The WV Coding Club recently had another guest speaker, Oliver Wiegand, Software Development Engineer at Amazon. Oliver grew up in West Virginia and developed an interest in Robotics and Engineering which became a passion for coding once he got his first laptop computer. Around 5th or 6th grade he learned about coding on his own and became very interested in it. Oliver attended University High School in Morgantown, WV.
Oliver pursued his higher education at West Virginia University and earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. During college, he applied for and was awarded an internship with Amazon in Seattle, Washington. It turned into a full-time offer after graduating from WVU. Once he joined Amazon, Oliver worked on AWS security in Denver, CO.
From there, Oliver now works for Amazon in the HQ2 location (Arlington, Virginia) and that is the general area where his team is located. Oliver works in the Business to Business (B2B) space, a financial section developing ways to more efficiently get money back to Amazon from businesses. Process, workflow, call, email, phone call - how do you automate this process? Once automated, then you can track metrics to be able to improve the process.
Oliver shared that the last 18 months have been a little different with COVID. Working remotely as part of a team of almost 10 as a Software Development Engineer. It requires good self-discipline to work remotely and code most of the day. He takes breaks (about 15 minutes) after time periods (about an hour) to help him be more productive. Meetings also help to break up the coding sessions.
The team he is on works with a larger team of 30 or so. As you get more senior, you are more involved in how you design versus specific coding tasks. He has worked a lot in Java, one of the main languages that Amazon uses.
Being in the Washington, DC area, he is close enough to be able to come back to West Virginia regularly. Oliver talked about technology areas that are growing in WV like Fairmont and near Keyser, WV. These WV areas definitely have more tech job development.
Advice from Oliver, "Get involved in groups to develop your coding and problem solving skills. Lego League, Robotics competitions help you to learn to solve real world problems that have a goal/objective. Work with a team and find a mentor. Always be curious."
Dan McElroy, President of the WV Coding Club shared, "Another West Virginian with a great technology job, who developed his coding skills here in West Virginia. Even though Oliver works outside of West Virginia, he is close enough to visit regularly and keep connected with his family and friends in his home State. Thank you for being a great example for our students to learn from and see another career path for them to potentially pursue."
Thank you Oliver for your time and insights into your coding career!
Keep Coding!