This post is part of a bi-weekly series in which we get to know Sifties.
Andrew Nelson is a senior enterprise strategy manager who has been with Sift Science for nine months. If he could only eat one food for the rest of his life it would be soup dumplings because really good ones are nearly impossible to come by — so it would be the search for great dumplings.
Where is your favorite place to be?
Our old family cabin in the mountains close to Yosemite. No electricity, natural spring where we collect water, middle of nowhere in the mountains, no cell service.
What are 5 things that make you happy?
- Mountains
- Horchata
- Snow
- Volleyball
- My marriage
- Having more than five things to share
- Woodworking
What was your first job?
My first full-time job out of college was a risk and reliability engineer for a small subcontractor that had clients like Nasa and other aerospace companies. I did statistical failure modeling for three to four years and co-wrote a paper on the effects of micrometeoroid and orbital debris on a theoretical space elevator.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I was a chess state champion in Connecticut when I was in third grade and I’ve gone downhill ever since. I probably couldn’t beat my third-grade-self today.
I hear that you’re really into woodworking — tell me about it!
It’s actually a newer interest of mine. My first piece was a redwood coffee table — I bought a big slab of redwood, sanded it down and stained it. Now I’m obsessed with people that work with live slabs of wood, wood countertops and tables. My dream one day is to have a decent woodshop. I think it would be a good resolution for this year.