, such as the team’s processes, software architecture, backend code, and other technical areas so you can work as a fully functioning team member.

Besides introductions to technical topics, I participated in several one-on-one sessions focused on our product and customers. These are important to ensure all engineers understand our customer’s requirements so we can continue developing products that meet their needs and solve their problems. To ease my transition, I was also assigned a buddy in each team who helped answer questions about the tasks I was working on and helped me get familiarized with the company’s codebase by peer-programming with me.

The Graduate Program experience

RecordPoint allows me to drive what I get out of each rotation. In my SRE rotation, I worked on creating a test suite for our environment deployments and reporting tools to ensure data integrity. Although each team’s backlog is maintained by a product manager, I was encouraged to help shape the backlog by expressing my views on priorities and how I thought the team’s workflows and the product could be improved.

It has also been wonderful to experience working with engineers in other parts of the world. At first, I was concerned about how to work effectively as a team, knowing that some teammates were on the other side of the world! However, connecting over the internet and completing a written stand-up helped make my workflow effective. Knowing someone can pick up my work when I am heading home for the day is greatly appreciated.

Conclusion

I am glad I joined the RecordPoint Graduate Program. I received a great introduction to the workplace. It has provided me with an excellent transition from being an uncertain computer science student to a software engineer fully contributing to the business. My rotations have allowed me to work in areas that continue my lifetime learning journey, have exposed me to roles that I would never have considered, and have given me a solid understanding of what it’s like to work in a company that gives opportunities for learning and personal growth.

Apply Today!

If you are interested in RecordPoint’s Graduate Program, submit your application on our Graduate Program page.