Can you tell us a little bit about the kind of work you do?
I am a software engineer at Amazon on the Campus Team. The Campus team owns physical locations for students at various universities in the United States to pick up their packages (e.g. textbooks and things they need for their dorm) and also offers benefits such as free 1-day shipping, free returns. Some locations even offer instant pickup (order now – pickup in 2 minutes!). My work revolves around architecting and building various pieces of software required for the customer’s pickup experience.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/campus/info
https://www.amazon.com/gp/campus/instantpickup
What have been the turning points and milestones in your career?
While I was studying mechanical engineering, I always kind of had an interest in software, which led me into mechatronics. After I finished, I was fortunate enough to get a mechatronics job that let me build my software skills in addition to my mechanical engineering skills. At the same time I continued building my software skills outside of work too. That led to probably the biggest turning point so far in my career that led me on a path as purely a software engineer.
What is a fact about your work that people might find surprising?
Managers on the team are truly supportive in the career development of their team members. In many companies (my own experience and my friends), managers typically take purely the role of telling their team members what tasks to take on. I have seen many managers here take on a really active role in getting their team members promoted and making sure they are happy and challenged on the team. I am also in an environment where I can say to my manager, “I like to work on X and less on Y because I find X so much more interesting”, and he’ll try to accommodate it.
What was your favourite thing to do on campus as a UBC student?
My favourite things to do were pretty typical: hang out with friends and work on student team stuff (I used to be a very active member on the UBC Thunderbots).
Do you have any advice you would like to share with students interested in pursuing Mechanical Engineering?
I’d say to not forget what you’re interested in. If you don’t know what you’re interested in, then it would be totally good to try out whatever you can (e.g. electives, different student teams, etc.). I think pursuing what you find interesting is always going to make you want to work harder toward it.