Landing my first job out of college was more than a logical next step. It signified the beginning of my career as a software engineer, and intensified my curiosity to see where this new path would take me. While some may feel the education stops with a diploma in hand, I’d argue it has just begun.

In 2020, I joined Snowflake’s Data Pipelines team based in Bellevue, Wash., and I now spend my days turning customer data into actionable insights. Snowflake is a fantastic place to get hands-on experience and not only fuels my curiosity, but empowers me to deliver against it.

Driven by Curiosity

I’ve always oriented myself towards learning. I’m insatiably curious and want to know how things work beyond the surface. C’mon, we’ve all taken apart a remote control, right? Don’t spare me the nitty gritty details, even if they’re not the most relevant. I just like to know how it all works!

As a college student, I developed a passion for databases and system software. Once I finished my engineering degree, I was keen to join a company where I could continue to learn on the job. I was introduced to Snowflake through a friend who worked here. After hearing about the product and reading the research paper, The Snowflake Elastic Data Warehouse, I was eager to apply. Interviewing with the team, hearing their enthusiasm for the job and the company’s vision, sealed the deal for me.

An Open and Approachable Engineering Culture

I work on the copy sub-team of the Data Pipelines team. This means I’m focused on the command used for data ingestion into Snowflake; we import data from external sources into Snowflake’s database to derive actionable insights and build quality solutions for our customers. Suffice to say, this wasn’t something I came to Snowflake knowing how to do.

One thing that immediately struck me about Snowflake is just how open and approachable everyone is, regardless of level. This is my first job out of college, and I value the ease with which I can have discussions with my peers, and mentors alike. At Snowflake, tenured experience aligns with being open minded and learning different ways of thinking. At the end of the day, everyone is both a teacher and a student.

Learning through Mentorship

In my first two years here, I’ve worked on many different areas of the code and gained a better understanding of how all the pieces work together. Discussions with my mentor, Abdullah Al-Mahmood, help broaden my understanding of the data pipeline service - from design considerations to how to ensure safe upgrades, rollbacks, exposure control of features, and quality - all while maintaining performance at high scale.

Having the opportunity to collaborate with engineers at all levels, and work on solutions for customers that make a significant impact, has been amazing at this early stage in my career. Take, for example, my work on Parquet List unload, a feature that allows customers to export their Snowflake data to external files and in turn, unlocks the ability to use additional tools on those data files. In seeking to understand the design and expected behavior for this feature, I was able to collaborate with my direct team, our sister team (the Data Lake team), the principal engineer on the SQL team, and even one of our founders, Thierry Cruanes! As a young engineer, I was struck by the fact that he was willing to take the time to provide his perspective on the problem I was trying to solve - it’s yet another testament to the engineering culture at Snowflake, and one of the reasons I find such fulfillment in my work here.

Everyone’s a Teacher and Learner

I enjoy both the problems I solve and the people I get to work with to solve them. Snowflake employees prides themselves on delivering a quality product, and this aligns with my desire to go deep and understand the big picture. The collaboration - from developing and shipping a feature to design discussions - is the work of a true team. Being able to identify creative ways to address challenges and solve customer problems, and ultimately see the impact of what you learned and the knowledge you are able to share on a daily basis is really rewarding. It gets me excited to return to work the following day!

Everyone’s a teacher and a learner and your tenured experience doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re not open to new ideas and learning different ways of thinking about things. For someone like me – early in their career, eager to absorb new information – it’s a fantastic place to learn and grow. I’ve already learned so much since joining Snowflake, and I’m eager for more.