Inspired BlogMy Experience as an RV Engineer

My first day as a software engineer at Red Ventures was daunting. Though I had more than five years of experience, this was my first formal role as a software engineer. However, to my relief, my whole team was invested in helping me succeed from day one. RV provided a myriad of resources to help me onboard quickly so that I could start adding value to my team from the get-go. I was rapidly immersed in the exceptional RV culture that values ambition and continued learning.

If you’re considering applying for an RV engineering role, keep reading to learn more about our engineering team’s main responsibilities and the technologies we work with – then go submit that application!

What do engineers do at RV?

Many RV engineers’ primary role is that of web developers; in our day-to-day, we architect websites and develop business solutions that will ultimately improve the user experience. We are expected to have a deep understanding of the technologies that we use and serve as tech translators for many of the organizations and teams who run our websites. As technology representatives, we work with multiple functional teams, from designers to business to editorial, with the goal of connecting creativity and business solutions for the sites that we own and operate.

Here are a few scenarios you can expect as an RV engineer:

1. Work hand-in-hand with designers and product teams to craft seamless web experiences that engage our users. This can entail improving a simple web form to implementing an animated quiz experience.
2. Drive our web pages’ quality and performance.
3. Be a security champion and maintain our infrastructure by patching and creating new features. 
4. Pitch technological-based solutions and innovations to our business teams.

What technologies do we work with?

Many of our websites serve millions of people on a monthly basis – making a well-engineered experience key to the success of our business. 

At RV, we use mature, well-known industry technologies. Our content sites usually leverage WordPress and PHP, while our web applications often favor NodeJS, Express and React. Many of our backend systems are written in Golang, C# or Java. Nearly all of our deployments are cloud-based and we even have organized study groups for developers to gain AWS Solutions Architect certifications. We leverage these technologies to manage the scale of our operations taking place in millions of client computers, with presences in many geographical locations.

For reference, here is a list of technologies that are prevalent around our company:

Front-End Development

• HTML
• Javascript (Vanilla, Vue, React)
• CSS/SCSS
• Webpack (and other modern build tools)

Back-End Development and Cloud

• Golang
• NodeJS
• Java
• Python
• PHP
• AWS (S3, Lambda, EC2, ECS, RDS, Route 53)
• CI/CD (CircleCI)

Data

• Scala
• Databricks
• Airflow
• Looker
• Redshift
• Segment

Don’t feel intimidated by the quantity of technologies listed here. When it comes to web engineering, solid foundations are the most crucial aspect. All of our technologies rely on our engineers’ understanding of the root fundamentals like http protocol, server side processing vs. client processing, common architectures, etc. For example, solid knowledge on vanilla JS, Semantic HTML, and CSS3 is preferred as opposed to superficial knowledge on the latest framework.

Key Takeaways:

• At RV, engineers are expected to behave as owners and add value to the broader team.
• RV engineers mostly handle web development and use many technologies, but solid fundamentals are key to success.
• We leverage mature technologies in order to serve millions of customers. Most of our innovations happen on top of these technologies.
• If you bring the drive and passion, RV will help you succeed.

The bottom line 

In my two years at RV thus far, software engineering has come to be much more than I initially expected. For me, the most exciting part of being an engineer at RV is the ownership and the trust that we are given. As active participants of the business, we sit at the table with the entire business team, pushing our ideas and building solutions.

I have coded a lot, built strong relationships, been a ping-pong champion (depending on who you ask), learned about new technologies and helped the business succeed. In my opinion, most of my success is due to loving what I do and enjoying it every day. My advice to engineering applicants is this: whatever you do, do it with passion – and if you eyeing a role at RV, just apply already!