I learned a lot of technical skills from many excellent professors which made me find a job beyond my expectation
What are your main responsibilities?
My main responsibilities:
- Design, implement, experiment, and ship new business features to enhance/create existing/new ad products.
- Optimise code and evolve architectures to maximise performance and minimise cost.
- Dive deep into data to find key insights that drive technical design and feature roadmaps.
Can you describe a typical day?
Usually, I get up at 8am and have a meeting with colleagues in the US (I am at the China site), then I would check my emails and instant messages and reply to them if needed. Next, I would help my colleagues to review PRs or learn some knowledge internally.
After lunch, I would start coding or writing a design doc for new features. Sometimes I will also communicate with my colleagues about things that are unclear or have meetings with them. After that I would get off work at around 6pm.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your current role or your greatest career achievement so far?
I am proud that I am working with so many talented people and I always learn a lot from them. Alongside this, the projects I have been working on are ToC (to consumer) projects and it's international. So, I also feel delighted that my code would take effect for millions or even billions of people in the world.
Are there any challenging aspects? If so, what are they?
Yes, I think there are some challenging aspects. Our business is ToC and would take effect for millions or even billions of people. If there is any bug in the code, your employer would start losing money and sometimes it has a negative effect on company reputation. So, we must be very careful when implementing features.
What skills/qualifications from your degree or other training do you make use of in your job?
I learned a lot from the school courses, especially some practical curriculums which taught me how to develop services such as web services. I learned the whole process and many details from the courses.
How have these skills or your course made a difference in your career?
With those courses (modules), I got some practical experience and have the ability to finish my tasks at work. Meanwhile, I also learned what teamwork is and how to collaborate with others.
Why did you choose to study at Sheffield rather than another institution?
Sheffield is famous for science and engineering, which can provide many resources for us to study. Meanwhile, the campus scenery is also attractive :) I want to go back to the Diamond again.
Did your time at Sheffield meet your expectations?
Absolutely. I met lots of kind and interesting people here, many schoolmates and many teachers. They helped me a lot and we got along with each other very well. At the same time, I learned a lot of technical skills from many excellent professors which made me find a job beyond my expectation.
What were the best things about studying in the Department?
I think the best thing is there are so many excellent and skilful teachers and professors here. I could learn a lot from them and they always give me a hand when I need them.
Where do you see yourself in the future?
In the future, I think I would be a software engineer all the time. I love what I am doing currently.
If you could give one piece of advice to current students or recent graduates, what would it be?
Study hard and enjoy your life, try to become the best version of yourself.