Company culture is meant for everyone. You don’t have to be a certain Myers-Briggs personality type or in a customer-facing role to benefit from lunch and learns or various company outings — and you shouldn’t be. Culture is all about appealing and adapting to existing talent and every new hire.
With that in mind, seven tech professionals in the Seattle area explained what about their culture makes them excited to come to work every day and how that environment differs from previous offices they’ve been in. Check out what they had to say below.
If scaling quickly isn’t a scary prospect, you probably aren’t scaling quickly enough. While taking risks will always be a part of business, work execution platform Smartsheet removes a lot of existing fear from the equation. We recently spoke to Garvice Eakins, their senior manager of engineering. He told us that Smartsheet is all about collaboration and consistent self-improvement.
How is your company culture different from what you’ve experienced at previous companies?
One of the most striking differences is the culture of collaboration that exists at Smartsheet. Within the engineering team, we see this play out in things like mentoring, pair programming, and swarming. It also manifests itself in the shape of various learning and development groups from book clubs and brown bags to more initiative-based patterns practice and community-of-practice forums. What makes the culture at Smartsheet so strikingly different is the diversity of supportive and driven employees to learn with and learn from.
One of the most striking differences is the culture of collaboration that exists at Smartsheet.’’
How are employees empowered to help shape or participate in the office culture?
This is very simple. When a team is excited about what they are accomplishing, invested in the success of each other, and teaching and training those around them, it creates a place where innovation is on fire. And who doesn’t want to be around that?
At New Engen, the terms “cog” and “machine” aren’t in their team’s vocabulary. Charu Sharma, software development engineer (SDE), told us that the company is all about putting people first, whether that means supporting an organization close to an employee’s heart or holding frequent implicit bias trainings. That kind of support leads to positive, creative, diverse hires, and ultimately, out-of-the-box results.
How is your company culture here different from what you’ve experienced at previous companies?
Apart from being fast-paced and transparent, New Engen always values its people. Our leadership is very open and accessible. We have a flexible vacation policy that we can take when we need it, without worrying about what is left for the rest of the year. We have short sprints, increased exposure and are hands-on with the latest tech. Culture is formed by people, and people of New Engen are its greatest asset.
People at New Engen play a significant role in making it what it is.’’
How are employees empowered to help shape or participate in the office culture?
One of New Engen’s core values is to bring people along. People at New Engen play a significant role in making it what it is. We organize brown bag events so we can share knowledge and new developments among peers. We believe in giving back and support several NGOs, like Abundance of Hope. Everyone is welcome to voice their opinion/thoughts via various Slack channels and in meetings. Every voice is heard and answered.
New Engen understands that every employee is different and cherishes this fact. We encourage diversity and provide equal opportunities. We have all-company trainings for awareness around diversity, equity, inclusion, unpacking stereotypes, and implicit bias. They serve as a platform for everyone at New Engen to learn about these topics from different perspectives and bring their views forward.
Curalate is all about making social increasingly interactive. And when it comes to office culture, they are on brand. Recruiting Coordinator Andrew Mucaria explained that rather than bring each employee onto a team with stationary procedures, new hires help determine the landscape as the company moves forward.
How is your company culture here different from what you’ve experienced at previous companies?
Curalate’s culture is like a melting pot. We like to “culture add” when looking to bring new talent into the fold, and not just fit folks to the culture we have established. An ever-evolving culture is what we strive for!
We want (and encourage) ‘Curalators’ to bring their full authentic self to work every day.’’
How are employees empowered to help shape or participate in the office culture?
It seems really simple, but we want (and encourage) “Curalators” to bring their full authentic self to work every day. This organically shapes the culture in our office. We also have the added support of dozens of company-sponsored activities, which are promoted across all three of our domestic offices. For example, in August, everyone at Curalate went to a baseball game for their cities’ home team.
Any expert fundraiser knows that no donation is too small to accept. At Snap! Raise, a fundraising platform for programs, teams, and clubs, that motto extends to team members’ daily wins.
We recently spoke to Taylor Pierce, senior manager of internal operations. She highlighted the inner workings of their internal operations department, including their customer support teams, below.
How is our culture different from what you’ve experienced at previous companies?
Our people and the amount of heart they bring to work each day sets us apart. The second you join Snap! Raise, you become part of a family that truly cares about each other both in and outside of work. You typically can’t find or teach these qualities. I have been fortunate to be a part of the Snap! Raise family and build relationships with some of my best friends across different departments. Our people and collaboration drive us forward and make sure that we are able to lean on each other no matter what. We care about more than just getting the job done. Our goal is to win as a team.
We care about more than just getting the job done. Our goal is to win as a team.’’
How are employees at Snap! Raise empowered to help shape or participate in the office culture?
At Snap! Raise, we celebrate little wins to show how much we value each individual’s work, no matter the role. Internal operations has monthly department meetings to celebrate how we performed and nominate best-in-class team members to highlight them specifically. This showcases an individual’s hard work and how we value them going above and beyond their everyday. Each month we do team happy hours to bond outside of work and celebrate how we came together the previous month.
It’s easy to sit down at your desk on your first day and get to work, chatting with the people in your direct vicinity from time to time. What can be difficult is making connections across departments as time goes on, learning from others both professionally and personally. Seagull Scientific is trying to change that.
Holly Mitchell from the Tier 1 tech support team told us about how the internet of things company has altered her perception of the way employees benefit from a company’s culture.
How is your company culture here different from what you’ve experienced at previous companies?
The company culture at Seagull Scientific is different from anywhere else I have worked. We encourage people to spend time together in a social capacity and we practice it daily. From small conversations in the breakroom to regularly scheduled large sit-down events with open seating, cross-team interaction is promoted, encouraged and practiced.
We encourage people to spend time together in a social capacity and we practice it daily.’’
How are employees empowered to help shape or participate in the office culture?
I think the best example of how employees are empowered to help shape our positive, inclusive culture is our social committee. Volunteers from all the teams in the company regularly meet to plan and coordinate monthly social events. Seagull’s social committee is given an annual budget to plan activities and events designed to draw people in. We each give input and share responsibilities to ensure that each event is as enjoyable for all participants as possible.
After each event, we take stock in how well it turned out and decide whether to offer it again the following year with changes or do something else entirely. This makes for a fun slate of constantly growing, changing and evolving activities that are meant solely to bring us together.
The average American spends about a third of their life at work. When you consider that time investment, having a good time between the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. doesn’t seem like such a crazy proposition.
We recently spoke to AdSwerve Digital Analyst James Angerman, who told us he values something a lot of people take for granted: the fact that his colleagues aren’t simply going through the motions.
How is your company culture here different from what you’ve experienced at previous companies?
At past companies, I’ve experienced the get-in, get-out crowd. At Adswerve, I genuinely enjoy going to work every day. We have fun during work hours and have numerous opportunities to spend time with each other off-site like outings to Mariners games, bouldering trips or even homemade trivia nights outside of the typical 9-to-5 workday. We have a very strong remote culture –– one I haven’t seen elsewhere. We’ve been intentional about hiring the right employees outside of our three main offices (Seattle, Denver, and New York). And once they’re hired, we make them feel welcome and valued because they‘re immediately an important part of the team.
At Adswerve, I genuinely enjoy going to work every day.’’
How are employees empowered to help shape or participate in the office culture?
Slack is a huge part of how Adswerve employees stay connected. We’re spread across three main offices and several states. So without Slack, it would be impossible to build the relationships that we have now. We’re able to bond over our cute pet pictures (cats, dogs, raccoons, you name it), a mutual love of food and even Japanese reality shows. We also use an extension, Donut, that randomly pairs up people across teams to help us get to know colleagues we don’t work with every day. Finally, we have a committee that plans events for everyone to attend regardless of location.
Maria Mendieta, senior product manager at Drift, recently told us how the company encouraged her internal career transition. It was a win-win for everyone involved: she ended up working in a department where she was able to thrive and Drift was able to retain top talent. We spoke to her below about their diversity and inclusion initiatives.
How is your company culture here different from what you’ve experienced at previous companies?
Drift values all my professional skills independent of my job title. They want to see people learn and grow into whoever they want to be. At Drift, I started as a data scientist but I soon developed a passion for working across teams and doing product management. Drift empowered me, coached me and trained me through that transition. They valued my skills and talent and allowed me to grow in the direction I wanted.
At Drift, all employees are empowered to help build and evolve the company culture.’’
How are employees empowered to help shape or participate in the office culture?
At Drift, all employees are empowered to help build and evolve the company culture. Earlier this year, we met and talked about our diversity and inclusion value. The entire Drift team participated and together we defined what this value means at Drift. I have never worked for a company where core values were defined by everybody and not only company leaders. This shows how committed Drift is to include everyone’s ideas.
