Meet Abdul, a Software Engineer on our Engineering – Business Guidance team! Abdul is celebrating his 3rd Yelpiversary, and today, he is sharing what inspired him to work in tech, what a typical day looks like as a Software Engineer, the project he is most proud of, and more.
What inspired you to pursue a career in Tech?
From a young age, when computers were as big as ovens and came with retro trackball mice and dial-up modems, I always used to wonder things like, “how does a computer even work? How could it possibly know what time it was? How could it see me through a webcam? How could it know what direction I was moving the mouse in?” Since then, the curiosity in me to understand the complexities of a computer has never died, and I don’t think it ever will. Pursuing a career in tech was a way for me to satisfy my curiosity by learning and knowing more.
What does a typical day look like in your role?
I start my day by catching up on emails and messages. Then, I review any requests that I received since I last signed off. This routine is followed by preparing for meetings and getting any non-coding-related tasks done before my lunch break. Lunch is followed by focusing, coding, and working on my projects.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to start a career in tech?
There is no shortage of the kind of work a person can do in tech these days. I would ask anyone to introspect and question their own beliefs and values. Try to understand why and what you believe to be morally correct and strive to start your career accordingly. Our world can benefit from people working towards something they believe to be the truth.
Tell us about a project that you are proud to have worked on
Yelp offers an array of free and paid products that help local businesses connect with consumers. To set up these products on their Yelp page, business owners previously had to navigate through multiple tabs, which negatively impacted product setup rates (roughly 55%) and lowered overall user engagement.
To make it easier for business owners to set up their business pages and run their advertising campaigns on Yelp, my team built a new unified setup flow dedicated to ushering them through the setup process.
The setup flow has increased product setup rates by an average of 8% across all the steps with some products seeing a significant boost. For example, our Yelp Connect product saw a 35% increase in its setup rate!
What do you enjoy most about working from home?
When I am working from home, I have more time during the day to organize my work and personal life because of the time I save without having to commute. Moreover, working in an environment that I am comfortable in helps me to focus better. Sometimes, I am even more productive than I would have been had I been going into the office.
Yelp Muslims is an employee resource group for employees who identify as Muslims, and anyone is welcome to join. We hang out once a month, and I have found the community to be helpful, loving, and caring.
Want to work with Abdul?
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