Whether it’s wanting to eat healthier and exercise more frequently, cut back on unnecessary spending or find a new and exciting career, the beginning of a new year typically fuels a sense of motivation.
And now that 2020 is coming to a close, there’s no better time than the present to begin bringing those resolutions to fruition.
So, if finding a new and exciting career was at the top of your resolution list, then you’re in the right place. Built In NYC rounded up 10 companies across the city that are actively hiring. From Saggezza to Aquant, Ribbon and more, we caught up with company leaders to gain insight into their culture, opportunities for growth and interesting projects they’ve recently worked on.
What they do: Yext helps businesses provide the official answers to questions through the Yext Search Experience Cloud. This suite of products is designed to allow companies to control their narratives on their website and through search engines across the internet.
Yext’s culture in one word: “Collaborative,” Program Development Manager Sam Torres said. “Yext has created such a collaborative work environment where everyone’s unique backgrounds intersect and skillsets grow on the way to achieving the company’s goals. I experience this firsthand on my own team, where collaboration is essential as we work together on our learning platform & community, called Yext ‘Hitchhikers.’ As just one of many similar examples of the collaborative team spirit here, the lead engineer on our team took time out of his schedule to run a technical course and teach our team core concepts of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The course enabled my team to be more successful in developing our learning platform and training Yext users, or ‘Hitchhikers.’”
Yext has created such a collaborative work environment where everyone’s unique backgrounds intersect and skillsets grow on the way to achieving the company’s goals.”
An interesting project Torres has worked on recently: “At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when information was changing daily, Yext had begun offering Answers, our innovative site search product, for free for 90 days to help businesses and organizations answer the surge of questions they were getting online,” Torres said. “This enabled me to work on one of the coolest and most rewarding projects of my career: the creation of a Yext Answers-powered COVID-19 information hub for the U.S. Department of State, where citizens can ask questions and get answers about travel and repatriation during the pandemic.
“In this project, I collaborated with the State Department team and several internal teams at Yext, from leadership and design and UX to product management and engineering. As a lead on this project, I learned how to communicate effectively across teams, adhere to tight timelines, deliver success in a fast-paced environment — and most importantly, make a real difference and have a positive impact during such an unprecedented time.”
What they do: Stack Overflow is an online community of developers helping other developers with marketing, advertising, technical recruiting and enterprise knowledge sharing.
Stack Overflow’s culture in one word: “Progressive,” said Gursharn Dhami, senior global HR business partner. “‘Progressive’ reflects the innovation, growth, and leading-edge policies and programs that underpin the work that we do. For example, the people team strives to develop progressive policies to enable employees to perform to their greatest potential at work.
“We were able to adapt quickly to the pandemic environment to create a new caregiver accommodation policy that allows for modified work hours and greater flexibility, enhanced stipends for remote working, employee wellness and career development. We also introduced a new confidential professional coaching program for all of our people. This, in addition to the many other innovative perks and programs offered by Stack Overflow, ensures we are always putting the needs of our people at the forefront while providing them with opportunities to do great work.”
‘Progressive’ reflects the innovation, growth, and leading-edge policies and programs that underpin the work that we do.”
An interesting project Dhami has worked on recently: “Since joining Stack Overflow in March, I’ve had the opportunity to introduce the first-ever formal performance review process at the company,” Dhami said. “This was a long-awaited initiative at Stack Overflow and involved developing organizational competencies; working with an external vendor to successfully develop and set up a 360 feedback process using their platform; and rolling out a company-wide training on the platform and a review process with performance management best practices prior to our launch.
“We launched the 360 feedback process in July and wrapped up with manager and employee one-on-one developmental conversations in August, followed by a feedback survey to evaluate the entire process in September. Leading a highly visible project with significant impact across the company helped me learn a lot about our company, values, people and processes at Stack Overflow, which has been immensely helpful to me in other aspects of my role. In addition, receiving feedback from my team, peers and stakeholders through our new 360 process has been greatly beneficial in helping me learn and grow professionally in my role at the company, which is definitely an added plus!”
What they do: Fashion e-commerce company Rent the Runway (RTR) allows women to rent designer apparel and accessories from more than 450 designers.
Rent the Runway’s culture in one word: “Entrepreneurial,” Vice President of Talent Acquisition Rebecca Blum said. “RTR is 11 years old — but a startup at heart — and that is something we are proud of. There is no blueprint for how to revolutionize an industry. We are constantly on the cusp of the new and the next, seeking to disrupt and reshape the way women get dressed and in order to be successful, we need to be iterative and creative. We encourage all of our employees to have a founder mindset — to approach the business with a sense of ownership and to feel the freedom to dream big and go after it.”
We are constantly on the cusp of the new and the next.”
Blum’s growth at Rent the Runway: “I’ve been at RTR for six and a half years,” Blum said. “I was hired to lead business development in 2014 and after a year, pivoted entirely to oversee the recruitment function. There are many examples of employees who have taken chances and made big career moves within the organization — it’s one of the many things that makes RTR unique. For me, being thrown into an area I was unfamiliar with meant learning on the job, asking a lot of questions (and googling things I was too embarrassed to ask!), making mistakes, and most importantly, continuing to build trusted relationships with leaders across the organization. When I decided to take this leap, our CEO Jenn Hyman promised me that if in six months I wasn’t happy, she’d be there to help me find something different. I never took her up on that offer.”
What they do: Using a proprietary SaaS solution, human-resource software company Peakon collects and analyzes employee feedback and recommends actions to enable an organization to reach its full human potential.
Peakon’s culture in one word: “Our culture can be described with the acronym ‘WIT,’ meaning ‘whatever it takes,’” Senior Account Executive Tony Kissack said. “This term has taken many shapes over the years but with COVID-19 complicating work in so many ways, it has now taken on the overall theme of working together as a team to win.
“For instance, when we had to coordinate people from three different time zones and three departments to join a client call at the last minute to nail a pitch, everyone actually showed up on time and was ready to go. The team here is really just all-in on winning as a group.”
The team here is really just all in on winning as a group.”
How Kissack has grown at Peakon: “I joined Peakon as employee number 12, which was quite early on in the journey when we were just a European startup trying to figure out how to grow in the massive people analytics industry,” Kissack said. “Now, four and a half years later, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel around the world for our many company off-sites as well as moved from London to New York to help grow our U.S. office. It’s been a fun ride so far and I’m looking forward to many more fun years with Peakon ahead — especially when we can travel and see people in person again!”
What they do: The Farmer’s Dog makes human-grade pet food that’s customized for your dog and delivered right to your doorstep.
The Farmer’s Dog culture in one word: “Committed,” Manuj Goyal, product manager, said. “We’re on a mission to bring about a change in the way people think about feeding their pets. It is so refreshing to open my laptop every day and be surrounded by brilliant and passionate people, all working toward this common goal — but doing so with remarkable warmth. This was exemplified as we shifted our teams to an Agile product-led development process early in my time at the company. Everyone was keen and open-minded in adopting the new process, and in a very short amount of time, we’ve nearly doubled our output, grown more than ever before and shipped some of our best product experiences yet.”
There’s a really special blend of characteristics that make the environment here a nurturing one, and one that has given me so much opportunity to grow in a very short span of time.”
How Goyal has grown at The Farmer’s Dog: “I’ve been at The Farmer’s Dog for seven months now,” Goyal said. “There’s a really special blend of characteristics that make the environment here a nurturing one, and one that has given me so much opportunity to grow in a very short span of time. We all feel a healthy pressure to do our best work and get us ever closer to our goal of bringing fresh food to every pet, but there’s also a real sense of creative freedom. For example, working with stakeholders across the company, I was able to build one of our product teams’ roadmaps for 2021. Using data to inform decisions, I was able to freely propose and find support for an ambitious and growth-focused plan. We’re encouraged to think big and boldly, experiment and really take on significant responsibility regardless of tenure at the company.”
What they do: Fintech company MayStreet offers next-generation, high-quality data to help provide clients gain deeper insights into global capital markets.
MayStreet’s culture in one word: “Diverse,” Lead Front End Developer Dave Thompson said. “While our team members bring a wide variety of backgrounds — we come from five different countries around the world and speak 10 different languages — it’s really the diversity of thought that I find so compelling. Our diversity provides the opportunity to work with people who have very different opinions, approaches and experiences (both professional and life). Those unique perspectives feed directly into our software development process and allow us to learn from opposing viewpoints, especially since respectfully challenging the status quo is highly encouraged here.
“In my experience, teams that are culturally diverse generally tend to approach problems and provide solutions of a far more varied nature than those with homogeneous backgrounds. This naturally permits us to explore many other avenues of design and development for our users that we might not otherwise. For example, our UI team has five members, each from different countries and backgrounds. When we design applications, every member brings a different perspective on how the problem can be solved.”
Our diversity provides the opportunity to work with people who have very different opinions, approaches and experiences.”
An interesting project Thompson has worked on recently: “I joined the firm eight months ago,” Thompson said. “In the time that I’ve been here, we’ve gone from a single UI engineer to a team of five dotted around the U.S. and Europe. We’re a close-knit, complementary team that’s constantly striving to improve our work processes as we build cool applications and framework libraries. Our team works on lots of really interesting things, but the project I’m most excited about is the MayStreet Terminal, which I believe is redefining the way people can interact with the colossal amount of data that MayStreet provides. Our core differentiator is the high-quality, dependable, loss-less market data we provide — we refer to it as ‘pristine data’ — and we’re all very excited about how the MayStreet Terminal allows us to offer it to market participants regardless of their size or budget.”
What they do: Real estate software company Ribbon is re-designing the way homes are bought and sold to be modern, online and transparent.
Ribbon’s culture in one word: “Community,” Accounts Payable Associate Daniel Walton said. “I started my first day at Ribbon to the entire company individually welcoming me into their community. There is an emphasis right at the beginning to make sure every new member immediately feels at home. Our leaders are always accessible to check in with and I have only felt a positive openness that has created a safe and positive work environment. It is very clear that Ribbon has had to adjust its employee relations structure in this new COVID-19 world that we now live in and their progress is definitely recognized.
“A specific example of this community culture that I felt was in my first week. My calendar was immediately flooded with scheduled Zoom and Google Hangouts meetings with people in the company just to get to know me and make sure that I felt supported in my new role. This was only the beginning and with every day that passes, another example of the incredibly positive and inclusive community that Ribbon has created presents itself to me, and I continue to feel as supported as I felt on my first day.”
I work in an environment where if one of us succeeds, then the company and every single one of us succeeds.”
How Walton has grown at Ribbon: “I have been with the company for a little over a month,” Walton said. “I was hired for an entry-level position with the ultimate goal to learn and grow in this new role from my manager and fellow team members. I was very new to this kind of work and from day one, everyone that I was going to be directly working with made sure that I felt supported and safe to ask for guidance whenever I needed it.
“Because of this, I feel like my professional growth has tripled in such a short amount of time. Every week, I feel more and more confident with the projects that I am working on and therefore comfortable with taking on and learning new tasks. I have learned so much so quickly because I work in an environment where if one of us succeeds, then the company and every single one of us succeeds. No one gets left behind.”
What they do: Aquant is an artificial intelligence platform that analyzes customers’ data in order to provide the best possible solutions.
Aquant’s culture in one word: “To describe Aquant’s culture in one word is difficult, but I would use the word ‘inspiring,’” HR and Recruiting Manager Lauren Cobb said. “A great example of this is the success our teams have had since the beginning of the pandemic, despite drastic changes to everyone’s way of living both personally and professionally. Our marketing team pivoted to a completely digital approach, our customer success team is more engaged than ever with our customers and the sales team has been closing record-breaking deals.
“Our employee’s level of dedication to our customers is unmatched and that exemplifies itself in their work day in and day out. Being able to solve complex issues within an industry that has such a high impact on our economy is extremely motivating to our teams. Also, knowing the value and gratitude that Aquant has for each of its employees is what drives us every day to be better and inspires us as teams and as individuals.”
Being able to solve complex issues within an industry that has such a high impact on our economy is extremely motivating to our teams.”
Cobb’s growth at Aquant: “I have been with Aquant just over one year, and I knew when I joined I was going to gain a lot of experience fast,” Cobb said. “Joining as the first and only human resources and recruiting hire has given me a lot of flexibility to create my own approach to the role and I knew coming in that I would be given the empowerment and autonomy to do so.
“Most experience as an HR professional is hands-on, so to be able to help grow our teams and be an integral part of the hiring process has enabled me to develop my own professional character and refine my recruiting skills. In addition to that, being a team of one, I’ve gotten to partner with other teams and hiring managers to see different areas of the business and understand how their processes work. It’s sort of like having an aerial view of the whole company and witnessing how each team interchanges. Having that insight has been hugely valuable when making hiring decisions and determining people operations strategy.”
What they do: Technology consulting and professional services company Saggezza partners with companies all over the country to optimize investments and create market advantages.
Saggeza’s culture in one word: “Dynamic,” Nicole Allaway Taylor, business analyst for its Salesforce practice, said. “There are several definitions of ‘dynamic,’ but to me, it means ‘energy’ and ‘motion.’ I am part of the dynamic Salesforce practice at Saggezza, a group of extremely talented, hard-working and intelligent technology and business leaders. We have created a culture full of positive energy and we thrive on collaboration. We are always in motion and use teamwork to provide creative ideas that guide our clients to work and think smarter.”
Being involved in all aspects of the project gave me the opportunity to learn new processes, develop my technical skills and grow personally and professionally.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
“The implementation of Sales Cloud for a local Chicago company,” Allaway Taylor said. “Their business model was unique, and our team was challenged on a daily basis to identify and provide solutions that would transform the way they do business. Being involved in all aspects of the project from discovery to deployment gave me the opportunity to learn new processes, develop my technical skills and grow personally and professionally. It is a pleasure to be part of our Saggezza team!”
What they do: Kaia Health is a digital therapeutics company that offers affordable and accessible relief to chronic disease patients.
Kaia Health’s culture in one word: “Imaginative,” Email Marketing Associate Lana Pochiro said. “Kaianeers are united by a genuinely radical mission to create a world where every person can easily self-manage their chronic conditions from the comfort of their own home. Our mission requires us to be inventive and not shy away from big ideas. I see this demonstrated in how teams solicit feedback across the organization. No one works in a silo and we have consistent alignment meetings between teams to raise questions from a wide range of perspectives.
“In one product review session, the team submitted nearly 300 ideas for improvement or expansion of our capabilities. And each submission was given consideration. As a marketer, it is crucial to have a generative mindset, but I feel uniquely lucky to work with an entire company who shares that imagination.”
Our mission requires us to be inventive and not shy away from big ideas.”
Pochiro’s growth at Kaia Health: “I joined Kaia Health eight months ago, at a time when many people had just lost access to traditional, in-person care for chronic conditions,” Pochiro said. “Digital health solutions had — and continues to have — a huge role to fill! For me, that meant I had the opportunity to learn about and participate in a quickly evolving space. There was a steep learning curve to gain an understanding of the market, but the team was incredibly thoughtful and supportive in my training.
“Now, I am still constantly learning. I stay up to date on news in the sector and it’s exciting to work in a space that is rapidly scaling to directly improve more and more lives. On the marketing side, I regularly get to pose strategic questions then create new workflows and A/B tests to derive data-driven learnings. In various functional areas at Kaia Health, I also have great mentorswho are always open to questions or requests to have visibility on their work. This allows me to gain technical knowledge on the medical and product side, for example, which directly influences my content in marketing. It also allows me to develop leadership skills in managing projects across different time zones and areas of expertise.”
