Manchal Kumar - Software Engineer at Alfa

I graduated from King's College London with a Masters in Pharmacy and then went on to pursue a Masters in Management at Imperial College Business School. When looking for career opportunities, I had little idea of what industry I wanted to work in but one thing I was sure about was that I needed a good company culture. I had done some basic coding during my second masters and liked the challenge so when I came across Alfa I was really happy with the combination of technology, finance and culture on offer.



My intake consisted of graduates from varying disciplines but the training structure catered to all our technical abilities and we were all well supported. The extensive training started off with four weeks of an introduction to asset finance and the technologies used within Alfa. This followed with six weeks of development initiation where we were able to apply our new skills under close supervision. It was the perfect environment for us to work on real Alfa issues, make mistakes and learn from them. Development initiation is what strengthened my decision to join product engineering as a software engineer. Even though there was a steep learning curve, I enjoyed coding and the open culture within Alfa meant that I never hesitated to seek help and support from people at all levels in the company.



After just over a year on product engineering, I decided I wanted to try out a client project. The transition was smooth, I raised my desire with my manager and a few weeks later an opportunity became available. In this role, I deal with new challenges every day and work closely with client senior staff to ensure the Alfa product fits in with their needs. I have had the opportunity to build a completely new set of skills, helping me appreciate both engineering and project teams.



The people and culture at Alfa are fantastic. The hackathons, innovations days and quarterly meetings are a great way to stay connected and inspire ideas and the company has pulled through in keeping this culture alive even during a global pandemic. We really are well looked after.