When searching for a new job opportunity, selecting the right fit is an imperfect science. Goals and preferences at one career stage may look entirely different a year or two later, making it even more important for job seekers to find a team and company culture that can keep up with its employees’ unique development.
So how do you find that perfect match? For Chris Brucia, VP of product at Medely, it came down to a foundational selling point — a compelling company mission that resonated with personal interests.
“Getting to work in this space is exciting because Medely’s platform aims to solve real challenges for healthcare facilities and nursing professionals,” he said.
Andrew Beck, VP of platform engineering at Albert, echoed these sentiments. Joining fintech during the Covid-19 pandemic — the effects of which continue to place significant strain on individuals and their financial health — felt like an opportunity to put his skills toward positive change.
“It’s rewarding to see the daily positive feedback from the customers we’ve helped,” he said.
For more inspirational first impressions, we met with six local leaders to hear what attracted them to their roles and learn about new projects they’re tackling. We also got insider tips on what they look for in new hires. If you’re ready for a new opportunity, one of their open roles may be a match.
What they do: Medely is a labor marketplace for short and long-term healthcare jobs.
First impressions: “I was originally attracted to Medely because it is a marketplace business (efficient model) operating in healthcare (traditionally inefficient),” Brucia said. “Medely’s platform aims to solve real challenges for healthcare facilities and nursing professionals. The mission is unchanged since I’ve joined, but the most exciting evolution has been scaling up our product and engineering teams to help fuel Medely’s growth.”
Curiosity is key: “One of the key qualities I look for when hiring product managers or product designers is if there’s enough curiosity and drive to take ambiguous ideas or concepts and turn them into valuable products or user experiences. Fast-growing companies are always spinning a lot of plates, and hiring candidates with the motivation and comfort level to build great things from small seeds can be a real force multiplier.”
What they do: Virtualitics provides clients with an end-to-end solution that quickly preprocesses and fuses data sources, builds predictive AI models, and leverages an in-house data analytics and visualization platform for exploration and collaboration in either desktop or virtual reality.
First impressions: “From the first moment I heard about what the company was working toward in AI and VR, I knew I wanted to be a part of it,” Gantenberg said. “We are building both our product and our tools from scratch, so the work itself is very exciting. Plus, the generous employment benefits and opportunities for career growth offered only sweeten the deal. As a company, we have more than tripled headcount since I started, but we are being intentional with our hiring process. We have a company culture that is inclusive, inviting and transparent. We are doing all we can to safeguard that culture as we grow.”
Seeking scalable talent: “The traits we look for most in potential new hires are creativity and flexibility. We are dealing with some very complex technology, but what we have created is part science, part art. We need creative folks to join the team to help us think outside of our current box; to attack a problem from an angle we have never tried; to do something completely new. As we continue to carve out our place in the market and figure out where this path we are on is taking us, we need our team to be flexible, to come up with new ideas, and to work through obstacles.”
What they do: Mythical Games is a next-generation game technology studio.
First impressions: “What really locked me in was getting to know the people and the experience that they were bringing to the table,” Quinn said. “Researching the team and company leadership provided me with a sense of comfort knowing that I was getting behind experienced industry veterans with demonstrated histories of building and leading successful companies in this space. Over the last year and a half, so much has changed. I don’t think that we could have ever predicted the boom of the NFT space to happen when it did and the immediate impacts that it would have on us as a company. For me, the plan for gradual growth was immediately thrown out the window, and overnight we found ourselves building for hypergrowth.”
Attracting top talent: “I think if we’ve learned anything over the last year and a half working through the pandemic, it’s that the labor market is experiencing a significant shift. Great talent has options. For Mythical, this shift in the labor market came at a time of massive growth with plans to continue to scale rapidly. I think what has helped us overcome the challenge of hiring top talent has been our commitment to building a strong and positive culture and solving some really interesting challenges.”
What they do: Veritone is an enterprise AI software, services and applications business. Their aiWARE platform allows clients to build AI-powered solutions and bespoke applications quickly and cost effectively.
First impressions: “When I first joined, we were working in Newport in a crowded space,” Brown said. “We had maybe 40 people working on Veritone proper; aiWARE was not yet even in planning. The energy was amazing and scrappy, very much a small startup. Now, we have teams throughout the world focusing on building their part of Veritone and aiWARE. The change has been breathtaking. I enjoy the mission and the people I work with every day.”
Driven by curiosity: “When looking for new team members, I look for curiosity. Curiosity drives so many important skills and pushes us to improve ourselves. When we are curious, we can bring together all we learn and create even more innovative solutions to the challenges our customers are facing. Some of the best discussions I have had with candidates have been around personal projects they are working on or the latest book they read. I have learned new things or saw a different perspective.”
What they do: Laserfiche develops intelligent content management and business process automation software that accelerates how business gets done.
First impressions: “I applied to work for Laserfiche because I heard so many amazing things about the products,” Castillo said. “The position I applied for and the company offered a great opportunity to further my professional growth. I had been doing similar work in the software industry and I knew that with some minor training, I’d be a strong contributor to the software support team to help further their goals.”
Passion and confidence: “Our team looks for individuals who are passionate about their talents. Ideal candidates are self-driven with the eagerness to learn, and they have the confidence to tackle new challenges that lead them to greater accomplishments. We look for candidates who bring high amounts of creative energy to their role, and we empower them to find their own way. Our team members aren’t merely going through the motions, but actively taking steps to create the success they want.”
What they do: Albert is the first banking app built with high-quality financial advice for all. Albert combines banking, savings, investing and budgeting.
First impressions: “I applied to Albert in September 2020. The pandemic was ongoing, and I felt Albert’s mission — helping people improve their financial lives — could make a significant difference in a time when many people were struggling to balance their budget,” Beck said. “Joining Albert has since proven to be a great decision. I continue to be impressed with my colleagues. We’re constantly working on interesting technical challenges and pushing each other to deliver a quality end product. We’re building a product that really impacts people, and it’s rewarding to see the daily positive feedback from the customers we’ve helped.”
Broad horizons: “The most interesting challenge we’re facing right now is scaling our system to handle tens of millions of active users, while operating within the highest of industry standards and iterating at the speed of a startup. We’re working toward this through a number of large-scale infrastructure projects such as rethinking how we store, access and propagate data, adopting a distributed services architecture, and hardening our deployment pipeline. There’s a lot of exciting work to be done.”
