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Dating for Jobs: a guide to locking that job down

alexandrarevelli —  May 7, 2014 — 2 Comments

I don’t have an official title at Expensify but on any given day, I work with the financials, recruiting efforts, hiring, onboarding, office management, relocation, etc. My favorite part of the job? Interviewing candidates. I take great pride in overseeing the hiring process at Expensify, ensuring that we grow our team to match the amazing talent we already have on site.

With that said, I wanted to pass along some advice for interviewing. First and foremost, treat interviewing like dating. Whether you are good or bad at dating, mastering a good interview comes with some basic steps.  Continue Reading…

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ExpensiCheer-Have a Happy Holiday Season!

alexandrarevelli —  December 21, 2012 — Leave a comment

I hope everyone is getting ready for some relaxing downtime in the next week. We kicked off the holiday season with an evening as a team at Frances, with Executive Chef Melissa Perello cooking an incredible dinner for us.  Plus we dressed in formal attire which was pretty exciting to see each other all dolled up. Tis the season for some company loving!

Robert gives his toast looking quite dapper

Continue Reading…

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Offshore 2012: Snorkeling!

alexandrarevelli —  October 16, 2012 — 4 Comments

Matt experiences a deadly sea urchin. Precious memories.

Well you guys, an update from overseas. We have spent the past week in Railay Beach. Its been incredible and to celebrate, we went snorkeling over the weekend! The picture above is probably the best picture of the trip, mostly because Matt is giggling like a school boy (our favorite cookies, BTW) and probably pooping his pants a little bit. Apparently that particular sea urchin is especially deadly.

Ready Freddy? JKruse looks like he is!

Tom. Perfect.

Garrett diving into the water! So much fun in the sun!

Bromance at its finest

Sky while at the beach BBQ

After I was awkwardly flowered and betrothed to our guide. Pure joy?

sand bar strolling

Matt and our guide (also named Alex) jumping/missing legs

Pensive David

Work it Puneet!

David creeping on us.

Dinna Time!

Some magic tricks for our eerie boat ride back

The team

If you can’t tell, I am so in love. We had a great day. The setting was incredible, but more importantly, we have an amazing team of people who are making this journey so unbeatably awesome.

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Thailand Thus Far…

alexandrarevelli —  October 8, 2012 — Leave a comment

So its been a few days for us, and Thailand is incredible. While work has been about the same (it really is true, we can work anywhere there is internet!), being able to explore Bangkok during lunch is amazing. Truly an adventure and an awesome way to break up the work day.

There are lots of little excursions we have collectively gone on and I have tried to put together a few of these pictures. My personal favorite adventure so far: Wine bar. Keep reading for the story below.

Honestly the pictures below barely begin to encapsulate how much fun it is to just walk around and explore. The temples you stumble upon are incredible, the markets are eye opening and the company is delightful. Seriously, how is this real life?

ImageLost in Bangkok
ImageStreet decorations
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More street decorations
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Right off the river boat into the heart of Bangkok
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Passing by on the river taxi
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Such cool clouds.
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Dark Alley
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Temple we weren’t allowed into because SOMEONE was wearing a tank top.
Fancy Wine Bar in Bangkok, maybe a little too fancy for us?

After mentioning a withdrawal from wine, David suggests we go to a wine bar downtown last night. Five of us cram into a 4 person cab, and it becomes very clear that communication with our driver is going to be an issue. With 4 of us uncomfortably squished in the back, David has the directions pulled up on his phone, but we still got out of the cab incredulous that we had made it (and severely cramped). When we get to the restaurant/wine bar (Opus, highly recommend it!) we realized we are considerably underdressed than the rest of the population. We had somehow wandered out of our hostel and its corresponding casual atmosphere into a beautiful, high end restaurant in which several of the patrons may have poo-poo-ed our obvious back-packing attire.  Oops. Anyways in the background you can see the beautiful wine cellar they have where you can go hand select which bottles you would like to enjoy. We were also unaware that you were supposed to leave the bottle there and tell your server the bottle we preferred. We basically committed 8 faux pas in an hour.

Below are Shawn’s pictures from this market we wandered around. Saw a lot of weird stuff….

And below we have the Lumphinee Stadium for Muay Thai. Highlights? The stadium is not air conditioned and while it was pouring rain, several sections were shut down due to roof leaks. Oh, also, the violence. Two fighters left the ring in wheel chairs, one on a stretcher (that one made me cry) and one with his arm broken. While it was a little tooooo violent for my taste, I think the guys had fun [especially capturing pictures of me crying which will never see the light of day].

Thanks JKruse for the idea…definitely a unique experience
Thats all for now! Updates to come as we explore the beach.
And finally, here we are, Day One at West Railay Beach.
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Guest Post: Sahil Verma, WIN-tern Extraordinaire

alexandrarevelli —  August 22, 2012 — Leave a comment

When I took my shoes off and walked around the office in my lovely yellow argyle socks, no one batted an eye lash. I knew this was a good place to be.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, a rapidly moving start up where intern folk like myself get to deploy live code, free lunches in a city where you can try a new place everyday, and working with talented, genuine, and all-around cool people were wonderful parts of the job. But boy did I cherish my barefoot walks around the office!

I think the bigger point, though, is that Expensify is an awesome company with awesome people, and I couldn’t have asked for a better internship experience. For starters, I worked on a product loved by millions. All my CS buddies were testing software at their internships; I was extremely fortunate in getting the chance to write it. In a measly 6 months, I went from barely programming to totally programming, and Expensify gave me the room and environment to build that critical programming foundation that I think school just can’t provide.

But — to my benefit — it gets better. The people I worked with pushed me in the right way, challenged my ideas, and always helped when I needed it. It didn’t matter if it was 10 AM or 10 PM, I knew I could always ask Matt why I was getting a 500 error when it turned out to be a missing bracket. I was given real ownership of the projects I worked on. I was ultimately responsible for the projects I’ve started, and it’s been so surreal that Expensify gave me the chance and opportunity to succeed.

I only hope that wherever I go next is as cool a place like Expensify. I’ve not only learned valuable knowledge, I’ve made some really cool friends along the way and I can’t wait to see how our paths cross in the future.

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5 Ways to Move Offices (and Have Fun Doing It!)

alexandrarevelli —  August 9, 2012 — 1 Comment

1. Instagram the picture of the new keys. Make it artsy so your friends will think you are creative. 

Reality: taken in the elevator on top of an envelope and made to look edgy.

2. Cram into the elevator and make sure you bring some booze.

Riding the old elevator for the final time as a group was bitter sweet (really it was just sweet…those elevators are the slowest I have ever experienced)

3. Capture the moment of opening the door for the first time.

And make sure you look adorably excited as you do it.

4. Christen the new office.

How else do we christen a new office? Whiskey shots was the perfect way to make ourselves feel at home in our snazzy new (read: larger) office.

5. Appreciate the view from the new digs.

Yes this photo is also instagrammed. You know you like it. But seriously, how majestic is the fog rolling in??

 

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Damn I love working here…Part 2

alexandrarevelli —  July 25, 2012 — Leave a comment

Note the TV….still not sure the purpose but I can only narcissistically assume its so that we can see ourselves behind home plate?

Let’s talk about the amazing day I had today…honestly so unreal.

When I got to the office this morning, our board meeting was going on, so I quietly shuffled to the side to crack down on some email. An hour later, after our investors headed out, I was moving to my favorite spot in the office, only to be pulled aside by David, our CEO.

“Psst, Alex. Do you like baseball?”

[pause] “Um…yeah, I love baseball.”

[hands me an envelope] “Here are two tickets for the Giants game today at at 12:30. You should go. These seats are killer.”

“What?!? Oh my god! Miss work?”

“Yeah, go, bring whoever you want!”

All of this occurring before 11:30 AM. I spent the next 45 minutes feeling like a cracked out Cinderella, twitching with excitement, barely able to focus while imagining the fun I would encounter at the game. I had heard briefly about these mythical, magical seats that our awesome investors had been known to hand out…but I had never been the beneficiary of such generosity. As I squirmed at my lap top waiting for the minutes to tick by I kept thinking…”is this real life?” à la small, drugged, car-seated youtube sensation of yesteryear.

Fast forward to the actual game. Holy crap are these seats killer (See inset).

I could have licked the field should I have been so inclined.

It was a wonderfully warm day with sunshine and the perfect light breeze. Bratwurst and beer magically appeared before me (ok not magically, we ordered and paid for it) and, although Lincecum struggled throughout the day, being so close to the field and watching the players warm up made me so uncomfortably starstruck, I thought I was going to cry… until my co-worker Matt pointed out that my heroes would, in fact, be able to see me cry.

Somehow I pulled myself together to revel in the glorious day (unsurprisingly, it wasn’t too hard to enjoy). Once the game ended and we headed back to work with our giddy smiles and a spring in a step [read: delicious beer in our stomachs] it occurred to me that today was maybe one of the most absurdly amazing surprises of my life which would never have happened if it weren’t for a combination of our amazing investor Bobby who so generously gave his tickets to David to share and David himself, for deciding that a couple Expensify-ers deserved a three hour lunch at AT&T park.

Seriously guys, best company ever.

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We’re hiring WIN-terns because we know you’re a WINNER

alexandrarevelli —  March 1, 2012 — 2 Comments


We’re Hiring WINterns!

That’s right folks. We are making moves. We currently have three spots open for YOU college Computer Science people, looking to get a #WINNING Expensify experience. If you are excited about the opportunity to really contribute to a developing product, then keep reading, my loves, keep reading.

Let’s talk about these openings. Two are straight up summer internships for you kids who have to get back in the fall. Short, sweet and to the point we will give you amazing hands on experience managing your own project here! We have several projects that could be your very own and with a little mentorship from one of our own software engineers, we will give you all the tools you need to be a rockstar.

The third one is a longer term co-op. We have officially decided to do it. Yes. A co-op. Starting this summer. This is essentially the same as the other internships but with the length of time you will be given even more experience with our website, projects and our super cool team!

Perks of being an Expensify WIN-tern? The list never ends. Well it does but its still awesome. We will provide housing and pay you a little something for being so cool. Lunch can be expensified every day plus dinner for those who stay late. Anything can be added to the grocery list each week so whatever your heart desires is available for snack time.

Questions, comments, excited to apply? GREAT! We love the enthusiasm. Lets do this. Our application process is the same as our full time application but when you diligently send it to jobs@expensify.com with your resume also attached, can you put “WINTERN” in the subject so I don’t jump to conclusions that you are just SO excited about Expensify that you want to drop out of school to work with our rockstar team of engineers? Thanks!

I am so looking forward to hearing from you!

In Announcements
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