UNH graduate leaps into her future

Friday, June 2, 2017
Tiffany Winn ‘17

Tiffany Winn ’17 will receive six months of training through Fidelity Investments’ Leap program before staring her job as a software engineer.

Unlike some new alumni, Tiffany Winn '17 wasn’t stressed about getting a job after she graduated in May, and for good reason. She had landed one before she even started her senior year.

Fidelity Investments offered Winn a job as a software engineer last summer while she was interning with the multinational financial services company. Now that she has finished school, she’ll start their IT development program known as Leap and receive six months of training before her real job begins.

“The Leap program is really unique. It allows you to learn more about the job and the company, and they get to know you so they can place you based on your interests and strengths,” Winn says. Her training will take place at Fidelity’s North Carolina location, and then she’ll work in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

A computer science major, Winn says she chose the discipline for its problem solving challenges and creativity. Yes, creativity — not a word some would associate with computers or software or programming. But for Winn, it’s one of her favorite things about the field.

"The more complex a computer system is, the more ways there are to come at a problem. You need to consider all those ways."

“Computer science is seen as very black and white with a lot of logic involved, and it is, but there is also the process,” says Winn, a former member of UNH’s Society of Women Engineers. “There isn’t just one answer to a question; there are multiple, with pros and cons to each. You have to be creative. The more complex a computer system is, the more ways there are to come at a problem. You need to consider all those ways. Sometimes the solution isn’t the most intuitive one.”

A native of West Chesterfield, New Hampshire, Winn took programming classes in high school at the urging of her father. “I was the only girl in all the classes, but I stuck with it,” she says.  Her computer science teacher was one of her role models and someone who showed her that technology has an impact on almost every other industry.

“I thought that was so cool,” Winn says, adding that an artificial intelligence course she attended through St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, before her senior year of high school cemented her decision to major in computer science.

“Now, I really want to start learning more about the software industry and grow as a professional,” Winn says. “I’m anxious to be part of a team. There are parts of being a software engineer that focus on individual work, but there is also the team element, where you’re bouncing ideas off each other. I’m looking forward to that.”

Learn more about the computer science major here

 

Photographer: 
Valerie Lester | Communications and Public Affairs | valerie.lester@unh.edu | (603) 862-2632