In his popular 2019 children’s book Love the Earth, musician, author and Beatles progeny Julian Lennon lays out a powerfully empathetic message: “Loving the Earth means wanting to protect and nurture all our land and water, all our creatures, all our people.”
It’s a sentiment that is very much at home in a children’s book about a magic airplane, but it’s not, perhaps, the kind of caring environment you might expect when onboarding at a CPG company. That’s why Jee Shin counts his experience joining Munchkin, a Great Place to Work™ certified company, as unique and culture driven.
“Right from the start, what struck me was how much support I felt I had, along with a genuine concern for each other’s success across the team,” Shin said, now Munchkin’s director of e-commerce marketing. “Our department head mentioned that empathy was important to him and to the team, and that set the example for what I should consider to be our culture here.”
Cultivating a nurturing environment that celebrates emotional intelligence makes sense for Munchkin, a baby and toddler consumer products company on a mission to become the “World’s Most Loved Baby Lifestyle Brand.” But the company isn’t scant on opportunities to innovate either. Munchkin holds well over 300 patents, acquired while developing the company’s DTC and e-commerce channels with products such as a bluetooth-enabled swing, ultra-compact stroller and flexible high chair.
At Vast, an aerospace company with the express mission of “enabling populations of humans to live and work in space, permanently,” employees are also focused on innovation — the kind of innovation that makes the magical flights that children’s books dream of possible. At Vast, Director, Ground Software & IT Benjamin Leeds said, “you are limited only by your curiosity and willingness to learn.”
Learn more about Munchkin and Vast and find out how you can apply to opportunities at these outstanding workplaces below.
Think back to your early days on the job. What surprised you or stood out to you most about Vast’s culture?
Silos — at Vast there are none. Silos forming between disciplines plague many companies. In aerospace, everyone works together toward a common goal: launching a vehicle or spacecraft. Part of the culture at Vast is to be curious and learn about all the teams and the systems they are building. The vehicle won’t be able to launch without any one piece of the puzzle.
During my tenure here as a software engineering leader, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about everything from additive manufacturing to radio frequency — or RF — engineering. For example, I was surprised to learn that our large printed parts consist of tens of thousands of layers and that we can print small cooling channels directly into the walls of our thrust chambers. The machinists even taught me how to program the lathe.
At Vast you are limited only by your curiosity and willingness to learn.
What's the coolest project you've worked on recently, and what skills did it help you develop?
I recently had the privilege of working on our orbital transfer vehicle, Orbiter. Orbiter is a full service satellite that launches on SpaceX Falcon 9. The platform makes it easier and more affordable to fly payloads in space. I developed the ground and mission operations software to communicate with Orbiter through a network of ground stations around the world.
My core skill set is technical leadership and software development. However, working on Orbiter allowed me to expand on those skills. Collaborating with our flight software and guidance, navigation and control teams, I learned about avionics hardware and embedded systems. With our RF team, I also learned how to configure and test RF systems like our radios and antennas.
At Vast you are limited only by your curiosity and willingness to learn.”
The pinnacle of this experience was working in mission operations for the launch. The team anxiously waited to hear from Orbiter. Everyone was so intently focused the room was silent. The moment our first comm pass began, data started flowing in. Our first vehicle was in space!
I look forward to continuing to challenge myself and grow. Anyone with a strong desire to solve difficult problems and work hard leading up to a pivotal moment like a spacecraft launch would find themself at home at Vast.
Think back to your early days on the job. What surprised you or stood out to you most about Munchkin's culture?
Right from the start, what struck me was how much support I felt I had, along with a genuine concern for each other’s success across the team — without consideration of hierarchy. Early on, our department head mentioned that empathy was important to him and to the team, as it allows for more productive and healthy partnerships and makes working with your teammates more enjoyable. For me, it set the example for what I should consider to be our culture here.
What struck me was how much support I felt I had, along with a genuine concern for each other’s success across the team.”
How long have you been with Munchkin, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I’ve been with the company for more than four years now. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to develop the skills and knowledge that were necessary for the variety of challenges and projects that come with the territory of working in a constantly changing space like e-commerce and working for a global brand with exciting aspirations.
Whether it’s process improvements, working with our talented designer and web development team to utilize new systems to produce work faster or learning technical skills that allow me to be more useful to other resource-strapped teams, I love that I have the opportunity to continually develop new skills and knowledge here.
