Curious about a typical day in the life of a CDK employee? Follow along as Alexa Ruiz, a software engineer based out of our Portland office, takes us through how she makes an impact each day at work.

7 a.m.

I’m currently working from home due to the pandemic, so my morning commute is short! I begin work at 7 a.m. because half my team is located in India and our morning meetings need to overlap. I work on two different teams, and for both, I develop and maintain websites for internal company use. I start my day by checking for new emails or messages, reviewing my to-do list, and preparing for my two standup meetings. In these meetings, the team discusses what we did the day before, what we plan on doing today, and if we encountered any blockers.

8 a.m.

Once my standup meetings are finished, I might have one or two meetings with some of my teammates to discuss questions we have regarding our stories. Stories are the assigned tasks we work on, either individually or collaboratively. These meetings help ensure we are all on the same page with the project, which is important because we rely on each other to succeed.

9:30 a.m.

After my morning meetings, I’ll dive into any of my pending stories. This usually starts with coding in React or working on any new UX designs in Sketch. On the days where I do a little more UX work, I will usually write down any requirements for the design and then figure out how it might fit into the existing layout. I find it important to remain cognizant of the big picture so that as enhancements are requested, it is easy to implement any changes. I follow a similar approach when working on my UI work. While coding is not as visually artistic as UX work, I find both allow me to be creative.

1 p.m.

I usually either code or work on design changes in Sketch for a couple of hours, at which point I will take a quick break to have some lunch.

1:45p.m.

After lunch, I continue to work through my to-do list. If I’m ever feeling stuck, I’ll move onto something different; this might involve doing code reviews, going over requests for UX design enhancements or continuing any online courses I have been working on. I appreciate having the flexibility to manage my own work time, as it reduces stress when a particular story proves challenging.

2:20 p.m.

I usually get back to my to-do list after about an hour of these lower priority tasks. By this time, I’ve gotten the chance to rethink my approach to a design or a code solution, and I am ready to finish up any big stories I was working on previously.

3:30 p.m.

I like to wrap up every day by finishing one story, although some days it may not be feasible. This means raising a pull request to be reviewed by my teammates or finalizing a design change.

Since I get to work on both UX and UI, each day can be different and exciting. I get the chance to not only design the site but also build it! Being able to see your work come to life is a great feeling.

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