Mint Team Spotlight - Poornima Vijayashanker
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- Name:
- Poornima Vijayashanker
- Title:
- Software Engineer
- Education:
- Duke University – Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Stanford – Master in CS - Quit to work at Mint.
- Tell us a little bit about yourself.
- I actually never wanted to be an engineer, as all the men in my family are engineers. I always wanted to be a corporate lawyer, but things changed when I got to college — I decided to be an engineer, as I thought it was a cool and intense field.
- Tell us something interesting about yourself.
- I’m very flexible. Like, super-bendy.
- Best financial tip?
- Don’t spend more than you make.
- Worst financial move?
- Paying too much tax on short-term capital gain by selling stocks too quickly.
- How do you handle your finances?
- Before Mint, I used spreadsheets. I basically figured out what my spending on non-discretionary items were (food, shelter, etc.), and the money I have left over gets put into savings, retirement account, 401k, and ESPP.
- What’s the funniest/craziest thing you’ve seen while working at Mint?
- Noah Kagan.
- Why are you working at Mint?
- I always wanted to work at Mint; it was just a matter of right timing. In fact, I actually came up with the name for Mint. I was in the early stages when the ideas came about, and once the company began to solidify, I decided it was the right time to join up with Mint. I definitely contributed to the ideas behind Mint, and I always wanted to work for a startup.
- What do you do at Mint?
- When I started, I was almost doing everything (back-end and front-end). Now I’m just the code monkey, and I do pretty much what anyone wants.
- Favorite part about working here?
- Being able to joke around, do some work, play ping pong, head home, and do some more work (I also get to curse while coding).
- What don’t you like about working here?
- Being the only girl. I get picked on a lot.
- What sound do you love?
- Laughter.
- Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
- Dagny Taggart.
- What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
- Being a writer.
- What do you do after work?
- Do you have a website or a blog?
- Femgineer.com
Work out, bikram, tennis, and code some more.
It’s about time you featured a woman! Hooray for female engineers. !!!!!
Nice interview, she represent women well.
Woot! We’re glad that you think she represents women well. Thanks for the comment!
Poornima, you need to embrace the POWER that you have in being the only girl at the company
It comes in handy a lot… like not having to help lifting lots of heavy things, because you’re a girl
Poornima, we don’t pick on you because you’re a girl…it’s because you drive the wrong way down 1 way streets!
AHH!!!!! WE’RE GONNA DIEEEEEEE
Poornima: Its great to be the only girl in the office. Manipulate the situation. Get away with things. And before you take any driving advice from Atish you better look at how he steers things around. I’ve been giving him directions for 24 years . . . but does he listen to me! Wishing you great success at Mint
Whoa, my mom is intense
Your mom’s awesome!
hey, i didn’t know Poornima came up with the Mint name! that’s fresh
actually, i think Poornima *does* represent pretty darn well. she’s an awesome developer, smart, and fun to work with too. (and the swearing cracks us up)
- dave
ps - more specifically: it’s Noah’s *hair* that weirds us all out…
wowow. Don’t be offended by what Atish says, he’s doesn’t play favorites.
But it would probably would be good to have a few girls on the team. Even for the sake of brainstorming what your female users might want from Mint. But hey.. then you might have to share the guys who lift heavy boxes for you
Anyway, I’m an alpha user and excited about mint!
(can we get dad on here?)
Dude! I’m not even the one that picks Poornima - the blog comment was the first time I did, and that was a joke. Man this blog is turning my family against me - Cap, reject any more blog posts w/ the last name Mehta!
I agree w/ Dave - Poornima is one of the homies - makes great birthday cake too!
i think girls rule! some of the smartest and hottest software engineers are girls like niniane wang and leah culver! woot! woot!^^