“Road to Hire is where it all started”
Aaron Moua spends his days on Ally Financial’s AI platform team, helping support AI projects across the company’s lines of business. Outside of work, he’s married, a new homeowner and heading back to school to work toward his bachelor’s degree. When he’s away from his desk, you’ll usually find him running a 5K or out fishing. But when you ask him about a time he helped someone that stuck with him, he thinks of his sister, who also went through Road to Hire and now works at Ally, too. “As an older brother, it’s a joy to offer career advice to my sister, especially since we’ve followed similar paths into our careers,” he says.
This November, as Road to Hire celebrates the month of gratitude, Aaron’s story is a reminder that the support you receive early in your career has a way of coming back around, and that the community where it started is still there.
At home, Aaron’s projects are as hands-on as his work: he’s building his own home server to store media and files, partly to cut down on subscriptions, and turning his garage into a weight room.
At work, he uses a range of AI tools, and he makes a habit of spending a few minutes each day keeping up with what’s new, though he’s found the tools matter less than what you do with them. “You can have so many ideas,” he says. “But if you don’t put action to whatever you try to ideate, it’s not gonna happen.”
With the industry changing almost daily, he keeps a simple rule: “Whatever you can’t control, don’t worry about it too much.”
WHAT’S ON MY RÉSUMÉ
Software Engineer | Ally Financial
Road to Hire | Apprenticeship Program | Class of 2021
WHAT’S NOT ON MY RÉSUMÉ
Running 5Ks
Fishing whenever I get the chance
Going back to school for my bachelor’s degree
Traveling more than I ever expected
Who’s one person who helped you get to where you are today?
For Aaron, the answer is his wife, Millie Chang. When he decided to go through Road to Hire, they were dating, and she was in her first year teaching kindergarten. She backed his decision, helped support them both, and practiced interviews with him. She also connected him with professionals who could give him feedback.
“She was one of the first few people to look at it,” he says of his résumé. “So I thought that was pretty cool. Definitely shout out to my wife.”
Aaron and his wife, Millie Chang, at Road to Hire`s End-of-Year event, December 2025
How has the way you think about support changed?
When Aaron started his career, he says he was mostly on the receiving end. “I received a lot. I wasn’t honestly able to give much, because I felt like I didn’t even know much.”
Several years in, he sees it differently. He recognizes the worries of new engineers because he had them himself, especially the feeling of not belonging among colleagues who came in through internships and degree programs.
“New engineers I mentor have imposter syndrome. I still have it too.”
So he gives back. He has served as a mentor more than once, speaks at Road to Hire events, and shares the advice he wishes he’d had: focus on what you can control, keep learning, and talk to your manager. It’s the same rule he uses to keep up with a fast-changing industry, and now it’s advice he passes on. New engineers ask him, he says, “the same questions I had when I first started.”
His most personal mentee was his sister, Erica Moua. During her first year at Ally, she turned to him for advice on promotions, working with her manager and building relationships. “We went to the same program,” he says, “so I kind of know where she came from.” Today, he says, she’s doing great, “so I’m proud of her.”
Aaron, Erica and family members celebrating Erica’s Road to Hire program completion.
Why does staying connected to Road to Hire matter to you?
Years after graduating, Aaron’s Road to Hire connections are still part of his everyday life. He still sees fellow Cohort 8 alumni who work at Ally, and he meets up for lunch with alumni from other cohorts to catch up on life and careers. When one of them moved to another company, Aaron made a point of staying in touch to see how his career was growing and what he was accomplishing.
He also gives back to the people coming up behind him. In February, he joined other Ally team members as a panelist at Technically Speaking with Ally, held at the Red Ventures office, where he spoke with the Road to Hire cohort in the program at the time. And when alumni reach out on LinkedIn, which they do every year, he always makes time for them. “I always give the time,” he says, “and don’t mind chatting with people who come from that program.” For him, staying involved is a way of saying thank you.
“Road to Hire is where it all started. So why not give back, as little as I can or as much as I can at a time?”
Aaron (front row, middle) with fellow Ally team members and the Road to Hire cohort at Technically Speaking with Ally, February 2026
Who was in your corner?
Aaron’s journey started with someone who believed in him, and today he’s that person for others. This November, take a moment to thank someone who helped you get where you are. And if you know someone who’s just starting out, share Aaron’s story with them! It might be exactly what they need to hear.
Connect with Aaron on LinkedIn.