 |
|
Why APT?
I've always been interested in Math and Computer Science, majoring in both at Cornell, so the opportunity to work at a company where I could put them to good use immediately attracted me to APT. As I met more people and saw how APT worked, I liked it better and better. The feeling of collaboration, the opportunity to have a big effect on a small team, and the chance to work with other talented, motivated people made me certain about my choice.
As an engineer at APT, I've been trusted with major projects from the first day, starting with a major feature linking analysis to economic impact and most recently a complete revamp of one of the most central aspects of our product's organization and user interface. The environment of collaboration is great, and it gave me the chance to make a huge impact from my first day, grow professionally, and drive my own success. Even my first feature is something I'm still proud of, and my most recent UI project has been seen and used by everyone.
Daily Responsibilities
As a lead engineer at APT, I guide the work on at least one major project a release, working with my team to make sure we have the right design and helping other engineers attack the problem in the right way. I also keep a hand in our framework code, working on everything from our testing frameworks to real-time performance tracking to easier ways to write good Javascript.
Most recently, I worked in a two-person team on a complete revamp of the our product's landing page, the first thing users see when they start using our software and the hub that everything else goes through. We had support across APT for such on such a high-profile and high-risk project, but fundamentally the two of us were trusted to lead the project and make the right design choices for a page that is our client's first impression of APT.
Our goals for the project were to end up with a faster, slicker, and more usable page, and in the process, we got to break new ground in tons of areas. One of the things I enjoy most is writing code that I know other people will benefit from, and we approached everything asking ourselves how we can write code outside just what we were working on - and have already seen people doing so.
As a small team, the two of us were able to work very collaboratively, bouncing design ideas off each other constantly and coming to a much better final result than either of us could have done alone. The environment that encourages that type of partnership is one of the best things about APT and has helped me learn an incredible amount about how to design, write, and test my code. I've code reviewed things with engineers far more senior than me and with people who started less than a month ago, and learned things in both cases. Overall, it made the project both a fun time and a great success, in addition to an illustration of why I enjoy working at APT.
Outside of Work
I am a huge reader of sci-fi and fantasy and have recently immersed myself in the most recent books by George R. R. Martin (A Dance with Dragons) and Jim Butcher (Ghost Story). I also enjoy all sorts of card and board games, especially games involving deep strategic thought. My current favorite is Dominion, an incredibly fun strategy card game that I try to get people to play whenever possible. I am also a huge Starcraft 2 fan. When not cooped up inside, I also like to emerge into the great outdoors to take hikes and go sightseeing in the DC area.