
Let’s Get Together! On Meeting New People Where You Work
Below is an article originally written by Terri Shih, an Analyst at PowerToFly Partner Braintree, and published on March 7, 2018. Go to Braintree's page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
For my first few months at Braintree, I struggled with meeting people outside of my team. As someone who enjoys building relationships with different people, this often made me feel alone.
I had a great team and enjoyed the work, but it was difficult to meet new people -- let alone get to know anyone I didn't work with directly. Most people ate lunch either at their desks or with their teams, and with a Chicago office of 500+ employees, you could easily walk across the floor and only recognize a handful of people. While I enjoyed socializing with people I already knew, the emotional energy required to meet new people was overwhelming because I'm naturally more of an introverted person. And since my role doesn't require much interaction with other teams, the thought of simply walking up and introducing myself to someone new seemed daunting.
As I started to work with others who are passionate about Diversity & Inclusion, I learned that many had, and continued to have, similar feelings even months into their job. We asked ourselves what would have made this transition easier for us, and that's how Let's Get Together was born.
The idea behind Let's Get Together is simple: build a structured program that helps people in the same office meet each other. To get it started, we created an opt-in survey asking people their name, contact information, and location. I then built a simple random generator script in Python during an Open Dev day, which created groups of ~5 people by office. Each month groups are emailed out, and the individuals in that group find a time and place that works for them.
Our office serves lunch so that's always an easy place to start, but people have gotten more creative, going out for ice cream or boba tea, organizing holiday gift exchanges, or taking walks when the weather is nice. We've found that giving people flexibility to pick a time and activity works best, as it helps people with scheduled lunches/breaks or non-9am-5pm hours participate. New hires are now alerted to this program during their first weeks so that they can sign up.
Our program has been active now for over a year. In that time we've had more than 200 people across three offices sign up. The feedback, which we collect monthly, has been overwhelmingly positive. Over a 4-month period from June through October 2017, ~90% of survey respondents said they would or have recommend Let's Get Together to a coworker, and ~80% of respondents met someone new. Of course there have been a few hiccups here and there, but through collecting regular feedback, we have been able to make improvements.
For anyone looking to implement this type of program, here are some learnings I've gathered:
Start simple. At first, I tried to write the most elegant script with every feature. Deciding what to prioritize for a future phase allowed us to get this program off the ground with very positive feedback.
Ask managers about their concerns. Managers of customer-facing teams expressed concern that team members with scheduled breaks/lunches may be left out. We therefore encourage people to consider activities beyond lunch and ask groups to be mindful of schedules when planning.
Get feedback, early and often. We didn't start collecting monthly feedback until 6+ months after the program started. I strongly believe that having people's input earlier could have helped to understand why some groups weren't meeting and what features we could add to improve this.
Send out regular reminders. We chose to send out new groups on a monthly basis since schedules are hard to coordinate. Based on survey feedback, we realized that if people didn't see their assignments right away they might not remember until the next month's email went out! This led us to send mid-month reminders to help improve participation.
Designate a group leader. Having someone to start communication and find a time that works for everyone is very helpful. Encourage partial groups to meet a couple of times if they can't find one time that works for everyone. We simplified this by designating the first person listed in each group to be the leader.
Create a calendar invite once the group has agreed on a time. It's much easier to remember and plan if it's in plain sight!
Choose a communication method. The one your company most frequently communicates with is probably best. Our groups are currently emailed out, but I quickly realized that chat is more integral to internal communication. In the future we're hoping to implement a chat feature that starts communication for groups each month and sends out reminders.
It's easy to fall back on advising someone to "try to meet new people." It's also easy to forget that that task can be daunting for some people. By implementing the Let's Get Together program, we've found that the simple act of providing people with a group of names they should try and meet each month has helped build connections and foster community -- these can be key components to any company's successful Diversity & Inclusion efforts.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some folks I'm about to get together with!
***Want To Build Partnerships In Remote Environments? Follow These Tips!
đź’Ž Partnerships in remote environments is one of the most important aspects to construct in a company. Watch the video to the end to get good tips on how to do it successfully.
📼Wondering how to create partnerships in remote environments? Play this video to get three top tips that will help you to achieve it. You'll hear from Olga Shvets, HR Business Partner, and Viktoriia Litvinchuk, People Team Operations at Unstoppable Domains, who will explain the essentials of this process.
📼How to build partnerships in remote environments? Tip #1: Communicate Effectively. Communication is the key to enabling your remote team to be successful. Choose the channel that works best. For this, chat with your employees and see what they use to communicate, that's how you find the best solution. Also, make sure your team is on board with your internal tools and they know what, how, and where they need to use them.
📼A requisite for building partnerships in remote environments is Tip #2: Show appreciation. Appreciation is shown through your actions. Let your employees know that you value everything they do for the company. Create a special gratitude channel where everyone can share their appreciation for their colleagues for some contribution. Celebrate some wins, promotions, and everything that is important for the company. If you appreciate the employees, employees do the same for the company.
Create Partnerships In Remote Environments Using Trust - Tip #3: Give Honest Feedback
Use engagement surveys! They are a quick and effective way to receive honest feedback from your team and you can see what's working well and what needs to be improved. Your main priority is to create spaces where managers and employees can share honest, relevant feedback.
📨 Are you interested in joining Unstoppable Domains? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Olga Shvets
If you are interested in a career at Unstoppable Domains, you can connect with Olga on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Unstoppable Domains
Unstoppable Domains is bringing user-controlled identity to 3 billion+ internet users by issuing domain names on the blockchain. These domains allow users to replace cryptocurrency addresses with human-readable names, host decentralized websites, and much more.
By selling these domains direct to consumers for a one-time fee, the company is making a product that will change cryptocurrency and shape the future of the decentralized web by providing users control over their identity and data.
Careers in Web Development: Which One's For You?
We all have our favorite websites– the ones we frequent, bookmark, and recommend to others. You might even enjoy some website features so much that you’ve found yourself wondering why they aren’t more popular. Or maybe you’ve experienced times where you were frustrated with a website and wished you could add features or even design your own!
If you’ve ever found yourself intrigued at the prospect of designing and developing your own websites, then a career as a web developer might be just for you!
As a web developer you would be responsible for coding, designing, optimizing, and maintaining websites. Today, there are over 1.7 billion websites in the world and, in turn, the demand for web developers is on the rise. In order to figure out what kind of web development work best suits you let’s start with an introduction to the three main roles in web development that you can choose from.
The Three Types of Web Development Jobs
Front-End Web Development: The Creative Side
Think of front-end development as the décor of a house. The color scheme, furniture, manicured lawns, and overall aesthetic. In terms of a website, front-end development is laser-focused on the appearance of a website and its presentation on different devices. If you’re considering a role in front-end development, it’s important to learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These three languages go hand-in-hand. HTML allows you to create user interface elements, CSS helps you with stylistic elements, and JavaScript allows you to incorporate online tools and connect your website to back-end functions.
In addition to programming skills, front-end developers need to be detail oriented, creative, willing to keep up with the latest trends in web development, cyber security conscious, and geared toward user-friendly designs. The median salary for a front-end developer can reach well into the $90,000 to $100,000 range.
Back-End Web Development: The Logical Counterpart
While a house can be beautifully decorated, it’s incomplete without a solid foundation and efficient infrastructure. Similarly, a well-designed website depends on logical and functional code to power the features of that website. Back-end web development is code-heavy and focused on the specifics of how a website works. If you enjoy the analytical challenge of creating the behind-the-scenes code that powers a website, then back-end development is for you.
Since this role is more code-heavy, it’s important that you learn numerous programming languages and understand algorithms and data structures. Some languages that are essential to back-end development are Ruby, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. Back-end developers also ensure that users can successfully retrieve and access data. This requires creating and using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which act as messengers that relay data related requests. Additionally, developing the code for the inner workings of a website also requires back-end developers to be conscious of the user interface features designed by front-end developers and to internally mitigate potential security risks. Due to the increased technical aspect of this position, back-end developers normally earn higher salaries than front-end developers. The average median salary for this role is around $118,000 per year.
Full-Stack Web Development: A Little Bit of Everything
A full-stack developer is essentially the Jack (or Jill)-of-all-trades in web development. Full-stack developers need to be knowledgeable about both front-end and back-end roles. This does not necessarily imply that you would need to be an expert in both roles, but you should fully understand the different applications and synergies they each imply. In order to work in this position, you will need to know the programming languages used by front-end and back-end developers. In addition to these languages, full-stack developers also specialize in databases, storage, HTTP, REST, and web architecture.
Full-stack developers are often required to act as liaisons between front-end and back-end developers. Full-stack developers need to be both problem solvers and great communicators. The end goal for a full-stack developer is to ensure that the user’s experience is seamless, both on the front-end and on the back-end. In return, you can expect to earn a median salary of $100,000 – $115,000 a year for this role.
Taking the Next Step
Web development is both in-demand and lucrative! All three roles described above contribute to specific aspects of web development and the scope of each one can be customized to the industries and positions you feel best suit you. Regardless of which role you choose, all of them need a foundation in programming.
To gain the programming skills needed in each role, you can enroll in courses or learn independently. Coding bootcamps are a great way to boost your skillset quickly and efficiently.
Click here for some of our highly rated programming bootcamp options! Make sure to check out the discounts available to PowerToFly members.
Want to join the engineering teams at Workiva? Learn more about them!
đź’ŽWant to know what engineering teams are like at Workiva? Watch the video to the end to find out!
📼 Engineering teams at Workiva are constantly hiring. Marie Yue, Senior Engineering Manager at the company, tells you what they look for in a candidate and what the dynamics of teamwork are like.
📼 The typical path in the engineering teams at Workiva is that you grow into a senior, and then you move into a lead role. From there, there are a few different tracks that you can take depending on your interest. You can become a staff engineer, an architect, or even an engineering manager. What are you waiting for to apply?
📼In the engineering teams at Workiva every member should feel empowered to do their job effectively. For this, each has to understand how the work they do day to day solves customers’ problems. Managers will always seek to be aware of members’ career path aspirations so that they can look for opportunities and projects to help each person reach the next step in their career.
Engineering Teams At Workiva: A Safe Space
Marie Yue’s team is a safe space for people to make mistakes and ask for help, and each member feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. She wants to make sure that everyone is individually empowered to lead and make decisions. For this, the team has regular meetings where they do fun things like play virtual games or eat lunch together, and they also like to re-review and add to their team working agreement once a quarter.
đź§‘đź’Ľ Are you interested in joining Workiva? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Marie Yue
If you are interested in a career at Workiva, you can connect with Marie Yue on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Workiva
Workiva was founded to transform the way people manage and report business data with various collaborators, data sources, documents, and spreadsheets. Today, people all over the world use their platform to seamlessly orchestrate data among their systems and applications for transparent and trusted connected reporting and compliance. At Workiva, they are innovative in everything they do—from how they build their software, to how they serve their customers, to how they treat their employees.
Never Done Shining — ​Introducing the 2022 NIKE, Inc. Internship Program
After two years of remote programming, we’re excited to welcome the 2022 NIKE, Inc. Internship Program back to our U.S. offices this week!
This year’s class of 318 represent the top 1% of 34,000+ applicants from 113 universities – including 10 Hispanic Serving Institutions and five historically Black colleges and universities. And that’s not all! Many of this year’s interns are Division 1 student-athletes, representing Track and Field, Rowing, Soccer, and Volleyball, to name a few.
During the nine-week internship – built around the theme of Never Done Shining – interns will work across Nike, Jordan and Converse taking on meaningful projects for the business areas they’re supporting. We can’t wait to watch this talented, diverse group kick off their Nike journey and shine!
Want to learn more about the program? https://jobs.nike.com/internships
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