The U.S. job market rocketed past growth estimates in February, according to a report by Bloomberg. This means more opportunities for jobseekers. But what about positions with supportive cultures and long-term career potential? We sat down with employees at 10 Chicago tech companies currently hiring for a variety of positions, and let them share what makes their companies such gratifying places to work.
Sunita Tendulkar is vice president of agile portfolio management at Intelligent Medical Objects Inc., a platform for clinical terminology and insight solutions. She immediately noticed the collaborative culture and the leadership’s shared interest in their employee’s success.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
I could see how strongly they advocated for a collaborative culture. Throughout the entire interview process, everyone spoke about how the executive leadership team has a shared interest in their employees’ success. Since joining, I’ve had the opportunity to see this collaboration in practice. Employees encourage each other to voice their own opinions, advocate for new ideas and challenge the status quo. That culture begins at the top. Our CEO, Ann Barnes, is incredibly open about talking through our strengths and motivating us to continuously improve. In health IT, there are complex problems and naturally we debate about various solutions. However, the focus is always on working together to solve a problem — whether it’s delivering something to a customer, adapting to a remote work environment or acknowledging the personal struggles that individual employees might experience.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
I’m most excited about the opportunity to improve our operations. Leading our agile portfolio management group, I have the opportunity to work with all areas of the business and bridge these groups so we work toward our common goals. There is so much growth in the health IT space. However, our existing customers are still in the middle of providing healthcare services during a global pandemic, so it’s crucial that our products meet their needs as a scalable, reliable and frictionless solution. To do that, my team is optimizing our product delivery life cycle and supporting the cross-functional operations to deliver world-class products.
At Alliant Credit Union, the largest credit union in Illinois, Associate Product Manager Yu Weismantle was immediately taken by the employee-centric approach and positive, encouraging company culture.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
Back then, it was a difficult decision because I actually received two job offers on the same day. One of them was from Alliant, and there were multiple deciding factors for why I chose Alliant.
First, I had work experience in both product sales and marketing, was equipped with strong business acumen, knew project management, cross-functional collaboration, vendor relationship management and had basic knowledge of the lending line of business in the banking industry. To me, career development is like a puzzle game. I believed that this particular entry-level position in the product management space put all the pieces of my past experience together and would elevate my skills to the next level. Another big factor was the people: through chatting with the in-house recruiter (especially the way HR treated me as a job candidate) and the supervisor, I had a taste of Alliant's corporate culture — caring, respectful and integrous, which I still find true four months later.
I love the banking industry because I feel empowered to help people realize their financial ambitions. Compared to banks, a credit union like Alliant adopts a much more member-centric approach in daily operations and strategic decision-making. I was laid off for the first time in my life during the pandemic. One lesson that I learned was to look into the organization’s financial status with all the public data available for an outsider and further examine its business resilience. As a digital banking expert utilizing the product life cycle framework to understand Alliant, it’s clear the company is in the growth stage for sure, meaning plenty of career development opportunities for the employees.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
Alliant has a strong culture that really puts employees in a place where they feel happy with what they do and proud of what they have achieved. With the encouragement and guidance of my boss and other stakeholders that I often engage with, I am learning the business and am able to contribute to making a difference every day. This truly excites me and makes me believe in myself and that I will keep enhancing Alliant’s consumer lending products and member experience.
Linda O’Boyle is the senior vice president and head of IT application development at Inspira Financial, a financial platform offering custody solutions to institutions, advisors and individuals. She learned right away that the passionate and committed leadership, as well as the enthusiasm for using technology and innovation as part of the strategic landscape, made Inspira an ideal place to work for her.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
Having been at my previous company for just over 20 years, making a change wasn’t something I was going to do for upward mobility or increased pay alone. It had to be for an extraordinary opportunity at a company where I could make an impact. Inspira checked all the boxes. There were two other factors that sealed the deal for me in making a change to come to Inspira. First, the people I met during the interview process. Every one of them were passionate and committed to the firm’s strategy and growth goals. Each leader I met with was driven, collaborative and action-oriented, especially when it came to technology. I knew after each interview that Inspira had a special culture, and I wanted to be a part of it. Second, technology is viewed as a strong partner, and part of the strategic landscape at Inspira Financial. It was thrilling to know I would be coming into a firm that valued the IT organization and its role in helping us meet our aggressive growth and product goals. Inspira is about collaboration and partnership across all groups, and it’s very exciting to have a seat at the table not only as an IT leader, but as a business partner.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
I love Inspira Financial’s commitment to provide our clients with the best experience possible, regardless of where someone is at in their investment journey. Inspira takes the necessary steps to do just that.
We’re hiring top talent to drive the product organization to the next level while investing in the IT infrastructure and talent to position us to create meaningful products and experiences for our clients. For my teams specifically, I’m super excited about the innovative mindset I’m able to foster. We’re bringing in tools and platforms that will allow our teams to drive new experiences in partnership with our product teams. My teams are encouraged to ideate and do rapid prototyping while bringing their ideas to the table. It’s awesome to see the brainstorming and the creative juices flowing while experiencing how excited everyone gets when we discover something we know will enhance the client experience. We are a part of the strategy and solutions that are helping drive Inspira Financial forward, and my teams take pride in that.
Simon Lam is senior engineering manager at M1 Finance, a growing fintech company with an automated investing platform. He quickly found that the opportunity and autonomy to build new projects within the company was a major reason to grow his career at M1.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
M1’s motto is “Yours to build” and is firstly a message to our customers — that M1 offers them power and control in the building and management of their wealth. However, I truly believe this idea also applies to us as employees at M1 — that M1 as an organization and company is ours to build as well. Throughout my tenure at M1, I’ve had the opportunity to help build M1’s platform from nothing, work on highly impactful projects across many domains with incredibly talented people, and feel ownership and pride in everything I’ve done. Simply put, the reason I’ve stayed as long as I have at M1 is that “Yours to build” has not just been branding but an actual reality for me.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
I’m very excited about M1 growing and scaling! Not only will we have the opportunity to solve really interesting problems as we take on more and more customers from an engineering perspective, but we will also have the chance to take on new challenges from an organizational perspective as we grow and bring on new teammates.
At Green Thumb, a national cannabis retailer and packaged goods company, Brand Director Jessica Benchetrit immediately embraced the organization’s prioritization of brand building. With a growing customer base and a vibrant flow of new ideas, the thrill of building a brand around what has historically been considered taboo (and doing so with the happiness and health of the customers in mind) gives her career at Green Thumb special meaning.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
As a marketer, I would have to say the deciding factor was the opportunity to join an organization that values and prioritizes brand-building. What stood out to me about GTI was the organization’s desire to leverage traditional brand building tactics as a means to normalize what has been historically considered taboo. Growing up, I was taught to believe that people who use or support cannabis cannot be successful or make positive, meaningful change in the world. Today, I can say with absolute certainty that that’s just not true.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
I am most excited by the opportunity to build transformative brands and products that meet the needs of existing and new category entrants. We are just scratching the surface with respect to the science of cannabis and I’m really optimistic that we will continue to uncover new benefits and use cases for a growing consumer base.
Srishti Chatterjee, a consultant at ThoughtWorks, is thrilled to work for a company where adaptability and diversity are so important. ThoughtWorks, a global software consultancy, has systems in place that allow Chatterjee to explore different areas of consulting, all while enjoying a welcoming company culture that prides itself on diversity of all kinds.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
Thoughtworks was clear about offering a career path that can change and adapt with you and your interests. I became excited about joining a company where, as my experience and skills changed over time, I would be able to explore different areas of consulting. During the interview process, I saw that ThoughtWorkers were a hugely diverse group of people from all different cultures and backgrounds. This was personally very appealing. The people I met were welcoming and open. I knew I wanted to be a part of a group like this, where everyone brings something different to the table.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
What excites me most about the direction of ThoughtWorks is the company’s commitment to do work that makes a real difference for clients in a wide range of sectors. The companies we serve are doing amazing things, and ThoughtWorkers get to be a part of that. Also, our culture is such that your opinion matters, no matter your level. So I get to discuss decisions with clients directly and I can make a real impact on our client work. Since I know my suggestions are taken into consideration, it pushes me to challenge myself.
Paul Herzog is a group product manager at Devbridge, a technology partner for Global 2000 companies. He was immediately impressed by the culture, philosophy and vision of the leadership and the company as a whole, and knew it was the right place to build his career for the long haul.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
I was actively looking for roles where I could be more involved in building strong teams. At the time, I had several options for new career opportunities, to be more hands-on or focus on consulting product and engineering management. A former colleague of mine was working at Devbridge and spoke highly of her experience. Based on our discussions, I had a really good feeling that the company’s culture and philosophy of building client relationships would be similar to mine.
I was impressed with the leadership’s vision and ability to continue to deliver impactful digital solutions at Devbridge. While experiencing continued growth and dealing with the uncertainty in 2020, the team never wavered from that vision. This company’s values and vision weren’t just words. The team lived by these words and infused them in the work they produced each day. I accepted the offer, confident I’d be working alongside a talented, experienced team of product managers and designers, creating great products, helping the team further their consulting skills and advancing their skills.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
Devbridge’s president often speaks about our “space of influence,” the areas where we can best guide and provide value to our clients. Historically, that space has centered on custom enterprise application definition, development and testing, with services such as legacy modernization, service design, service blueprinting and data strategy and intelligence. We’re not just a dev shop. We’re partners, offering guidance based on our success and failures. We’re guiding clients in re-imagining digital workflows and identifying strategic priorities before defining any new application to implement.
As we grow and refine our skills, our team is expanding the space of influence with post-release improvements in DevOps, environment performance and integration of emerging technologies like blockchain into the overall enterprise solutions. There are ample opportunities to contribute, learn and influence the offerings and services that impact growth and areas of impact. I’m excited to play a small part in the continued expansion of services, providing bigger and better options, and helping our teams navigate learning and career growth goals to fill those new spaces.
At dscout, a SaaS video research platform, Sales Manager Allison King found two things about her company particularly refreshing: an honest approach that values work and opportunity, and the promise of rapid, exciting growth when the company goes international.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
I like to consider myself a Chicago startup veteran. What’s not to like about the idea of unlimited growth opportunity and the sky being the only limit to where that company can go? Ironically, this status comes with the learned reality that expectations don’t always match what’s promised in the interview.
After being suddenly laid off with 150 others from one Chicago startup, I was desperate for my next role to be stable and secure. I knew I needed to have trust in leadership and faith that my growth wouldn't be stifled by bureaucracy and politics. This ideal was absolutely a needle in a haystack, but I was determined to not repeat the past.
Sitting down with Jeff Ryan, dscout’s VP of sales, for my SMB AE interview gave me pause. Jeff didn’t throw shiny growth numbers at me. He didn’t promise the world of opportunity. He, and everyone part of that interview process, simply evaluated my skill set and my energy as a match for the work at hand. Now, THAT is what I was looking for. A startup that simply cares about doing the work, and letting the growth evolve naturally. The best part? I’m three years in and those interview promises still hold true.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
One word: international. Today, the research done on dscout’s platform is 99 percent U.S.-based. However, the U.S. makes up a much smaller percentage of the overall share of where our clients want to conduct research. Our clients’ products are global. They want to research participants in the European Union and then cross-compare those findings with participants from India or Japan, and then cross again with the U.S.
Operating in the U.S.-only space not only limits our growth, but also ignores the voices of our customers who’ve been asking for this since before dscout was dscout. With the ability to travel internationally oscillating between impossible and very limited, there’s a clear need for a remote offering that is also fast and cost-effective. That’s where dscout comes in. We’ve begun the process to build out this offering, and are doing so one step at a time, powered by research. As a research company, it’s important to practice what we preach, and I’m excited to see where this venture takes us, as it’s a literal world of opportunity.
Tejas Sreenivasan is a senior developer at Braviant Holdings, a digital lending platform. He was immediately impressed by the company culture, which is the biggest reason for his high level of engagement at work.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
It’s a joy to work at a company that’s on a mission to offer a path to prime for our customers. The company culture is the biggest reason why I am engaged and excited about where the company is headed.
Workplace integrity is a key factor in defining the company’s culture, and that reflects with all my colleagues; they are patient, they value my inputs; and explain things clearly, and everyone feels empowered to think big and constantly raise the bar to innovate and iterate solutions geared toward creating a world without credit barriers. I feel a sense of ownership in my contributions to the growth of our products. I am proud of how I have been part of transforming database integration at Braviant. Even after 2.5-years, I get to learn something new everyday and bring new ideas to life, and my role has evolved over the years with an increasing level of responsibility.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
It is a great time to be at Braviant, despite the effect the pandemic has had on the fintech market, I believe that most of our growth still lies ahead of us. We are investing in our technology platform more than ever, and the nature of my role in this mission is to build a robust and secure software that scales well as our product continues to expand into new markets. I am excited about leveraging our data needs to deliver data solutions across all the functions of our business, and continue to innovate new ways to improve efficiency, quality of database solutions and to define an agile process that supports priority changes for our data-warehousing needs.
At Accelerated Digital Media, a digital agency specializing in Google and Facebook ad platforms, Director of Search Eric Picchietti believes that the incredible levels of growth and career opportunity were a major reason for committing to the company for the long term. Furthermore, he knows that the future will provide even more exciting opportunities.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company?
There are a number of reasons why I have remained at Accelerated Digital Media for the past 2.5 years, but the number one reason has to be growth. Growth in relation to many facets of the organization. As an agency focused on digital growth, we have interesting clients who are rapidly expanding their businesses; this keeps the job exciting and pushes us to constantly innovate, improve and be better. As an employee, everyone is empowered to continue to develop as a marketer, member of the team and as an individual. Finally, it has been incredibly fulfilling to see our hard work as a collective group result in happy clients, new business and a rapidly growing team of talented people.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
As the company continues to grow, we face new and larger challenges. These challenges provide us with an opportunity to reinvent ourselves, our processes and our way of thinking. And in so doing, we will be able to help more brands grow their business through digital marketing. I am excited to be a part of this evolution through my contributions to team development, prospective and existing client strategy, account management best practices, company branding and marketing, and much more.
