Andy L.

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ANDY L.

I grabbed a chair and sat down, facing the whiteboard in front of me. My co-worker began drawing out the different phases that our code would go through in order to be deployed. He started explaining, and I started asking questions. But something caught my attention: every single time a developer would make a change, it would take anywhere from 20-30 minutes to create the approval request. This is just to get the code to a point where it can be approved. It does not include the approval or deployment process. That\'s insane! That\'s something that should take seconds, and I was determined to fix that. So I started asking more questions, to more people around the office: Why does this current process exist? How does it work? Wait. Isn\'t that redundant? How can we improve this? Who else is affected? And after a few meetings, discussions, and agreements, we got that number down to 2-5 minutes. Still not seconds, but way better than the previous process! Throughout my 28 months of software internships and personal experiences through leadership roles and personal projects, I\'ve noticed that I\'ve asked these types of questions more and more often. I find learning the ins and outs of a product, whether that be an app, website, or club on campus, incredibly fun because not only will you understand how something works, but you\'ll also understand why it exists and how to make it better. In fact, this is one of the main reasons I\'ve decided to make the career transition from a software developer to a product manager - because I\'ve become more interested in the \"why\" rather than the \"how am I going to build this\" aspect. I\'ve also become more interested and engaged in areas outside of software development, such as design, business, and product, and strive to learn more about them as I\'ve worked with several cross-functional teams in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. This aspect also mirrors my degree in Integrated Engineering (IGEN), as I chose to be an engineer because I love how understanding things work, and chose IGEN because of it\'s interdisciplinary nature and exposure to several different areas of engineering. I spend my free time exploring my passions through personal projects, and stay active with breakdancing and other sports. Also, I love collaborating with others and listening to their stories! Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn!