My name is Jaimin and I work as a Software Engineer in the Distributed Query Optimizer Team at Vertica. I wanted to share with you what I think makes Vertica the best place to work! I will explain the kind of impact you can make as an employee/intern at Vertica, while sharing my personal experiences.
As a student, I researched many companies I might want to work for to get a better understanding of the everyday life of software engineers. However, what I was most interested in learning about was the kinds of things engineers might do that went above and beyond the normal day-to-day stuff.
Is writing code something unique to the job?
No! Right?
As Software Engineers, we write code, develop algorithms, and implement them. But here at Vertica, we do lots of other things besides simply writing code.
Go above and beyond!
Vertica is different from other companies as far as normal day-to-day stuff goes.
Let me ask you this question: How many new graduates would you guess could get a chance to file a patent within their first 6 months of joining a company? How many would get chance to write a paper within first six months? Not a lot, right?
In my experience at Vertica, I’ve seen that just about all new graduate engineers file at least one patent in their first year at work. This speaks to the fact that the work we do here at Vertica is completely innovative. Our projects have a huge business impact.
Be the captain of your ship!
Vertica offers engineers incredible opportunities! All you have to do is be willing to accept them. One of the best things about Vertica is that you work in an environment where other engineers are smarter than you! You’ll find yourself constantly challenged to learn new, interesting, and exciting things. You”ll get better exposure and, more importantly, you have a massive role to play in the company’s growth and development.
Something else that’s unique about Vertica—the projects you work on as an intern become part of the shipping product! As a result, you’ll get the chance to see your code in action and sometimes you can learn what customers have to say about your feature in particular. You won’t be allowed to sit idle for a minute because we have a very short release cycle. This will keep you on your toes and encourage you to think something new day in and day out.
Here, engineers are not forced to work on this and that—they have a great deal of autonomy and frequently get to choose the things they work on. If you have an idea you think can help improve the product, you are encouraged to see it through. And, you’ll also get a chance to participate in various technical events and submit your ideas.
Taking initiative is always encouraged and you’ll be expected to make, discuss, and defend your design decisions with your mentors instead of just following directions. You’ll also be able to learn about the complexities of building a database and how we achieve the performance advantages in Vertica.
It is also easy to move between the teams. It is entirely up to you and the only question is what you want to do?
Share and gain knowledge!
Knowledge sharing is another important thing at Vertica. We do a lunch talk where we discuss any new paper related to database systems. Every now and then people from various teams give tech talks so that each team is aware of what people in other groups are doing.
As a fresh graduate before joining Vertica, I did not have any experience working on a database optimizer product, though I had worked a bit on optimizations when I took a compiler class. Because of the great culture and environment at Vertica, I didn’t find the transition difficult at all. Sometimes it was challenging, but it allowed me to learn a lot by working with incredibly smart people at the company while working on challenging projects. I wonder how many people have the opportunity to work on the design and implementation of queries involving Set Operators during their first year of work.
Have fun!
We frequently unwind doing fun things at work, including watching the World Cup or other sporting events during lunch, or playing table-tennis and board games when we can. Vertica provides a lot of flexibility and it comes with huge responsibility. You’re expected to get your work done on time—if you do that, no one will have any problem with having a little fun. Interns also go on outdoor field trips, including horseback riding, hiking to Blue Hills, going for a movie, participating in a bocce tournament, and water activities such as motor boat racing. Once, we went to the Boston Harbor and tried to learn how to sail a boat from one of our in-house experts in Vertica.
We are looking for people to join Vertica! Do you have any interest in being challenged in an innovative design environment? Then watch this blog because information about internships and full-time employment is coming soon!
About the Author
Sarah Lemaire
Manager, Vertica Documentation
