Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi everyone! Welcome to this live chat session! I am really excited to interact with all of you and I hope that I am able to answer as many of your questions as possible.
firstnaukri.com: Hello Everyone, Thanks for logging in. Welcoming Ms. Manjula to this knowledge session. We request for her opening comments and open the floor for student questions
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi everyone! Welcome to this live chat session! I am really excited to interact with all of you and I hope that I am able to answer as many of your questions as possible.
Rayana Varun: how are the working hours at Avalara?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We have flexible working hours that helps employees to manage theirs work life balance
Rahul: hello mam.. i would like to know more about the company and the current offering
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We all know that the world runs on taxes. Being tax compliant is crucial for all companies since every commercial transaction in the world is taxable. Now consider the fact that similar transactions with slightly different features may have different tax rates and rules across different jurisdictions and locations. Avalaras mission is to automate this staggeringly complex requirement by building the worlds best SaaS Platform.
Gopi krishna Masabattuni: hi mam . what is the recruitment process of the company
Apoorv: i would like know more about the hiring process
Manjula Muthukrishnan: The process that well follow is pretty simple. Well have an online technical test that would help us shortlist candidates based on our requirements. On the basis of the test results, well have an in-person technical interview that would see us delve into the areas of your strengths and potential. This will allow us to decide in which team you would be most suited for. And finally, we will have the HR interview to assess your personality alignment.
VINAY KUMAR UJEE: what are the tehnologies used by Avalara?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We work on popular and powerful technologies like Angular, React, Ember, .Net core, Python, Java, NodeJs, several AWS Services, Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker, MongoDB, PostGres. In addition to it, we also have the following technologies, Tech Stack - Languages - Scala, Python, Go; Big Data Frameworks - Spark, Hadoop, Kafka, UI Frameworks - React, NodeJs
Shivani: i would like to know more about the company's work culture
M P VEDHIK: What about the working environment mam?
apurva kumar: i want to know the work culture of avalara technology.please describe me..
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Our culture is built on the success traits that we have found to be common among our most successful employees. We highly value behaviors like Optimism, Passion, Adaptability, Humility, Fun, Ownership, Curiosity and Urgency. While hiring and assessing people, we place immense importance on these behavior traits. To give you an idea, we really look for people who constantly have and promote a positive attitude. We want people who really care about the problems we are trying to solve.
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We want members who can understand, absorb and adapt to the fact that we are in the business of automating something as big as tax compliance on a global scale. Circumstances are bound to change. We need people who can embrace these changing situations. We are also clear that the burden of automating tax compliance must stay with us and this idea allows us to always think of building simplified products for all our customers.
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We are serious about maintaining a humble environment. We do serious work but you wouldn't find serious faces when we let our hair down! Our office floors have a fun, friendly and open atmosphere filled with happy faces. Because of the responsibility we entrust to our team members, we also hold them accountable. Making excuses for our action items isn't something you'll find at Avalara. Everyone knows that they hold ownership of their assigned projects.
sadhna chaurasiya: can you tell me about selection process?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Sadhna, I have answered the question on recruitment,ent. Could you please check that?
apurva kumar: how many technical rounds will be there?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Apurva,
I have answered the question - can you please check that?
Aman: when are you planning to visit the campuses?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Aman, We will be starting to visit campuses from November
Aman Kumar: hello maam, i would to know that which technology are currently being used in the company?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Aman, We use a number of cutting edge technologies- I have answered that question above
Rishab Makkar: Hi Ma'am, I'm from Computer background, please help us with the current and future trends in Tax Compliance Industry using Modern Technology?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Tax compliance will be using lot more automation in the future and your background in computer science will really help us. For example, figuring out the tax rules for what they sell is a big hurdle for many businesses. The teams at Avalara are applying AI and ML techniques to identify these tax rules and their changes automatically and classify products into the right categories so that the appropriate rules can be applied.
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Doing this for every business involves scale challenges which will also be of interest to you.
Baviskar Sanket Sharad: Do avalara have any international clients?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Baviskar, We have more than 20000 customers across the world
Tania Singh: Hello Ma'am, Would like to know about the projects, that would be assigned only for India or Global projects?
Pappu Ram: What major activities does your csr department perform?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Pappu, We have a number of activities where employees participate as part of our CSR activities- we work with a number of NGOs volunteering and helping them
Rishabh: Which companies are your competitor, how do you stand out from them ?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Rishabh, Companies like Vertex,Taxjar are our competitors.
Tanay agrawal: Is there any training period for fresher in company
Ankam Gnapika: Ma'am how long will be the training period in avalara?
Ankam Gnapika: Ma'am how long will be the training period in avalara?
Vinit Kumar: Hi ma'am, how much duration of training will be offered after being selected at campus and what output you will be expecting after the completion of training period.
KALPESH SAHU: Learning opportunities within company?
Rohan Verma: Hello ma'am ... I would like to know about the training at Avalara
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Our business is built on the idea of being part of every transaction in the world. To achieve this, we need our teams to continuously refine their processes and expand their scope. With this in mind, we make sure to get our employees up to speed with new technologies and methods. In fact, when you would join Avalara, we would put you in a thorough corporate induction and technology bootcamp to get you setup for success!
Ankam Gnapika: Ma'am how long will be the training period in avalara?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Ankam, the answer is given above
Tanay agrawal: Hello mam...What do you expect from other non-IT branches
Rachna Sahu: As a fresher majoring from non CSE background what should be the prerequisites required to join the company?
Atul Shukla: Hello ma'am I'm from chemical engineering so what do you expect from me and what type of questions i have to prepare ?
Jetti Sandeepkumar: Mam.is there any job role other than software eng ineer
Tanay agrawal: Hello mam...What do you expect from other non-IT branches
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We are happy to recruit candidates who are from non computer science background. If you can convert problems into code, you have the passion, aptitude and the ability to learn we have a bootcamp program that you will undergo that will teach you the required skills to become a solid engineer at Avalara.
Aviral: Hi, Are there alumni from IITs working with your organisation ?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Yes, we do have IIT alumni with us Aviral. We have folks from IIT Kanpur, Kharagpur and Delhi working in various offices across India.
Pratik Das Baghel: What qualities you are looking in a student?
Shaik Salma: maam! What do the company expect from freshers?
Sourav: What all are the technical skills that you are looking in a candidate?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: If you can convert problems into code, you have the passion, aptitude and the ability to learn, those are the skills that we look for
ABHISHEK KR KASHYAP: How is the work life balance at avalara
KETAN S BAGE: What will be the working hours and ctc breakdown?
Amit Jakhar: What is the maximum number of working hours per week that an employee of your company serves?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Our official working hours in India are 9 to 6 with 5 days working. However, we have flexible working hours with work from home that helps employees to manage their work life balance.
ANURAG SHARMA: How is the routine of a software engineer in a company look like?
Abhishek: can you help me understand the job role better?
priya: Hello mam.. just want to know more about the job profiles for freshers?
saurabh dewangan: what would you hope a new hire to contribute to the company?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We look towards freshers to contribute in every part of our product engineering process. Freshers are trained in Avalara to become fully functioning engineers contributing in various Engineering processes - development, testing, platform engineering as well as product management
Tanay agrawal: Is there any training peroid in company for fresher
Shaik Salma: mam! Does the company offer any training period?
Pratik Das Baghel: Is there any training program for newcomers, does project assigned to students are based on their strengths?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Our business is built on the idea of being part of every transaction in the world. To achieve this, we need our teams to continuously refine their processes and expand their scope. With this in mind, we make sure to get our employees up to speed with new technologies and methods. In fact, when you would join Avalara, we would put you in a thorough corporate induction and technology bootcamp to get you setup for success!
Aman Kumar: As a fresher, i would like to know that what do expect from the freshers?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: If you can convert problems into code, you have the passion, aptitude and the ability to learn, those are the skills that we look for
Rahul Khobragade: Do we get any foreign opportunities through company. Like a project outside the country
Hardik: Are there any offshore opportunities working with Avalara ?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We work in an agile environment and there is constant communication and collaboration between our geographically distributed teams! We encourage our employees to find opportunities for onsite collaboration. When the business requires, we ensure that our team members travel to our international offices, irrespective of career experience and job levels.
Sandip Biswas: What are you expecting from an undergraduate student? Specifically
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Sandip, I have answered this question already. We look for people with ability to convert problems into code, people with passion, aptitude and the ability to learn!
Pallavi: Is there any bond that we have to sign ?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Pallavi, Hi! There is no bond that you need to sign. However, we have seen our freshers grow from software engineers to directors in this organisation since we offer challenging roles.
Pratik Das Baghel: Any Additional perks for employees?
kritika kumar: Hi mam, what are the other benefits which your company gives to the employees
Aiyush Prasad: What is the CTC break down for the role you are offering?
Narendra Gupta: Mam. What is the salary breakdown ?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We hire people with excellent grasp of process knowledge and indepth engineering skills. Being a software product company, Avalara provides competitive salary as base pay and also our pay rises are defined by the performance and contribution levels of each employee to the business. Were also regularly refining our pay strategy to attract and retain our valuable employees
Riya Talaria: Hello mam ,does your company hire architects also?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We do hire architects as lateral hires.
vikash kumar chaurasia: hello mam , i am very good in C language, pls suggest what all languages do i need to code if i am selected at the company
Manjula Muthukrishnan: In our recruitment process, we don't specify any specific programming language. Once a fresher joins us, we train them for the technology stack that we use. You can refer to my earlier answer on the technologies that we use
Satish: what are the total no. of openings?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: The pace at which Avalara is growing, we have multiple opportunities
Ankam Gnapika: Any subisadries of avalara maam?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We don't have any other subsidiaries in India as of now.
suresh: What will be the work location?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We have offices in Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad for our engineering teams.
Rishabh Ramteke: What is the best part in working for Avalara
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Best part at Avalara - This is my personal view but I am sure most of our employees will agree, the best part at Avalara is the People - who challenge one another, are passionate about solving challenges problems in the tax domain and at the same time having lot of fun doing it.
Narendra Gupta: Hello Mam. What are the key skills you're looking that would suit him/her better for your company ?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Narendra, You can refer to my earlier answer on this.
Shreya Shrivastava: What do you see as the most challenging aspect of this job?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Keep evolving our technology solutions to cater to the ever changing taxation world and challenges faced by our customers.
Narendra Gupta: Mam What is the growth hierarchy, how often are the chance of promotions for freshers ?
MONICA SINDHU CHINTADA: hello ma'am , what are the other opportunities that the company provides to us freshers to broaden our horizon
Pranav: what is the growth opportunity as an individual for me in the company
Pavan bhukya: Are there opportunities for professional development? If so, what do those look like?
Akash Singh: Hello Mam, can you please tell me about the career growth of an employee in your company? Also, am i allowed to change the technology i am working on after a certain period of time? Thank you
Ashank Pashine: Ma'am what is the scope of growth within the company ?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: With respect to growth, we at Avalara believe in competency based career growth plans. We facilitate the fast track growth programs for employees through structured interventions. Since we have multiple products, there is also a possibility of horizontal movement and exposure to multiple product development in the company. At Avalara we have two specialized career growth paths the Individual Contributor track which focuses on core Technology Careers
Manjula Muthukrishnan: and the Managerial Career track which focuses on the people and project management aspect.
Rohit Jain: Hello Ma'am, Hope you're doing well. Having more than 20000 customers across the globe? Would be keen to know about the future Plans of the Company, for the coming years?
Vikash sahu: Hello mam , I want to know about the vision of the company.
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Our Mission is to automate tax compliance for every transaction in the world, by building the worlds best SaaS Platform, which delivers cloud-based calculation, collection and digital storage of all compliance documents and fully automated filing and fund remittance
Soumya Nayak: Good Afternoon Ma'am. This is Soumya.Ma'am I just wanted to ask how would you like to describe Avalara technologies for an individual who has just graduated and is looking forward to work in
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Soumya, Avalara has multiple products and a result we use multiple technologies. The goal is to pick the right technology for the tool. So we have teams using Microsoft technologies as well as Open source technologies at the same time. We work on popular and powerful technologies like Angular, React, Ember, .Net core, Python, Scala, Java, NodeJs, several AWS Services, Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker, MongoDB, PostGres, Big Data Frameworks like Spark, Hadoop, Kafka
ANURAG SHARMA: Apart from the taxation domain, do we have other domains in which Avalara is inclined to work in?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: While other companies may choose to focus on one or select few tax compliance services, Avalara provides a complete suite of tax compliance products through the incredible synergy between our research, engineering and support teams!
Rohit Jain: Would like to know the flexibility in the company, relating to- if a person can switch between projects?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Rohit,
we wholeheartedly support internal job movements and ensure that you have this large basket of technologies and roles to choose from. You will realize that there are many opportunities to gain multiple perspectives on helping the business grow.
Baviskar Sanket Sharad: What are the major areas in which alavara is currently working for indian companies to grow?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Baviskar, Avalara has a product that automates GST compliance. This helps Indian companies with their tax compliance
Rayana Varun: what tips or advice would you give to someone attending for the interview?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Good question Varun. We want you to put your best foot forward during the interview. We will test you on your strengths and fundamentals. And its ok to say I dont know - when you don't know something. All the best
shalini kumari: hello mam I would like to know how Avalara Technologies helps its client in tax compliance
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Shalini, take a look at this-
Avalara How it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRWhjYYlu-w
Shreya Shrivastava: The test and process are conducted on same day ?
A.H.P.keerthi: Hi mam. Can you brief about technical test pattern mam ?
Tameshwar Sahu: Mam what will be test pattern?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We are still working on duration of the test but its going to be a test conducted on one of the popular online platforms and will test your programming and problem solving ability. You will have to solve couple of programming problems and there will be questions testing your problem solving skills. In some of the campuses, we will be conducting the tests and interviews on the same day
sadhna chaurasiya: when will conduct exam for palcemnet
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We are starting the campus placements next month
Pratik Das Baghel: Can you tell me about the history of company, how and when it started and about the founder of the company?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Pratik, take a look at this video
https://www.avalara.com/us/en/learn/videos/general/avalara-the-early-years-and-beyond.html
Kundan: which all clients do you serve?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Kundan, I hope you have seen my earlier answer for this
Manjula Muthukrishnan: One of our Senior Director of Engineering, Rajesh is going to give a talk next month in San Francisco in a conference, that goes into more details on some of technology problems we are solving. Here is an interview he did for the talk - https://www.scale.bythebay.io/post/rajesh-muppalla-deep-learning-has-taken-natural-language-processing-by-storm
Baviskar Sanket Sharad: Do avalara have any international clients?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Baviskar, hope you saw my answer to this question
ANURAG SHARMA: Are you looking for any expansion projects in near future?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Over the years, Avalara has been actively investing to expand into new geographies and new business lines in global tax domain. We will continue to do this in future well
LAKKIREDDY RAHUL REDDY: Hello Mam.what are the major domains,AVALARA is working
Sandip Biswas: In how many fields Avalara is working currently
Vinod Kumar: How many field sector in avalara in technology?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Avalara is a business leader in indirect tax automation and has 23000+ customers worldwide. Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with transactional taxes, including VAT, sales and use, excise, communications, and other tax types.
Jetti Sandeepkumar: Mam.can i opt for data analyst role in particular
Manjula Muthukrishnan: When we hire campus freshers, we train them for our products and the actual role is decided based on the strengths and key competencies of the employee.
Shreya Shrivastava: Hello mam.. I would like to know on what technologies your company work ?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Shreya, Hope you saw my answer to this question!
Umesh: What perquisites knowledge do you expect from us?
Nitya: What all are the pre-requisites you are looking into a candidates?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Umesh and Nitya, Avalara has multiple products and a result we use multiple technologies. The goal is to pick the right technology for the tool. So we have teams using Microsoft technologies as well as Open source technologies at the same time. We work on popular and powerful technologies like Angular, React, Ember, .Net core, Python, Scala, Java, NodeJs, several AWS Services, Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker, MongoDB, PostGres, Big Data Frameworks like Spark, Hadoop, Kafka
Tarun Kumar Ekka: which skill set are looking for in candidate.
Mahesh Tandon: Hi Ma'am, Please let us know what qualities are you mainly looking at in a person considering both Technical and Soft skills?
Gautham Kumar: Hi Ma'am.What skills and qualifications do you expect from a fresher for the company?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: If you can convert problems into code, you have the passion, aptitude and the ability to learn we have a bootcamp program that you will undergo that will teach you the required skills to become a solid engineer at Avalara.
checka venkata surya narayana murthy: why should i prefer this compa nny
Manyata Agrawal: hello mam! I want to know what makes Avalara different from other companies working in the same field?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Tax compliance will be using lot more automation in the future and your background in computer science will really help. Figuring out the tax rules for what they sell is a big hurdle for many businesses. The teams at Avalara are building salable services and applying AI and ML techniques to identify their changes automatically .
Manjula Muthukrishnan: The best part at Avalara is the People - who challenge one another, are passionate about solving challenges problems in the tax domain and at the same time having lot of fun doing it.
Harsh Bajpai: i want to know the impact of GST on avalara in way of working?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Avalara has a team that is focusing on GST compliance- we have a product called Trustfile GST that helps our clients be GST compliant
Pallavi Narange: What is the career ladder of any Engineer in Avalara?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: With respect to growth, we at Avalara believe in competency based career growth plans. We facilitate the fast track growth programs for employees through structured interventions. Since we have multiple products, there is also a possibility of horizontal movement and exposure to multiple product development in the company.
Manjula Muthukrishnan: At Avalara we have two specialized career growth paths the Individual Contributor track which focuses on core Technology Careers and the Managerial Career track which focuses on the people and project management aspect.
MONICA SINDHU CHINTADA: ma'am, what according to you is the best hire
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Its all about the basics and knowing your fundamentals. So, well always definitely look for someone who knows or will find out why a certain approach is best in certain scenarios. Being strong in core concepts of OOPS, database, scalable solutions is crucial to success down the line. Along with the technical skills, an ideal candidate must intrinsically fit with our closely-knit culture that we have worked so hard to maintain.
Ramesh: what is the salary offered?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: We hire people with excellent grasp of process knowledge and indepth engineering skills. Being a software product company, Avalara provides competitive salary as base pay and also our pay rises are defined by the performance and contribution levels of each employee to the business. Were also regularly refining our pay strategy to attract and retain our valuable employees.
Harsh Bajpai: I want to ask how avalara is playing key role in e-tax management? Which particular asset or qualities a candidate must have to be in avalara?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with sales and excise tax, VAT and other transactional tax requirements by delivering comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are fast, accurate and easy to use. Avalaras end-to-end suite of solutions is designed to effectively manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local and other taxing authorities in the United States and internationally.
Aaditya Chandrawanshi: Good Evening mam, does Avalara provides opportunities to go abroad.
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Hi Aaditya, Hope you saw my answer to this question!
saurabh dewangan: what activities do you offer for the employees?
GUDIVADA SAISREE: Mam can you please tell us about the working experience?
Killada Bhavya: can you tell me about working environment?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Our culture is built on the success traits that we have found to be common among our most successful employees. We highly value behaviors like Optimism, Passion, Adaptability, Humility, Fun, Ownership, Curiosity and Urgency. Essentially, were a group that thinks big, executes in the best possible way, has fun along the way and always stays humble .
Shreya Shrivastava: What do you see as the most challenging aspect of this job ?
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Keep evolving our technology solutions to cater to the ever changing taxation world and challenges faced by our customers.
Rishabh Ramteke: basically avalara helps businesses with sales and tax,so what are the roles of software engineer in your company what we actually have to do it in your company
Manjula Muthukrishnan: n engineering roles, you will find a wide spectrum of roles having developers, automation test engineers, SDETs, site reliability engineers, network operation center engineers, security engineers, IT infrastructure engineers and more! The variety of jobs is even more if you consider their specialized skillsets. We have engineers who build integrations of Avalara ecosystem products into major market platforms like Amazon and also into products such as Salesforce, NetSuite, MS Dynamics365 etc
firstnaukri.com: Thank You Ms. Manjula for interacting with the jobseekers and sharing your amazing insights. Thanks everyone for logging in. Tune in to Firstnaukri Net-Engage for more such events in future.
Manjula Muthukrishnan: Thank you so much participants! Looking forward to meeting you!
