I wasn’t expecting this when I joined Vanguard IT…

In the Venn diagram of “Reasons I Joined Vanguard IT” and “Reasons I Love Vanguard IT,” there is a lot of overlap, but I will focus on an aspect of my experience in Vanguard IT that I didn’t expect when I joined—the opportunity to learn!

All IT professionals know that technology moves at a breakneck pace. To create rich user experiences and scalable business processes, we are constantly evaluating and adopting new technologies and patterns to meet the insatiable expectations of our stakeholders. Committing to the IT profession usually means committing to lifelong learning.

Over the last five or so years, Vanguard has leaned heavily into the public cloud. We had—and continue to have—grand visions of replacing the enormous amount of legacy technical systems with cloud-native services. Companies going through digital transformations need to upskill employees, as the design and architecture paradigms are continuously changing. Vanguard’s modernization work has been remarkable—and we’re not simply re-platforming, but refactoring applications to realize the full benefits of being cloud native.

I joined Vanguard towards the beginning of the cloud movement when some teams were cloud-based, but many were not. I was hired as a tech lead, so a big part of my responsibility was to help drive the cloud revolution for several teams in my department. It was time to start learning…

As developers, it’s often not enough to solely learn new technologies. It’s important for us to understand the business context behind our apps so we can design the best possible solution. I work in a division of Vanguard called Global Investment & Finance Services (GIFS). As a group, we are responsible for a lot of the processes—and the data behind them—involved with front, middle, and back-office functions like portfolio management, trade flow execution, staying compliant with regulatory bodies, and fund accounting. A lot of the data you see on vanguard.com associated with a security or fund—be it a price, performance, or profile information—comes from our services. Learning investment basics (and beyond) was important for me to make an impact.

Since joining Vanguard, I have earned eight AWS certifications. I’ve earned the Cybersecurity Certificate from Cornell University—a set of six post-graduate courses related to digital security. I have also invested in my business acumen by achieving the CFA Foundations certificate, Wealth Management Specialist (WMS) certificate, and passing the CFA Level 1 exam (I still cringe thinking about the amount of time I spent on that one). I’m proud of these accomplishments because they took a lot of diligence, time, and energy to achieve, but I did them with the wholehearted support of my leaders. Vanguard also supported me by paying the fees associated with the learning materials and exams.

Bottom line: At Vanguard I’ve had the opportunity, the support, and the resources for significant professional development. The things I have learned (and been able to use) have given me the ability to contribute to my department and division in a strategic manner—helping to drive technical patterns and innovations.

In the last few years, I’ve had the pleasure of fostering the learning culture by designing several “bootcamps.” I have been able to work with very smart and dedicated technologists to design the GIFS Cloud Bootcamp, the GIFS Cloud API Bootcamp, and the enterprise ELITE Cloud Foundations course that new IT hires across Vanguard go through shortly after joining. These opportunities not only reinforce the knowledge I’ve gained through certifications, but they also enable me to play a part in preparing our developers to create the solutions of the future.

I’ve realized how much I love to learn and love to teach. Vanguard has supported (and rewarded) those behaviors. I am currently enrolled to start a masters in computer science with a machine learning specialty. Thanks to Vanguard’s education assistance program, available to all crew, the financial burden is one less thing to worry about. I also know that I will be supported by my leaders. And one day, hopefully soon, I will share my experience and learnings with other crew.

-Andrew R.

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