Meet Michelle: the Maven of Account Management

This post is part of a weekly series in which we get to know Sifties.

Michelle Arguelles is an account manager at Sift Science who understands the value of some high-quality chocolate (preferably with hazelnut). She’s been on the team for two years, previously working for three years as a risk analyst at WePay.

What are 5 things that make you happy?

1. Traveling (I have 27 states and 26 countries under my belt)
2. Cheese (with a weakness for smoked gouda)
3. Lettering
4. Chickens (I have three of my own named Frida Lay, Meryl Peep, and Agatha Chrispeep)
5. Television (30 Rock, Doctor Who, and Fargo)

What was the most surprising thing about owning chickens?

How different their personalities can be! You think of them as just chickens – not like a dog or a cat. But each of my chickens has a distinct personality. Frida is the alpha and can be pretty bossy, Agatha is very adventurous and wants to run around, and Meryl is a sweet, quiet thing that just wants to get by.

Do you speak another language?

I’m not fluent in any other languages. I took Japanese in high school and college. I studied abroad in Denmark – so I have a good handle on it, but poor pronunciation. Tagalog (a language spoken in the Philippines) was spoken at home growing up. I don’t speak it, but I can kind of understand it.

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

I wanted to be a Disney Imagineer, the people that make the rides at Disney World. I thought it’d be a fun blend of creativity and technicality. It would have been cool to create my own ride and ride through it!

If a movie was made of your life, what genre would it be and who would play you?

It would be an indie type comedy directed by Damien Chazelle (who is behind La La Land), scored by Michael Giacchino (though I don’t think he’s ever done indie movies), and I would be played by Olivia Munn or Aubrey Plaza.