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.
Tyler Fitzgerald
Associate on the Collections and Recoveries team
Joined Avant in 2021
What’s it like to work @Avant? We asked Tyler for his take on our culture, and here’s what he said:
1. How would you describe Avant’s culture?
It’s supportive and collaborative. Here’s an example: we have all these different Slack channels for every niche area of the business. Anytime you have a question, there’s a channel filled with people who are experts in that topic—and they’re always willing to help out. It’s really cool.
Another example: We have Demo Day twice a month as a way for people to present their latest work to the company. I’ve presented at Demo Day, and it’s so great to see how many people come out to support you. People across the company who you don’t work with on a day-to-day basis—they show up to your presentation to learn more about the projects you’re working on. I’ve always thought that was really unique and supportive.
2. Why are you happy/successful here?
I really like solving problems. At Avant, there isn’t just one right way to do things, and I get to define my own solutions and then put them into action. I can track how my solution is solving the problem and making a positive impact for others in the business, too. When my work makes someone else’s life easier, or has a measurable impact on the business itself—that’s what makes me happy. And in my role, there’s always a new challenge, a new opportunity to learn about the business and improve our processes. I get to do that on a day-to-day basis.
3. What’s something Avant is really good at? What’s something you’d like to see us get better at?
We’re good at giving people the opportunity to take ownership of the things that they’re working on. One example: when we’re getting to a point on a particular project where we’re ready to make a recommendation on what path to take, my manager gives me the opportunity to take that recommendation to the decision maker and present it myself. People don’t take credit for other people’s work here—you own what you work on. It’s not an ultra-competitive or cutthroat environment where people step on each other to get a leg up. That’s something that we’re really good at.
For what we could improve upon, I think there’s an opportunity for all of us—definitely including myself—to keep leveling up our process documentation. If we streamlined and got more consistent with it, then we’d be able to self-service faster. That’s something that we could improve upon.
4. If you were to describe who you are and not mention your work at all, what would you say?
I would describe myself as someone who enjoys experiences more than tangible things. I really like to play sports, go to movies and concerts and music festivals, and travel. A lot of people in my life are getting married right now, and between weddings and bachelor parties, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to a lot of different places. Last year, we went to Ireland for a friend’s wedding, and all my friends were there. And then my girlfriend and I extended the trip and went to Italy afterwards. Being able to have those experiences and to share them with people I care about is something that I really enjoy.
I also like to prioritize family time as much as I can. Recently, it was my dog’s 15th birthday, and we had a family FaceTime. My mom had him sitting on a chair with a little birthday cake, with candles and everything. We all sang happy birthday to him on FaceTime, and with all the people on FaceTime, the sound had 4 or 5 different feedback timings as everyone tried to time themselves in their head. That family time when we’re all grown up and scattered across the country is always fun. I posted a picture of him wearing his little birthday hat in our #dogs Slack channel.
5. How does your work at Avant fit into the rest of your life?
I’m a math guy—I’ve always been big into math and statistics. Growing up, I used to play a baseball video game, and I would manually track the score with pen and paper. I didn’t need to do that—the game tracked the stats for me—but I liked to do it myself, so that I could see if I was doing the math right. In my role at Avant, I get to apply that skill. Now that I’m not in school or actively studying math, I don’t necessarily get to do so much outside of work anymore. But in my role, I get to apply those skill sets and then continue to expand upon them on a daily basis.
8. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Definitely a professional athlete. I grew up playing baseball, football, and basketball, and I thought I could go pro in any one of them at the time. You’re telling me my whole job would be to play sports and have fun, and get paid millions of dollars to do it? Then I started to get better at math (and stopped making the varsity teams), and my career aspirations started to shift.
