As a job seeker, what qualities do you look for in a company? A cohesive culture? Opportunities for growth? Mission-driven leadership and teammates? Autonomy to work on innovative products?
If the answer includes even just one of the above, then you’re in the right place. Built In Seattle found two local companies that offer the above qualities — and many, many more.
We connected with Liz Jones, manager of product recruiting at Chewy, and Shirely Yiong, principal product manager at Assurance, to ask what they enjoy about working for their respective companies and what they’re excited to accomplish in the future. Additionally, both companies are currently looking for fresh talent to join their ranks.
What they do: Chewy is an online retailer for pet food and other pet-related products. The company is committed to transforming the way pet parents shop, from an easy-to-navigate website to detailed order tracking and personalized pet profile features.
Manager of Product Recruiting Liz Jones said that she attributes her tenure at Chewy to the fact that each employee, from leadership down to her teammates, are mission-driven and come to work each day with a goal of improving the lives of pets and pet parents.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at your company so long?
Being at Chewy for the last 18 months (and given how fast we are growing), I consider myself tenured — technically that’s 10.5 years in dog years! I’ve stayed at Chewy for two main reasons. First, I’ve never seen a more customer-obsessed company with such a true North Star. Each and every Chewy team member gets out of bed every day with one mission in mind: improving the lives of pets and pet parents. When that North Star is something as personal and emotionally connected as pets, it’s easy to stay motivated, have fun and find new ways to innovate.
I can’t wait to see us continue to revolutionize the pet industry in meaningful and impactful ways.”
Second is the high ownership and high-impact culture. In my role leading our product recruiting efforts, my team and I get to hire the amazing Chewtopians directly responsible for building new products, creating out-of-the-box solutions and improving the customer journey. Whether it’s hiring a product manager to work on our checkout experience or a software development manager to build new content platforms, we have a direct impact on our customer’s experience, which in turn directly affects the overall success of the business. That’s a unique value proposition and something I personally take a lot of pride in.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
The most exciting thing to me when thinking about the future of Chewy is that the sky is the limit. We’ve truly just scratched the surface, including our expansion to the West Coast and opening our new Seattle office. We’re consistently empowered to think big and are building and scaling our talent acquisition teams to be able to hire world-class talent and grow our product, technology and business teams. I am consistently in awe of the people who we bring through these (virtual, these days) doors.
I can’t wait to see us continue to revolutionize the pet industry in meaningful and impactful ways for our customers and pet families.
What they do: Using machine learning and human expertise, Assurance creates personalized plans to match individual insurance needs. The company works to provide a unique experience for every client that quantifies their risks, resources and preferences, and guides them in the right direction.
As an employee of the company for two years, Principal Product Manager Shirley Yiong said that her tenure is thanks to the strategic initiatives she’s constantly able to work on. She appreciates being able to explore new areas of opportunities and connect those to Assurance’s core business goals and capabilities.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at your company so long?
I’ve been at Assurance for two years (we just turned five!). I’ve always been excited about tackling “the hard stuff” and as a product person, Assurance provides me ample opportunities to innovate, invent, improve and deliver for our customers. Assurance is in a unique position to challenge and disrupt the status quo. We are just getting started.
Assurance provides me ample opportunities to innovate, invent, improve and deliver for our customers.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
I feel really fortunate to work on strategic initiatives within Assurance. My work involves evaluating new, unexplored and ambiguous areas of opportunities for Assurance, and connecting these novel ideas to our core business and technical capabilities. All of it comes together when I define a cohesive product strategy that improves people’s personal and financial health while driving our business forward.
