Après TFS - Alex Cheng '07

TFS: Please describe the path you took after TFS.

ALEX CHENG: After graduating from TFS, I moved to the United States to attend Smith College in Massachusetts. I earned a bachelor’s degree and majored in computer science with a minor in exercise and sports studies. After college, I moved to Boston and joined a company called CSN Stores, which rebranded to Wayfair shortly after I started. I began as a software engineer and transitioned into management over my 12 years there. Last year, I made a career move to Spotify, where I currently work.

TFS: What is your profession and what does a typical day look like for you?

ALEX: I am a software engineer manager at Spotify, and no two days are the same for me. As a people manager, my days are guided by what’s going on with the people and projects I manage. One day, an issue might come up with a project, requiring me to manage the team, identify the problem, and work on finding solutions. Another day, a situation with a colleague might arise and in that case, I’d have a conversation with them to understand what’s going on. My days are spent working with many different types of people. Not only do I work with my team of engineers, but I also work on the business side of things which involves determining the work my engineering team needs to complete to make certain features and launches happen. 

TFS: What gives you the most satisfaction in your work?

ALEX: I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s helping people. As a people manager, I spend a lot of my time ensuring the individuals I manage are happy with their jobs—not just in their day-to-day tasks, but also in terms of their long-term career growth. Are they growing if they want to be growing or do they like where they are and want to stay long term? I want to ensure that people who want to grow have the opportunity to learn new skills and get promoted. On the project side of my job, I really enjoy teamwork and collaboration. I don’t just work within my team, I work across teams, assisting others with progress and tasks. It’s really rewarding to work across teams and advance different goals and projects. 

TFS: How did your experience at TFS help you get to where you are now? Were there any specific courses, extracurricular activities, experiences, or projects you participated in at TFS that helped prepare you?

ALEX: Learning how to juggle and balance all of my extracurriculars on top of the rigorous IB program prepared me well for university and my career afterwards. On top of my final year of classes, I was on the dance committee, in the globe club and a House Head. When I was on the dance committee, there were only two of us, so we were responsible for planning the entire prom. That experience proved invaluable when I got to college and had to adapt to a much more independent environment. I felt confident I could handle classes, a job, and anything else I had to take on because I knew that I had done it before. Oftentimes, I felt that high school was harder than what was thrown at me after graduating.

TFS: How has French language and bilingualism impacted your career?

ALEX: Since I attended university in the United States and have lived there ever since, I haven’t had to use French in any work or school setting. That said, being bilingual and having those foundational language skills has been helpful to me in my work as a software engineer. There are a lot of different languages in software engineering, and being able to apply critical thinking when translating languages is something I’ve used regularly in my work. 

TFS: What skills or lessons from TFS do you find yourself applying most often in your work?

ALEX: There was a period at TFS where I was terrible at math. I had registered for the wrong level of math, and it was too advanced for me at the time. My parents hired a tutor who was also a teacher at TFS, and she was amazing. She helped me get through those last couple of years and made me so much more confident in my math skills. Looking back on that experience, having a strong network and support system set me up for long-term success and taught me how important having and using your support system is. 

TFS: What was your most memorable experience at TFS? 

ALEX: During senior year, my friends and I always started our day in a little area near the guidance offices. We’d spend our time goofing off and having fun. We’d often watch this specific YouTube video over and over again on one of the school’s desktop computers. It was a lighthearted and nice way to start the day, surrounded by community and feeling a sense of connection. Even with the demands of school and all our other commitments, we were able to make time in the mornings to connect before we went on with our hectic, often stressful days. 

TFS: What advice would you give to current students?

ALEX: Don’t be afraid to explore things outside of what you are typically interested in. For example, when I was on the dance committee, I would say I wasn’t a good dancer—terrible, even—and I’m  not really the type of person who gravitates toward big social events. However,  I really enjoy planning, so I decided to give it a go. Similarly, in college, I thought it might be interesting to become an EMT—so I did! It was a really cool experience and great to learn something new. Even though it doesn’t directly apply to what I do now, I still think it was a worthwhile experience. 

TFS: What do you wish you had known while at TFS that could have better prepared you for life after graduation?

Whatever you do in undergrad doesn’t have to be for the rest of your life. Obviously, for me, it did end up being what I still do today. However, I know that when you’re in high school and preparing to start undergrad, choosing what to study feels like an enormous decision that will define your life—but the college experience is about so much more than just your major. It’s about the friends you make and all the ways you grow as a person in this new, independent setting, for the first time.