It’s no big business secret that an investment in your employees is an investment in your company. In the tech world, where so much is changing at such a rapid clip, professional development is even more important to keep workers on the cutting edge.
The following New York City tech companies are giving back to their employees in big ways. From shadowing days to coding book clubs (you’ll see), these companies are seeing what happens when you encourage your team to never stop growing.
Simon Data has built its brand by being one of the most effective digital marketing solutions on the market. Combining cutting-edge, data-driven tech with a focus on ROI, Simon Data has won the work of clients like Blue Apron, TRUE Car and more. Junior Data Engineer Jessica Blake explains how, internally, the company focuses just as much on employee growth as it does client success.
How does your company culture foster employee growth? What groups, resources and initiatives are available for someone looking to grow professionally?
For junior data engineers, we have a mentorship program that gives us an opportunity to learn from and collaborate with senior engineers. The program is pretty freeform — we can pair-program on projects and problems, research new technologies together, or start something new (my mentor and I began a coding book club together). Outside of the mentorship program, the management style here really encourages professional development — my managers are constantly checking in with me on my professional goals and working with me to scope out projects to help me reach them.
Tell me about a skill or personal interest that has developed since you began your tenure with your current company. How was this development fostered by your day-to-day work and/or company initiatives?
Working at Simon has been a great opportunity to learn several AWS technologies, including Athena, Redshift and EMR. Because our process for choosing new tech is super collaborative, there are always opportunities to be part of the conversation and to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of different technologies. Not only does knowing AWS give me common ground with devs from across a ton of different companies and industries, I’m also able to use the skills I’ve learned here on my own side interests and projects.
As we move into 2019, how will your company continue to grow in the coming year?
2019 is going to be a really exciting year for Simon. Since we just raised our Series B round of funding earlier this year, we’ll be continuing to grow and to carve out a unique space within the marketing tech industry. We're growing out all departments within the company, bringing on larger clients and projects and expanding the functionality of our app from customer data platform to fully-fledged marketing cloud.
Handshake works to improve the world of B2B sales by providing tech-based solutions for both sales reps and clients. Using Handshake’s tools, vendors can give customers a streamlined desktop and mobile experience. Director of Finance and Operations Remy Greeno shared how Handshake’s team also works to lift teammates up with a host of professional development opportunities.
How does your company culture foster employee growth? What groups, resources, and initiatives are available for someone looking to grow professionally?
At Handshake, we try to help our team grow however we can, whether that’s through personal career development within their current role into more senior roles, lateral movement within the company, or manager training. We offer learning and development stipends for employees who want to take a course, attend a conference or invest in some other way; brown bags and our Shake, Shadow & Role program (where two Handshakers shadow each other for an hour to get an “in their shoes” experience). This allow employees to learn about parts of the business that they otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to; and we always search for opportunities to promote or fill open roles internally. There’s also this great thing that Peter on our team came up with this year called Handshake Baseball Cards where we lay out the major milestones (“baseball stats”) in each Handshaker’s career that they and their manager can work toward — it’s been really cool to watch our team hit its first milestones!
Tell me about a skill or personal interest that has developed since you began your tenure with your current company. How was this development fostered by your day-to-day work and/or company initiatives?
I started my career in finance but learned over time that I did not want to work at a big bank. I came to Handshake as chief of staff to learn how tech companies are built and run. When the director of finance and operations role opened up, I was given the opportunity to move into it, taking my experience in FP&A and applying it to a SaaS business in a new way that I really enjoy. I have also been able to get a lot of exposure to people ops here at Handshake, which I didn’t experience when I was in banking and I find really enjoyable and rewarding.
As we move into 2019, how will your company continue to grow in the coming year?
We have a number of open roles right now and will have more in the coming year, so please check out our website to learn how you can become part of our team.
