A Passion to Learn. A Drive to Improve. Meet Ryan, Software Engineer With a Mission.

Ryan, a Software Engineer at Qualtrics, is based out of the Provo HQ. He is part of the Data Platform Orchestration team, where he primarily is developing replacement microservices. 

I'm obsessed with learning new things, especially learning about computers. Ever since I was little, I wanted to know what they were, how they worked, and what I could do with them. Through college and past jobs, I now understand how much power they have to improve the world, but I also recognize their shortcomings. My passion is to learn, and my drive is to make the world a better place. If you combine these things you’ll get the type of person I want to be: a software engineer who designs things for a good cause.

How does Qualtrics connect with your "why"?

Qualtrics builds products to help other businesses grow. It helps companies discover how they can improve with the XM suite of tools and facilitates high-quality academic research studies through its survey platform. These tools and platforms require thousands of computers running in parallel to perform tasks such as data ingestion, processing, statistical analysis, NLP, load balancing, and more. Truth be told, there are a lot of hard problems to be solved. I like being challenged, and Qualtrics challenges me to learn new things every day.

Any tips for someone who is considering an opportunity at Qualtrics?

To thrive here, you need to enjoy being pushed. Qualtrics is very fast-moving, and as an engineer, it is your responsibility to make sure the technical side of things can keep up with our awesome sales team and new product releases. For example, as part of Data Engineering, I've had to learn a whole new technology stack in the last 4 months including Golang, Jenkins, Nomad, MongoDB, Grafana, Consul, and much more.
That said, the culture is awesome. The other engineers are incredibly friendly, and there are tons of free activities we can take advantage of like skiing and concerts. Also, as part of #OneTeam, people don't point fingers if someone makes a mistake. Instead, we all learn from the mistake and keep pushing forward.

What has surprised you the most about working at Qualtrics?

I didn't expect the level of autonomy that Qualtrics trusts me with. Engineers can choose to spend 10% of their work time learning new things that will contribute to their work, such as enrolling in a computer science course or practicing a new programming language. I love how they value learning as much as I do, and it's allowed me to become a better engineer faster.

What is your top #LifeHack?

Do what you love to do at work. If you love design and coding, then choosing a software engineering career might be the right step (and Qualtrics would be a great place to jumpstart your career). If not, it might be worth investing more time toward figuring out what it is that drives you.

What are the 3 words you'd use to describe Qualtrics?

Learning, Building, Succeeding.

Qualtrics is growing, and if you're ready to find your "why" at a place like this, you can explore our open opportunities at any time by visiting our career page. Looking to discover more reasons "Why Qualtrics"? You can find the whole series here.

Want to chat? You can get in touch by checking out Qualtrics Life on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

	Ryan will graduate from Brigham Young University in April 2020 with a degree in Computer Engineering. In his free time, he writes a blog about software engineering and research.