My Steps To WorkStep: A Story of Self Reflection and Trusting the Process

Welcome to our June edition of “My Steps to WorkStep.” Each month we feature a member of the WorkStep team and dive into their role and what led them to it, tips for applicants, and a fun fact about them. 

This month we talked to Calvin Fronda, a Software Engineer, who lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area. He discusses how his connection to frontline workers has come full circle professionally, and the importance of not giving up on your goals. 

What is your role at WorkStep?

I’m working as a software engineer on the WorkStep RETAIN side. Most of the work I do is front end work, but I am a full stack developer. So that means I work the front and back end of the WorkStep products, but like I said, mostly just in the RETAIN space.

What is your typical workday like?

So typical day to day is we always start out with a daily standup. So that’s really just talking about what we did the day before. If we have any blockers, we talk as an engineering team to see what our status is and if we need help with anything.

Then after that it’s mostly just coding. So I would just go into the code base and start working on some of the solutions, kind of brainstorming. If I needed help, I would start scheduling meetings with people. I also have other ad hoc meetings – we always have grooming sessions. It kind of varies per per day essentially.

But most of my time, I wanna say like 75-80%, I’m coding and then the remaining 20%, I’m mostly just doing meetings.

What was your path to this role like? 

Yeah, so my path was pretty interesting. My very first professional job, I was an account manager for a company that made video cards, and that led me to having more empathy towards warehouse workers. It was a small company, so I got to walk around the whole building and meet everyone. So I met a lot of these frontline workers.

So that’s where the root of my career journey started. After that, I went to the UCLA coding boot camp where I got the foundation of my coding education. From there I started a small startup called Omou Learning, which is a management tool for tutoring centers. I did that for about a year.

After that I got an internship at Apple. I did that for six months and then after the Apple internship, I started applying for jobs and found WorkStep. Actually WorkStep’s recruitment team found me. I reached out to learn about the job and realized that there was a connection with frontline workers and got really excited. Yeah, so that was my path to this role.

Do you have any tips for aspiring WorkSteppers?

As I get more senior, I think what we really value is teamwork and being able to question the status quo. It’s one of our core values here and I think being able to not be afraid of questioning or asking questions. I think what WorkStep really values is the fact that some people aren’t afraid to ask these questions, especially in a remote setting.

If you were aspiring to be a WorkStepper it’s important to put the ego aside and just ask the questions because you might not be the only person that has that question. So definitely speak up and be passionate about the things you’re trying to achieve. 

What is something people may not know about you?

I guess when I was a kid my parents put me in a lot of sports. I might not look like the sportiest guy, but I love sports. Like I play basketball a lot, I played tennis, and played football. I did pole vaulting too, which is kind of an odd track and field sport. I did pole vault because I wasn’t fast enough to be on the sprinting team. So I was like, I wanna do something cool, with more focus on the upper body. So I did pole vault… I guess that’s something that not a lot of people would know.

What advice would you give to your past self?

Hmm. I honestly think about this question a lot, just because I always like to think about where I’ve been and where I am now and try to just see the growth internally.

I think if I was gonna give myself some advice, I would say just trust the process. There are times where I wanted to give up, but it’s good that I didn’t. And I think that having those feelings are valid, but having the goal and being able to attain that goal is something that I wasn’t confident in before. So I guess overall just trust the process and be sure that you’re going to be able to do a good job and just give a hundred percent at all times. And you know, it’s okay to fail sometimes. 

What do you enjoy the most about being a WorkStepper?

I think first and foremost, it’s the people. I think at the end of the day, the thing I love about WorkStep is the fact that I can go to anyone on the team and they will be very open, very willing to help. I think we try our very best to keep the team camaraderie very high, and I really appreciate that. 

I think that the product as an engineer is very interesting. I think we’re solving a very niche problem that is very highlighted in today’s current environment. And I think being able to help people get jobs, retain those jobs and feel satisfied with their life is something that I enjoy on a daily basis. 

We are hiring

If you would be interested in learning more about open job opportunities at WorkStep, please visit our careers page. We’d love to hear from you!