As I pack my bags to visit India and see my parents after 2 years of isolation due to covid-19, I can't help but reminisce about 2021. I want to be grateful for all that the universe had to offer. I'll save the top life highlights for Facebook ;) but here are my top work highlights at OFX:
Delivered two key projects
I started the year as an Engineering Manager looking after two teams. One was the Digital experience team which managed our website and our mobile app. The other is the Enterprise team which built our public APIs. This year, we pushed two major projects to production amongst lots of challenges and hurdles. We transformed our identity platform and onboarded a major enterprise partner - WiseTech. Read more about the partnership here.
It's been incredible to work with an amazing team to get these projects across the line.
The Chappell Foundation's 4th Annual Charity Dinner
As OFX is a corporate sponsor for The Chappell Foundation, I attended the 4th Annual Charity dinner to support tackling of youth homelessness in Australia.
It was a star-studded night! I met and got signatures from the current Australian cricketers - Tim Paine and Josh Hazlewood and ex-cricketers Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell and Trevor Chappell. I also met John Howard; former Australian prime minister. It was incredible to witness the live auctions to raise money and see some very successful and prominent people come together to support a good cause. Over $1 million was raised. ❤️
Thanks, OFX for standing united to end youth homelessness.
Technology Hackathon
Over the course of two days, we organized a technology hackathon, run fully remote. Over this time, OFXers pitched their ideas, formed teams and tirelessly worked to be crowned the overall Hackathon champions!! We had over 75 people participate across 12 teams, with assistance from our Legal and Compliance, Marketing, Sales, Finance, Partnerships and Operations teams.
The difficult task of judging these fantastic teams was handed to our judging panel which included our very own CTO, CFO, Head of Fraud, and an external judge from AWS.
Uber Eats vouchers went out for our participants to enjoy some lunch and snacks while being part of the hackathon.
It’s amazing what can be achieved in two days. The final presentation included a showdown between all the teams. The competition was fierce and the ideas were fantastic!
Congratulations to our winners:
Overall Innovation Award: Team OFX Vision
Crowd’s Favourite: Team Benny
Best Implementation: Team The X-Men
Best Pitch: Team Datasaurus Rex
Social Influencer: Team Customer Ninjas
Finally, it was awesome to come together as a team and work tirelessly behind the scenes for almost 6 months to bring this event to life.
Fundraising for the covid-19 situation in India
This year OFX donated nearly $30k to help ease the COVID situation in India. ❤️❤️
Last year has been incredibly difficult on a personal front. I saw the surge of COVID cases in India and got that devastating call from home to say that my mum, uncle and aunt were COVID positive. I watched from afar while they struggled to find hospitals and medication. Unable to fly back, I felt like I couldn’t do much apart from praying and offering emotional support.
Our CTO and CMO contacted us to establish a fundraiser and donate the first $1k. We decided to form a group and kick off a fundraiser!
💪 Our initial goal was 3k.
🥳 We hit that in 2 days!!
💪 So we increased the target to 5k
🥳 We hit that in a week!!
💪 We decided to increase our target to 10k
We organized pay-per-plate lunches, virtual cooking classes, and rallied together to raise money. Thanks to the generosity of OFXers, by the end of the month we raised 7.5k!
On top of that, OFX donated one month’s profit from our Indian currency transfers (totally $22k!) which brought the total to a whopping 30k!!!
I am so grateful to be working for a company that is generous and very serious about social responsibility. Thank you OFX These funds will go a long way. ❤️
Diverse and Inclusive workspace
At OFX:
👩💻 43% of our people are female
👩💻 Our Global Executive Team is 50% female
👩💻 Our Board is 33% female
👩💻 Our Senior Leadership Team is 43% female
I have never worked for a company that has such a good gender ratio. I thought this was a distant dream! I'm so lucky to work for a company that had made it happen - today in 2021!
OFX Awards
Every quarter, OFX awards individuals or teams who have consistently demonstrated our values and delivered exceptional customer service for an internal or external clients. These awards are nominated by fellow OFXers.
In 2021, I was awarded:
OFXer of the Quarter (July-September)
Best Team Award - India fundraising team
Best Team Award - Hackathon organizing committee
It's an incredible feeling to be recognized and appreciated. ❤
Co-Op Scholarship Program in UNSW
OFX supports UNSW's Co-op program by sponsoring exceptional high school students who are keen to study computer science or software engineering. This year, I got to interview six high school students and help decide the finalists. We had several high caliber students who impressed the sponsor representatives and academics. A promising future ahead!
Girl Geek Speed Hiring
Girl Geek is a charitable not-for-profit to get GEEQs (that’s geeks with EQ) into IT and keep them there! GEEQ and its events are inclusive and open to everyone - but the main focus is to empower all women who wish to commence or further their careers in IT.
They run several speed hiring events every year. Each is a fully virtual event where the candidates have the opportunity to ask questions about an organization, have a quick chat with hiring managers and/or potential future colleagues, and find out more about the role and the culture before they even put in an application.
This year, OFX paired up with Girl Geek and sponsored one of these virtual events. I got to meet many talented women across all domains.
Post this event, some of these incredible women are now part of OFX!
From Engineering Manager to Director of Engineering
As the year progressed, I got an opportunity to step up from my role as an Engineering Manager to the Director of Engineering across all our product platforms.
I now help lead five customer-facing teams who look after our website, mobile app, our global currency accounts, our identity management, and APIs. There's so much more for me to learn, and I am grateful for an incredibly supportive executive team!
What a incredible year at OFX!
❤ Thanks to my team for their hard work and dedication
❤ Thanks to my peers for their constant support
❤ Thanks to my boss for incredible opportunities
If you are interested to work in my teams, reach out to me or check out our Career's Page.
Can't wait to see what 2022 has in store! 😎
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