Why I Work at Redfin: Emily Harmell, Software Developer

People sometimes ask me why I work at Redfin as a software developer. It was hard to narrow down the list, but here are my top 10 reasons:10. Everyone was so interesting right off the bat. Just during my interviews, I had conversations about board games, ESPN and terrible college roommates, in addition to talking about Java and algorithm runtimes. And at the end of the interview, they sent me home with a new oven mitt!9. Everyone cares so much about everyone else. On my birthday, a teammate traveled across town to one of the few vegan bakeries in Seattle and bought an assortment of vegan cupcakes for us all to share.The velocity. I got to make so many more awesome things in my first year at Redfin than I did in every prior class and internship. Just a few things I’ve worked on include Redfin Collections, social features, registration features and A/B tests to determine which new features are the most effective.7. The appreciation and acknowledgment of the work I do. After I worked on my first Android feature, the lead Android engineer sent me this figurine with a note expressing his gratitude for the hard work involved:6. The leadership. The executive team is full of really smart, really passionate people that I would probably follow into a dark cave full of bats and dragons if they told me it was a good idea.5. The competitive spirit. We take competition seriously here, whether it’s disrupting the real estate industry in the consumer’s favor or consuming the most watermelon in the shortest amount of time.4. The morale events. Without Redfin, I probably never would have gone river rafting, played Ultimate Frisbee, joined a kickball league, done a scavenger hunt around San Francisco or taken a cooking class.3. The creativity. When one of our developers was stuck in a Washington, D.C., snowstorm during a recruiting trip on Valentine’s Day, the whole team pitched in to decorate her desk for her return.2. Redfin agents are fantastic! They are the most ridiculously hardworking, fun and caring people. It’s awesome to have the opportunity to build features that help them.1. Everyone is super weird. At Redfin our motto is “keep it weird” and the employees take it seriously.About Emily HarmellEmily is a software developer in Seattle working on our New Business Engineering team. Prior to joining Redfin, she studied computer science at the University of Washington. When she isn’t coding, Emily organizes the monthly Redfin Women in Engineering meetings. Outside of work, she spends a lot time adoring her two rabbits, Kat and Bianca.This post is part of a series titled “Why I Work at Redfin.” Check out other posts in the series to learn more about what it’s like to work at a growing customer-first real estate brokerage. For more information on Redfin, and to check out open jobs at the company, visit Jobs at Redfin.View the original article here