Mar 23, 2022
What’s your role at Aclaimant?
I support Engineering, Quality Assurance, Data Science, Data Engineering, and DevOps as my core role. I characterize support vs. lead because I truly believe my role is to give our team (Aclaimers) the tools, processes, and training to be successful. Beyond that, it’s my job to get the heck out of the way so my team can do the job much better than I could.
Since we are still very much in a startup mindset, which I love, we move fast and get the chance to wear lots of hats. I spend a lot of time working with our Product team and customer-facing roles on how to better our product offering. I also work closely with our Interim Head of People and Wellness on various talent initiatives for the Aclaimer team.
What do you do beyond work?
I once lived and worked in China. Since then, I have made it my goal to travel outside of the country and experience different cultures and backgrounds whenever I can with my partner Mia. When not at work, or traveling, you can find me at Comic Conventions, at the Hockey Rink, and spending time with our pup, Patronus.
What’s it like to work on your team?
The work environment on our team is one of the most important factors that drew me to Aclaimant. Through my interview process, it seemed very clear the culture was incredibly collaborative. Since my time here, not only have I found that true, but you see it come to life every day, even in a remote environment. Our Engineers are always pairing and sharing knowledge, and all of our internal teams are so connected to one another. It’s truly amazing.
What about your work inspires you?
I have never seen so many teams work so well together, deeply rooted with the customer in mind. It inspires me every day. Everyone truly cares about what we are building and collaborates because they know the huge impact our Product has on our Customers.
Do you have any favorite company traditions or things you enjoy about the culture?
Our culture is incredibly inclusive. If you have an idea, you always have an opportunity to share it, whether you’re more comfortable sharing during meetings, or prefer to Slack someone directly. Plus we have plenty of topic-based channels for folks to share, along with an Employee Resource Group (ERG) called Reclaim.
Speaking of turning ideas into action, we recently formed a Talent Engagement Team. This idea came from a few of us putting ideas together for our Executive Team. Based on passion and curiosity for talent development, it was met with open arms and a ton of support. It’s in its infancy stage but we have so many fun things planned over the next year that I can’t wait for the team to see.
How is Aclaimant’s culture different from that of previous companies you’ve worked for?
There is so much transparency and support from our Executive Team that you feel like you are part of building something. And honestly, you are. Every fundamental decision you make daily will grow into what Aclaimant will be one year, five years, and beyond from now. We all have an equity stake in Aclaimant and are marching towards building a company that enables our Aclaimers to find their potential and a product that creates safer workplaces for our customers.
When you are adding to your team, how do you know when you’ve found the best culture fit?
I don’t think of it as culture “fit”. I dislike that term altogether. I think of it as culture “add.” We aim to hire folks with different professional and cultural backgrounds. This is how you build great teams because of the different views they bring and the amazing conversations that come from their stories and past experiences.
How do you encourage and support remote culture?
Aclaimant is fully remote anywhere in the US. Since we always started off being a remote company in our Technology Team (Engineering, QA, Product, Data Analytics and DevOps) it’s ingrained in our DNA. Everything we do from meetings to Slack channels, to events, to processes, and more, it’s all with a remote-first culture.
What is the next big step for your team?
It’s an exciting time to be on our Engineering Team. We are in the midst of migrating and onboarding customers to the third version (v3) of our Product. We also have grown quite a bit over the last couple of years within Engineering, so we are defining a lot of things like processes, training, tools, and more. We are focused on building the best Product for our customers, while also thinking about how we lay the groundwork as we continue to scale our team this year and beyond.
Any parting words for an inspiring Aclaimer?
Startups aren’t for everyone. You need to be able to roll up your sleeves and push yourself to go where others can’t. If it was easy, everyone would be executing on these ideas, and starting a full-fledged business overnight is not an easy feat. But if you like this kind of work, then there is no better place to be. We are looking for people that are builders and want to be a part of something bigger than themself.
Want to become an Aclaimer?
Join the Aclaimant team by exploring our careers page.
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