Tahni Hresko

About Tahni Hresko

As a child, I was the kid constantly asking their parents questions they didn’t know the answer to, like “How do airplanes fly?” and “Why do the wings change shape during take-off and landing?” Today, they are very grateful that I ask Google instead. When people would ask me “Why mechanical engineering?” my favorite response was “It’s a prestigious degree in undecided!” As someone who genuinely loves learning, I saw becoming an engineer as the logical step that would open the door to fulfill my passion for curiosity, whether or not that path was within engineering.As a seeker of unique experiences, I accepted a job offer in the steel industry. I spent six exhilarating years in operations management leading 150+ unionized operators, mechanics, and electricians in fighting fires, pulling thousands of tons of steel out of the mill, and preventing future breakdowns with the pressure of five-figures a minute worth of product looming overhead. I thrived at facing new and unknown challenges each day; untangling the web of possibilities to find the root cause felt more like a hobby than a job to me. Unsurprisingly, this love for logic puzzles and optimization has followed me into my actual hobbies, such as rock climbing, where bouldering routes are referred to as “problems” and each one requires figuring out a unique sequence that varies for each person. Software development has been a natural fit for me as it feeds my endless curiosity and constant need to learn and improve. I remember the excitement I felt in middle school when I coded a music player into my Myspace profile that rotated through multiple songs- clearly this made my Myspace superior. In my college mechanics class, I spent an all-nighter after my project was done learning how to spruce up my MATLAB code so that the charts it printed were formatted better, purely for fun. I love that software development gives me the ability to create new things with a tangible outcome each day. The things I bring to the table are tenacity, inquisitiveness, teamwork, and an affinity for optimization. I look forward to working with a team that is committed to continuous improvement as a result of their love of cultivating knowledge.

Experience

1. Software Developer

   Progressive Insurance

   Jun 2025 — Present

Education

• Purdue University

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Mechanical Engineering

  2011 — 2015

• Tech Elevator

  C#/.NET Web Application Development

Skills

• Teamwork
• Labview
• Experience Working with Diverse Populations
• Cad
• Fmea
• Linux
• Engineering
• Bill of Materials
• Enthusiastic Self-Starter
• Public Speaking
• Mechanical Engineering
• Public Relations
• Communication Skills
• Great Motivator
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Office
• Lathe
• Microsoft Publisher
• Matlab
• Microsoft Excel
• Powerpoint
• Leadership
• Inventor
• C
• Problem Solving
• Close Attention to Detail
• Adaptive Learning