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Julie Standridge | December 15, 2023 |
Get to know some of the best and brightest at Revel Systems® in our recurring “People POS” question-and-answer series. Our previous spotlight featured Devon Banks, a Jr. Sales Operations Analyst responsible for empowering Revel’s sales team with the right technology and information needed to get Revel in the hands of clients.
In this blog post, Revel’s Marketing Communications Manager Julie Standridge talked with Revel Associate Software Engineer Armoni Tigner for a Q&A session exploring Armoni’s path to landing a role at Revel—which started with an engineering bootcamp course at one of Revel’s philanthropic partners!—and how he now thrives on team operations management today.
Read on for a deeper dive into the world of product engineering at Revel and to learn how software engineers like Armoni play an integral role in shaping the future of Revel’s platform.
(Q): Hey Armoni! Thanks for chatting with me today. Before we dive into the great work you do at Revel, can you tell our readers a bit more about yourself?
(A): I was born in Thomaston, Georgia. My family moved to Charlotte, NC for a while, but I eventually landed back in Atlanta. After graduating from Georgia State University with a degree in interdisciplinary studies, I was faced with a difficult job market due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As I continued to look for a new job, I picked up photography as a hobby and really enjoyed it.
I got a job with the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team the Atlanta Dream as an editor and photographer. After a while, I took a course on user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design as my curiosity was scattered and I wanted to explore different things.
While I enjoyed learning those new skills, I found that I was still searching for something I was more passionate about. My girlfriend, who is a cyber security engineer, actually introduced me to coding and I received a $15k scholarship from City of Refuge (COR) to take a coding bootcamp course.
COR is an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization that helps individuals and families transition out of crisis. Through on-site services and local community partners, COR offers tons of great programs to help people achieve self-sufficiency. The team at COR gave me everything I needed to be successful in the coding course, including a laptop, and I’m thankful for the experience.
(Q): Once you had those coding skills in your back pocket, how did you hear about Revel?
(A): Through a COR networking event, I met someone who used to work at Revel who would often come to COR and speak. Revel is a corporate philanthropic partner of COR, and is therefore very involved in many of their activities.
I got to know the Revel employee, his role as a manager, and what the company culture at Revel was like. He was someone that I could call a friend from day one and overall he was very helpful. He told me to apply to Revel’s internship program and here I am!
I began my career at Revel as an engineering intern in February of 2021. After a year, I was hired on full time and have been in my role as an associate software engineer for just over nine months.
(Q): What was the transition like from being an intern to a full time employee at Revel?
(A): It was a huge stepping stone. As an intern, I went from being the head of a project I was working on to being the least experienced developer on a team surrounded by really talented people.
I definitely struggled with imposter syndrome at first, but I got comfortable pretty quickly. I think it speaks to the culture at Revel. The team is filled with awesome people who anyone would want to work with and they constantly empower me to do good work.
(Q): What does a typical day look like for you at Revel?
On the product engineering side of Revel, our day usually begins with what we call a stand up meeting. We go over what we accomplished the previous day and discuss if we have any blockers or impediments to any current product bugs or stories we have in progress. For those unfamiliar with the agile project framework, a story articulates how a software feature will provide value to end users.
At a high level, I’m responsible for creating user interfaces, writing code in HTM/HTML, Python, and JavaScript/React, testing out web applications, and helping to debug problems that benefit the end user’s experience. I collaborate with other product owners, designers, and other really smart people spanning the product engineering department.
As a front-end developer, I also really appreciate that the work I get the opportunity to collaborate on often ties in with my photography skills. It allows me to still be creative and think about design.
(Q): What does team collaboration look like at Revel based on your experience?
(A): A scrum master and product owner both sit on our team—which is team operations management—and help keep us organized and on track.
Right now we’re building out a feature called single store reporting. My team is responsible for building out the UI and functionality needed to satisfy this initiative, which will make it easier for clients to generate a clean export for all of their data needs.
To collaborate on the project, all of the stakeholders are in a Slack channel where we do most of our communicating and we’ll meet occasionally as needed (all of this is in addition to our daily stand up meeting). These channels allow us to stay collaborative, create open spaces for questions, and ultimately lead us to push quality code.
(Q): What motivates you to keep doing great work at Revel?
(A): Overall, working at Revel has been a really great opportunity. My team has allowed me to grow at my own pace and together have taught me that it’s ok to make mistakes. Everyone I work with has the same attitude across the board and overall, there is just a really nice culture at Revel. I look forward to continuing to grow and learn here.
(Q): When you’re not contributing to Revel’s latest and greatest engineering projects, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
(A): I currently coach a 14-and-under baseball team just outside the city in Fayetteville, GA. I do a lot of crossfit training and have been dedicated to it for about eight months now. When I’m not collecting sneakers or gaming, I also enjoy taking my camera out once and a while and being creative outside of work.
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