Every unique and talented Avantee is a co-creator of the Avant culture we love. We hope the @Avant series helps you get to know who we are, how we do what we do, and what it looks like to build your career at Avant.
Corbin Peterson
Product Manager on the Originations Team
Joined Avant in 2024; previously with Avant 2014-2020
What’s it like to work @Avant? We asked Corbin for his take on our culture, and here’s what he said:
1. How would you describe Avant’s culture?
We do a great job at hiring really smart people who all are willing to teach and encourage each other. I think that’s what I enjoy the most about Avant’s culture—the way we all try to pull each other up. We have a culture of support, especially whenever you’re working on something that’s a foreign concept to you but that someone else knows.
On the product side, even though our teams are independently working on our own functions, our technology is all-encompassing and has a lot of overlap. It’s almost like the technology enforces that we collaborate and work together, coaching each other to learn about different parts of the product to build what we want to be successful.
2. Why are you happy/successful here?
I like to feel a shared sense of responsibility in whatever I’m doing. Whether it’s work or a hobby or a sport, a group effort or even a solo effort, I like for people to hold me accountable to my goals. I feel like as a company, we do that for each other, just inherently. It’s not only my own team—others across the company want to see me succeed and hold me accountable. I think that’s what helps me thrive here.
If I’m talking with coworkers, sure, we talk about how our weekend was, but people also ask me about what I’m working on, any struggles I’ve had with it, how do I get better at it. The next time I talk to that person, they’ll follow up and say, “Hey, how’s your progress on that thing?”
It feels like a sense of camaraderie, that we’re all in this together. Although we’re doing it in different ways for different reasons, we’re all trying to build a better product for our customers. That’s how Avant and I mesh together very well.
3. What’s something Avant is really good at? What’s something you’d like to see us get better at?
I don’t know if it’s that we’re great at hiring the right people who are a culture fit, or if it’s something about what we do as a company, but people just generally get along here. Even in situations where, in another work culture, you might expect there to be conflict or even hostility, there just isn’t here. So either we do a great job hiring people, and/or we do a great job fostering positive relationships between departments through events like Demo Days or Town Halls. I just feel like we’re not very siloed and the vibes are good.
For what we could get better at, we do a lot of really cool work here. We have fun projects. And I feel like we can do a better job at monitoring or analyzing the success of those projects so we can learn and iterate to keep making it better.
4. If you were to describe who you are and not mention your work at all, what would you say?
I would say I’m a bashful explorer—I’m never the loudest person in the room, I like to observe, to explore new things, and not pin myself into one category. I’m also a big fan of anime and obscure music, and I like subcultures generally—I am passionate about people who are passionate about things. I’m very much the same way. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I’m gay, and growing up, I felt like those subcultures were where I felt the most at home. I think that helped me feel safe exploring and engaging with the world, exploring new groups of people, types of art, new events.
I grew up on a farm, and I never really left until I moved to Chicago and came to work at Avant. So over the past few years, I’ve been trying to travel more. Last year, I went to Japan. This year, we’re going to China. I’m trying to catch up on lost time exploring the world.
5. What’s a superpower that you get to apply at your job?
I’ll be honest. I’m generally pretty hard on myself, but I am really hardworking. I’ve worked on the Originations side for so long that I have a good understanding of what parts of the technologies talk to each other. When we are working on larger projects, I can understand the touchpoints pretty easily.
I think that makes my superpower X-ray vision, right? I can see which parts of the technology talk to each other, where there’s overlap and touchpoints between products. That makes it easier for us to build new technologies that all work and play well together.
6. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a race car driver growing up. My uncle drove stock cars my entire life, and my family owned a racetrack, so I always thought I’d be a driver, too. And now I don’t even drive. It’s funny, I haven’t driven in a decade.
