Want to know what it’s like to be an engineer at BitSight? Check out this Q&A with a member of our engineering team to learn about his role as Team Lead, his experience, and more.
Name: Nick Whalen
Job Title: Team Lead
Location: Raleigh, NC
What do you do at BitSight?
My time is split pretty evenly between leading feature teams, coding, and coaching best practices.
How long have you worked at BitSight?
A little over 2 years
What is your background? How did you get into engineering?
I fell in love with coding when I was a kid making video games for my friends to play. Since then, I've received an M.S. in Computer Science from Northeastern University and B.S. in Computer Science from University of Nevada Las Vegas.
What challenges you the most at BitSight?
The most challenging (and most rewarding) part of working at BitSight is balancing and prioritizing work so that critical tasks get done quickly while ensuring other important tasks don't get forgotten.
What is your biggest accomplishment at BitSight?
My biggest accomplishment at BitSight was leading and shipping several customer-facing high-impact features at the same time.
What advice do you have for someone first getting into this field?
Obviously, a strong computer science background and ninja coding skills are essential to succeed in this industry. But skills like leading teams, automating processes, and reducing technical debt are crucial to take you to the next level.
What are some other companies you admire from an engineering perspective and why?
I admire tech companies that donate useful projects to the open source community: Kafka from LinkedIn, React Redux from Facebook, Airflow from Airbnb, etc.
If you weren't an engineer, what would you want to be?
A philosopher, astrophysicist, or a touring musician.
What do you like to do for fun?
Swing dancing, brewing mead, bike riding, and improv comedy.
My last trip was to South India where I got to eat delicious home-cooked meals, see gorgeous temples and palaces, and meet some of the nicest people in the world.
