Winfield Chen

  • Studying Computing Science at Simon Fraser University (2017)
  • Spent 2 months at Hootsuite (July – August 2017)
  • Joined our Operations team
  • Worked with Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Atlantis, and Redis
  • Worked with Tyler Mauthe and James Ishee
  • Hootsuite Github, Github, and LinkedIn

My Contributions

  • Containerized and migrated the Hootsuite Opsboard, our internal service status-checking dashboard, to Kubernetes
  • Built Python support into an existing Go and Scala skeleton for our developers in the Amplify team as a hackathon project
  • Made changes to our Amazon Web Services infrastructure using Terraform and Hootsuite’s newly open-sourced Terraform-Github collaboration tool, Atlantis
  • Created a testing suite and replication tool for migrating from Redis to AWS Elasticache.
  • Wrote a blog post on Exposing External-Facing Services In Kubernetes.

My Experience

A job at Hootsuite is a fun, rewarding, and memorable experience. Located close to False Creek and near many restaurants, the neighbourhood is a pleasant place to be before, during, and after your workday. The office environment is innovative, helpful, and welcomes newcomers; you can steer the direction of your learning towards the newest technologies that interest you – in fact, I’ve seen that some of the new technologies are developed and released right here! My time at Hootsuite, although unfortunately so short, will remain so memorable because of the new skills I have learned and the great support I have received from the Operations team.

I strongly recommend at least one work term at Hootsuite, especially if you are considering the High School Summer Technical Student Program, as I have experienced, because it is so unique for someone in or just graduated out of high school to work in the technology sector – an accomplishment that you will look upon with pride considering the much less inspiring summer jobs that your friends and classmates have. It will definitely be a meaningful addition to your summer and the equivalent of a paid two-course head-start for your university education!