At Two Sigma, we pride ourselves on finding the brightest minds from all walks of life to collaborate on tough problems, learn from each other, and advance our understanding of the world.
This fall, we’re excited to continue that search at three premier gatherings for engineers: the SHPE 2022 National Convention, the AFROTECH conference, and the 12th Annual oSTEM Conference 2022.
We’re sending a group of Two Sigma engineers to each of these events, and, if you’re exploring a career in technology yourself, we’d love to get to know you while we’re there. To help start the conversation, we asked three of the engineers participating this fall to tell us a bit about their experiences and learnings at Two Sigma.
1. How long have you been at Two Sigma, and what is your current role here?
Madelyn – I have been at Two Sigma for a little over two years. I started out in application security, but I’m currently a software engineer focused on security, cloud, and digital assets.
Toni – I’ve been at Two Sigma for eight months. I work as a software engineer on the AlphaStudio team.
Judy – I joined Two Sigma at our Houston office in 2019 as a Data Analyst. After a brief stint in Foundational Data Engineering, I now work on the Modeling Data Engineering team, where I develop pipelines to deliver data for modelers to use in their research.
2. What recent projects stand out as particularly challenging or rewarding for you?
Madelyn – I recently changed roles, and it required me to learn a whole new technical stack. With that came a large focus on learning how to engineer with cloud native workflows. It took a bit to get used to the nuances of different service providers and how we programmatically work with infrastructure, but I was able to finally apply these skills recently in a data-focused project I am working on.
Toni – I recently worked on building a pipeline to generate different types of stock price returns at different intervals. The research that goes into figuring out the right kind of data to use and how to efficiently process large amounts of data can be challenging. Fortunately, my team is very supportive, and they are always available to help me get through the work.
Judy – I led the development of a data profiler utility that runs after new data pipelines are completed. The profiler compiles specific metadata and metrics for the tables in a dataset to provide a snapshot view of whether the data was ingested correctly. I’m very proud of this project because it was my first project as a technical lead.
3. Aside from your work as an engineer, what other Two Sigma community activities are you involved in?
Madelyn – I’m involved with our Engineering Education program by not only taking a handful of different courses, but also by serving as a co-instructor for an internal class on software testing. I’m also involved with some of our employee resource groups such as Women @ Two Sigma and Bridging Ethnicities.
Toni – Since I am a recent grad, I’m involved with the NewTS, the company’s early-careers program. We’ve gone bowling, go-kart racing, and exploring different restaurants around NYC. We also have a weekly board game night on Fridays. The community here is great, and it’s really cool to make friends and meet new and interesting people.
Judy – Outside of my data analyst work, I am an active member of multiple Women @ Two Sigma discussion groups and assist with recruiting at conferences like oSTEM. I also enjoy volunteering at events run by ImpacTS, Two Sigma’s volunteering network, including sorting food at the Houston Food Bank and building Lego structures for FIRST Robotics.
4. What was the last class you took at Two Sigma?
Madelyn – I’m currently taking our Introduction to Finance curriculum and have been attending a regular series of lectures and talks pertaining to some higher level finance concepts.
Two Sigma has so many learning opportunities to take advantage of. It’s really a great perk.
Toni – The last class I attended at Two Sigma was Reliability Engineering Fundamentals. Two Sigma has so many learning opportunities to take advantage of. It’s really a great perk.
Judy – Recently I attended an academic seminar at our New York office given by law professor Frank Pasquale called “LGBTQ+ in the Database: Who Gets to Say I’m Gay?” I really enjoyed the perspective he shared on the intersection of machine learning and attempted classification of LGBTQ+ individuals.
5. What advice would you give to an aspiring software engineer?
Madelyn – Don’t be afraid to continue learning new things! There’s so much information and so many different skill sets out there that it’s impossible to know what we’re most interested in, in the first few shots. There’s no shame in returning to learn some of the basics you may have missed, and learning skills adjacent to your role can only make you a more well-rounded engineer. Take advantage of all the resources you have (courses, lectures, readings, other folks’ experiences) to keep your education alive.
Toni – Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Sometimes we feel incompetent due to impostor syndrome, so we don’t apply to companies or opportunities we feel are too “prestigious” for our level. My advice would be to try and quell that sort of thinking and to trust your ability. Like Michael Scott (from The Office) said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. —Wayne Gretzky.”
Judy – It is important to be open and honest with your manager about where you would like your career to go. They want you to succeed, and can use the information to better advocate for you and your goals.
Going to SHPE, AFROTECH, or oSTEM? Come say Hi!
Interested in learning more about what it’s like to work at Two Sigma? We’d love to meet you. Madelyn, Toni, and Judy, along with many other Two Sigma engineers, will be representing Two Sigma at the following conferences in November 2022, including:
- SHPE (Madelyn) — Charlotte, NC, November 2 – 6
- AFROTECH (Toni) — Austin, TX, November 13 – 17
- oSTEM (Judy) — Boston, MA, November 10 – 13
If you’re planning to attend any of these events, be sure to stop by the Two Sigma booth in the expo hall—you bring your questions, we’ll bring the swag.
P.S. Whether you’re going or not, don’t forget to explore our Careers page to learn more about life at Two Sigma, open roles, and more.
