My journey to Vanguard: from Drexel co-op to full-time application engineer

As a student, choosing the right co-op / internship experience can be a daunting task. While I was an undergraduate student, studying Information Systems at Drexel University, I had the opportunity to select my third and final co-op experience for my degree. Since this was an important decision, I wanted to select the right organization where I could see myself building a career. Fortunately, I had several organizations to choose from, and I carefully evaluated each one.

When evaluating my options, I came across Vanguard. This was a surprise to me as I had taken a recent interest in FinTech and knew about Vanguard from my previous research in that area. From a financial institution lens, I knew that Vanguard was a leader in this industry and held good values that aligned with my own. The process of interviewing and onboarding was a serious but rewarding experience. I appreciated that the recruiters at Vanguard really took the time to determine if I would be a good fit for the organization and treated me like a real candidate, not just an intern.

When I was accepted into Vanguard’s Application Development Co-op Program through Drexel University, I was both excited and nervous. I had never worked on an agile team or with some of the technology that Vanguard was using. However, I was fortunate to have a buddy and a mentor who both helped guide me through this new experience. My buddy worked on the same team as I did, and we collaborated on several projects. This collaboration helped me understand how scrum works and, most importantly, the development processes at Vanguard. After the first week, I felt like a member of the team, adding value wherever I could.

During my internship, I primarily focused on building out reporting tools and dashboards in addition to finding ways to optimize data transfer. One of my key accomplishments during the internship was creating real-time dashboards that not only identified when systems were down but also generated metrics for product owners and analysts. These dashboards provided valuable insights and helped the team proactively address issues.

While I enjoyed working on this team, I was also interested in exploring other career paths, including UX design and UI development work. Fortunately, my mentor, a UX Designer at Vanguard, advocated for me and connected me with a different team at Vanguard that was working on an internal project and needed some help with UX design. I also received support and encouragement from my manager to pursue this opportunity, which was a great feeling.

After working on this internal project for some time, creating designs and ideating new features, I eventually started committing code. The team was impressed with all the work I was doing, and at the end of my co-op, I was offered the opportunity to stay on part-time doing development work for this team.

I continued to work hard and make an impact everywhere I could with this project, and eventually, I was offered a position to join Vanguard full-time. Becoming a crew member was a surreal feeling. Coming into this co-op, I knew I wanted a career with Vanguard, but I didn’t know how I would get there. Having the opportunity to network within the organization and to have so much support as an intern was unexpected. When I look back and consider the other opportunities I had for my third co-op, I know I made the right decision in choosing Vanguard.

Vanguard provided me with a great learning experience, where I got hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies and methodologies. I am grateful for the opportunity and all that I learned as well as the people I have met who helped me get here. I’m excited for the future and all the new opportunities that will come my way as an Application Engineer at Vanguard.

-Zachary K.