Week 58 — Welcoming DayOne’s Newest Member
Team
Last Friday, we welcomed our newest member to the DayOne family. Everyone, please meet Ally Tran!
Ally is a full stack software engineer from Hanoi. The path she took to a software engineering career was an unconventional one, and we were curious to find out more.
We got up close and personal with Ally to find out more about her background, and how she found herself in a full-stack software engineer role with DayOne.
DayOne (DO): Hi Ally, can you share a bit more about yourself?
Ally (A): I used to major in Nanotechnology in uni but I dropped out after a year and started working full-time. I then joined a team that produced self-study English books. This led me to fall in love with product development.
Our first book project was done when I was 19 and sold over 50,000 copies in the first six months. That was a pretty big milestone for me!
DO: How did you get started in software development then?
A: While working on the book project, I also learned programming (just for the fun of it) and decided I loved it enough to do it all day, every day for the next few years. I quit my job to focus on finishing the course and getting an internship.
From then on, I worked on various projects, from audiobooks to residential building management. After 2 years in software development, I’m now here with DayOne!
Currently, I’m attending night classes to get credits towards a bachelor degree in Computer Programming.
DO: That’s very impressive! Do you have any fun facts that you’d like to share about yourself?
A: Despite not being really good at any particular musical instrument, I can play Jingle Bells on any instrument!
Another fun fact! When I was nine, I didn’t feel like going to school one day so I simply told my mom that I was going to school, but went downstairs to take a nap for about ten minutes before going back up. I told my mom the school was closed for the day. It worked, not just once but for the next three days as well. I got caught on the fourth day lol!
DO: Those are really interesting fun facts! We’re really glad to have you join DayOne. What do you hope to achieve from your new software engineering role?
A: This is my first full stack role and I’m expecting a lot of learning to happen, which is exciting. Besides improving and putting my tech skills to use, I’m hoping to be more involved in product design (not just UI wise).
I also resonate with the saying that 5 years experience in a startup is equal to 15 years in a larger company, so I expect to learn a lot, from both the team and the job itself.
DO: Thank you for sharing Ally. Once again, a very warm welcome to the DayOne family!
Community
It’s been close to a month since Rumours Beach Club rolled-out the DayOne app to all its staff. On Wednesday, we made a trip to Sentosa to catch up with the good folks, and find out how the app has helped improve communication and work processes.
Assistant Manager Jo and the other Top Dogs actively utilise the Announcements feature on a daily basis to complement the daily in-person briefings. He shared that staff report to work at different times of the day, and it was cumbersome to conduct the briefing over and over again. With the Announcements feature, staff who are reporting to work can easily catch up on the workplace’s latest updates (e.g. what to upsell that day, “86” — out of stock — menu items etc.) on their phone.
Jo also utilises the Responsibilities feature for ad hoc tasks, such as weekly cleanings. He was pleased to learn that in the upcoming feature update, he would be able to schedule tasks in advance, and at varying intervals.
If you’re looking for a place to chill this weekend, head on over to Sentosa’s Rumours Beach Club and say hello to the Top Dogs on our behalf!
Until next time!
