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Computer Science and Software Engineering Capstone Presentations

Summer Quarter

August 21, 2020

Parker Amundsen

"Internship at Wealthfront"

(Wealth Front)

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Wooyoung Kim

Abstract

During my summer internship with Wealthfront I learned so much. An important aspect to professional software development is working with individuals that may be working with other technologies to create a product with cross platform parity. It is essential to be able to communicate limitations and expectations to the other functions of the team.

Teamwork no doubt is the most important part of the job as a software engineer at Wealthfront. With that being said it is also important to leverage the tools at hand in an existing codebase. This includes following existing coding practices, reusing existing components, and making code simple and easy to follow. Additionally, at Wealthfront testing is particularly important because when dealing with finances, any mistake may lose client trust. The time spend writing tests should be near equal to the amount of time writing the actual code. This is a clear demonstration of test driven development. The engineering culture around Wealthfront pushes for this idea of "proportional investment." This is the idea of spending an equal amount of time developing as eliminating tech debt and reducing the chance of toil in the future.

Learning to work with a cross functional team in such an engineering culture was an awesome experience. The intern project that I was a part of required me to immerse myself in Wealthfront's collaborative engineering culture. I think this has prepared me to take on a full time software engineering role at just about any company.

Updated August 20, 2020, 17:13