Valerie Don: From Coffee Shop Barista to Software Engineer at PayPal

Welcome to Formation’s Fellow Spotlight, a blog series designed to introduce you to former Formation fellows who have landed their dream jobs. Today we’ll meet Valerie Don, a platform engineer at PayPal. When Valerie came to Formation, she had left her college economics program and was working as a Blue Bottle barista in San Francisco, trying to figure out how she could bring her dreams of living and working in the city to life. When a friend told her about Formation, she decided to take a leap toward building a future in tech. While she hasn’t created her own startup - yet - she has since earned an incredible full-time software engineering role at one of the best tech companies in the world. Here’s her story.

What was your educational background before you came to Formation?

I went to UC Davis to study managerial economics because I thought it would help me eventually become an entrepreneur, but it wasn’t like that at all. After three years of struggling through econ, I decided to take a Java class - being in California, tech was the hot thing and so many of my fellow students were taking CS classes. I met other CS students and got really interested in the major, but I was already three years into economics. While I loved the Java class, I was still hating and failing econ, so I decided to drop out.

What was the moment you decided to go for it and move to San Francisco?

I loved San Francisco, so after I dropped out of school I decided I’d do whatever it took to move to my dream city and change my career. I tried everything - working as an Uber driver between Davis and SF, dog sitting a really cute golden retriever puppy in the Marina, trying to find ways to use my fitness trainer certification. None of it was working out, but then I finally got a great barista job at Blue Bottle. I figured that once I had a job that would pay me enough to stay in SF, I could figure out what to do next. And a few months after that, I found Formation. I didn’t know how it was all going to work out, but I followed my gut.

What was it like getting started at Formation?

Formation is really focused on helping people break into top tier tech companies, so we were constantly being held to really high standards by building real production applications. Our mentors would show us what a particular app should look like, and we would pair and figure it out. I started on the Swigo travel app team and switched over to the Allo Community app halfway through (both really useful experiences for my resume). We also worked on data structures and algorithms rigorously throughout the program and were constantly evaluated against real technical interview standards.

How did it feel to jump into a full time computer science training program?

It was very difficult. Everyone in the Fellowship had more experience than me, and I thought I was the worst one in the group - but I proved myself wrong! Formation uses a level system that allowed us to test into more and more advanced levels, which was a great gauge for tracking progress and leveling up throughout the Fellowship.

How was the hardness of learning to code different from the hardness of econ?

I was able to push through the challenges of CS because Formation was an environment that kept pushing us. We had to be online from 9am-6pm every weekday and were constantly pushed to do our best. We were encouraged to ask questions and got to constantly collaborate directly with senior engineers at top tech companies who understood our challenges and inspired us. It was a great environment to learn in, compared to gigantic universities where you don't get that much help.

When did you start thinking about the next steps you’d have to take to make your engineering career a reality?

Toward the end of the program, as we continued working on real production applications and our daily mock interviews, we started applying for jobs. I did everything I could think of to find a role. At some point, one of my friends forwarded me an email about an exclusive, more senior HackerX recruiting event. Even though I was technically too junior, I showed up and talked to people about my Formation experience. As soon as I saw some people from PoshMark, I knew I had to meet them and tell them how excited I was about their company. They told me they weren’t hiring for my level right then but would be in a month, and lo and behold, a month later they emailed me and wanted to schedule a phone interview.

How did your real interview experience differ from mock interviews you did with Formation?

I felt prepared! As Fellows we worked on algorithm and data structures problems almost daily with the kinds of engineers who interviewed candidates at their own companies and would be administering our job interviews in the future. Formation also did a good job of preparing us for behavioral interviews, because each of our mock interviews included a 15-minute behavioral portion before the technical parts. And because we did so many technical interviews, we really learned how to improvise, which I’ve used in all of my interviews since.

What was the hiring process at PayPal like?

I started job hunting in the middle of the pandemic, which was crazy. I was glad PayPal was one of my later interviews - it was hard! In my first technical interview, I was asked to build an app within two hours, and I did it - plus all three bonus rounds. There were three or four more rounds after that - a data structures round, a code review round where I went over my two hour coding challenge, and then a round of questions from a senior iOS engineer. I didn’t know all the answers but I did my best using improv - and now I’m on that engineer’s team! Being prepared for these kinds of interviews just takes time and experience, which is why Formation spends so much time helping us practice throughout the program.

What is your role at PayPal now?

As a member of the Platform engineering team, I build tools to make iOS engineers’ lives easier. My team builds and manages SDKs that help other teams build, test and integrate their own SDKs. I was really intrigued by the role because I was told I’d be part of a strong team doing backend iOS work, but also have the opportunity to work on the frontend, helping the team redesign the PayPal home screen. I’ve only been at PayPal one month and I’ve already gotten to work on some pretty important features. The platform team has an announcement channel that a lot of the company follows, so it’s fun to share my work there. I feel lucky to be part of such a strong and important team.

What advice would you have for someone who wants to uplevel their engineering skills and is considering Formation?

Formation is an investment that you make to transform your life. Putting yourself in an environment where everyone is trying to achieve the same goal is really helpful and pushes you forward. I had a difficult time trying to learn to code on my own - there are so many different options and tracks. Choosing a program like Formation solidifies the commitment you’re making to change your career and helps you cut through the noise of online content and focus on the critical skills that companies actually need.

What can a Formation Fellow - or anyone beginning their career in tech - do to make the most of their experience?

Stay connected to the people you meet by reaching out and being proactive! Think of everyone as your friend - you help them out, they help you out. And be assertive - in my role at PayPal today, I’m not afraid to ask for help - or take the lead running meetings. That’s something I learned at Formation.

Interested in becoming a Fellow like Valerie? Apply on our site and become the engineer you were meant to be.