If you really want to take the measure of a company, the focus shouldn’t be on why a person decided to accept an offer but rather what convinced them to stick around and build a career.
Shawn Sears is the director of product engineering at SmarterTravel, a company he has been with for nearly a decade. Sears said he has stayed with SmarterTravel because of the company’s sustained commitment to work-life balance.
“Personally, this has been invaluable to my family’s well-being over the years as our kids have grown and childcare, school and other activities have changed,” Sears said. “The peace of mind knowing I have the ability to leave early to catch the train home or to block out a couple hours in the afternoon to pick the kids up from school and get them to dance class is beyond any monetary benefit the company can offer.”
Shelby Fanning has been with Hydrow since early 2019 and told Built In she was especially affected by the support her team received from leadership during the 2020 holiday period. Fanning, a digital marketing specialist, said leaders at the company recognized the strain marketing was under and allowed them to expense additional meals to ensure they had one less thing to worry about after work.
If you’re ready to put down roots, then continue reading to learn more about SmarterTravel, Hydrow and six other Boston tech companies that are all hiring now.
What they do: Hydrow’s rowing machine is designed to replicate the experience of being on the water through live and on-demand instructor-led classes from waterways around the world. Along with rowing, Hydrow also offers yoga and pilates classes.
What’s one thing that makes Hydrow’s company culture unique or special?
Everyone, regardless of where they’re at in the organization, is willing to help out in any way that they can! I was once the only person left in my section at the office on a Friday night and my team needed me to mail some items last-minute. I was struggling to carry this large box while navigating my way to UPS when I ran into Bruce, the CEO, on my way to the elevator. We were chatting as we left the building and he offered to help with the box a couple of times before I finally took him up on it.
It was genuinely no big deal to him, but the impact that simple gesture had on me was significant.
Everyone, regardless of where they’re at in the organization, is willing to help out.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
When I was working on the member services team, we were allowed to expense more meals during weeks when we were really slammed with work and putting in extra hours. This was mainly during the holiday season of 2020, which was a wild time for both the world and our company. This extra support was so incredibly helpful because there really wasn’t much time to cook like I normally would. Leadership looked at our situation and found a creative solution to help us out during our peak season.
What they do: SharkNinja is a product development company that specializes in bringing new home appliances to market quickly. The company’s goal is to design, test and release a new product every six months.
What’s one thing that makes SharkNinja’s company culture unique or special?
I think SharkNinja is a great place to figure out what you want to be when you grow up. You can explore different fields and topics that interest you, and getting out of your lane is not only allowed but encouraged. You don’t need to have a specific background to get the job you want. If you can build strong relationships with colleagues and exemplify that you have the mindset and capability to solve the challenges associated with a particular role, it can be yours.
We have people from various backgrounds on our engineering team, which makes our team well-rounded and strong. I feel like as I grow in my career and my interests evolve, I will always be able to find my next role within SharkNinja.
Getting out of your lane is not only allowed but encouraged.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
The coolest project I have worked on is definitely hair care. SharkNinja has a lot of expertise in technical areas related to designing a great hairdryer, but we have never put it all together. Being a part of the team that brought “Shark Beauty” to life was a challenge but also an incredible experience.
We had a lot of moments where we didn’t know what we didn’t know, but we learned as a team. We are still facing those challenges as we continue our exploration of beauty, but we get a little smarter each day! As an added bonus, I have finally learned how to dry and style my own hair.
What they do: Iterative Scopes uses artificial intelligence and computer vision technology to make endoscopy readings more accurate and consistent. The company’s current focus is on gastroenterologists working on inflammatory bowel disease.
What’s one thing that makes Iterative Scope’s company culture unique or special?
Iterative Scopes is a very diverse company. Our team members are from multiple countries and have a wide range of backgrounds and interests. Working with people of various ages, nationalities, experiences and mindsets is such an enriching experience, and I enjoy the opportunity to learn something new from my colleagues almost every day. I also believe our internal diversity allows us to be particularly agile and creative when looking for innovative solutions, whether for our products or for the structure and operations of our rapidly growing company.
I enjoy the opportunity to learn something new from my colleagues almost every day.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
I’m a part of the clinical operations team, which is tackling serious, chronic digestive diseases. Our long-term goal is to support individualized therapeutic selection processes and help patients access potentially life-saving drugs more easily. To do this, we are trying to implement artificial intelligence-enabled computer vision to accelerate clinical trial recruitment in the inflammatory bowel disease space by more efficiently identifying patients for trial prescreening. Getting the first report for a clinical site highlighting eligible patients is always exciting because you know how valuable this information can be for both the research teams and the patients who may have the opportunity to enroll in a trial.
What they do: Tufin’s technology is designed to help companies more easily and efficiently manage security policy updates for firewalls and network devices. According to the company, it’s more than 2,000 customers include IBM, AT&T and Deutsche Bank.
What’s one thing that makes Tufin’s company culture unique or special?
We work hard to keep our culture special — and one of our differentiators — through immense cross-functional collaboration. We spend time listening to each other and understanding how our roles and organizations impact the company’s success. Putting forth this type of effort separates us from others as we have a real team-focused attitude and culture.
Everyone works together and supports one another, which in turn gives our customers a great experience. For example, in a recent project of mine involving sales leadership, product management, R&D, sales engineering, professional services and customer success, everyone participated and contributed with the same goal of making sure the customer was comfortable with the solution we were providing them.
We embrace our team-focused culture and approach our business the same way.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
All the projects I work on are unique and cool in their own way as far as understanding the customer’s current situation, identifying their challenges and confirming what required capabilities they need to overcome their shortcomings. Getting to know each customer or prospect by listening to their current processes, digging into their pain points and helping them find success and reach their goals is what I love and find so cool about my role. We embrace our team-focused culture and approach our business the same way. We take pride in collaboration and putting forth solutions that truly help our clients.
What they do: Formlabs builds 3D printers designed to be used by companies, not hobbyists. Its printers can be used to spin up product prototypes, create replacement parts for machines, build medical models, and more.
What’s one thing that makes Formlabs’ company culture unique or special?
People at Formlabs love to share their passions. Whether it’s STEM-related or something in arts, sports or volunteering, nearly everyone has an interest or hobby they’re really excited about. We have groups and events for all sorts of activities, and people are happy to offer advice and connect across our offices worldwide! Chances are if you care about something, someone at Formlabs is into it, too.
One of my favorite recent projects was building simulations in Python for a system we were evaluating.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
One of my favorite recent projects was building simulations in Python for a system we were evaluating. There was a multidisciplinary team of engineers tackling the project and a few parameters we wanted to optimize early on. Working through the technical challenges of implementing different ideas in code and iterating to add layers of functionality and complexity was a lot of fun. In the end, I had a tool that helped the team refine a promising design and came away with some new software skills.
What they do: Most people don’t know about the concept of “prior authorization,” but it plays a big role in how quickly patients can schedule the surgery or treatment they need. Cohere Health uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate the process, with the goal being to deliver near-instant authorization in most cases.
What’s one thing that makes Cohere Health’s culture unique or special?
The hybrid model really seems to work for both remote and local employees. There have been extended periods of time during my tenure where I have been fully remote and extended periods of time where I have been local. A lot of this success has come from the top by providing opportunities for employees to safely meet in person on a quarterly basis.
Recently, I was able to work on a project that uses AI to help expedite and improve the review process for nurses and doctors.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
Recently, I was able to work on a project that uses AI to help expedite and improve the review process for nurses and doctors. There were so many different areas of our company and products that this project touched, and it was interesting to see how everything is interconnected. It was also neat to see the high potential for future iterations of this project upon completion.
What they do: BitSight is a cybersecurity company whose technology is designed to rate both a business’ security risks and those of the third-parties it works with.
What’s one thing that makes BitSight’s company culture unique or special?
Our executives believe in employees at all levels. The company supports both collaboration and autonomy. Every team member comes from a different background and work experience, and each one brings something new to the table. The diversity of approaches has helped me grow professionally.
We have themed hackathons where all the ideas generated by our engineers and product managers are actually considered for implementation.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
We have themed hackathons where all the ideas generated by our engineers and product managers are actually considered for implementation. The last project I worked on involved finding a way for potential customers to view a company rating as a way to introduce them to our platform and see how powerful BitSight is. The idea was to show a sneak peak of our product. The hackathon is a great way to explore new ideas for our platform and an even better way to collaborate with other members of the BitSight team.
What they do: SmarterTravel is a digital marketing company specializing in travel. It provides personalized travel recommendations and content to consumers in the United States.
What’s one thing that makes SmarterTravel’s company culture unique or special?
I really feel like we listen to everyone in the company. When I say “listen,” I mean we actively ask for opinions, ideas and feedback and act on the information we receive. The most recent example of this involves an engineer on my team who had concerns related to team structure and overarching goals.
This engineer made some really great points, and I encouraged them to reach out to a few other people in the organization to get more input and see where it took them. After a little over a month, we have now begun planning in earnest to take steps to begin moving toward the vision that started as a conversation during a routine one-on-one meeting.
We don’t expect or even allow our people to work 80 hours a week.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
We are a startup, but unlike many others out there we don’t expect or even allow our people to work 80 hours a week so that we hit unicorn status in a year or whatever other goal might be on the horizon. Understanding that a real work-life balance is beneficial to retention and to a happy work culture is one of the reasons I have been with this company for close to nine years.
Personally, this has been invaluable to my family’s well-being over the years as our kids have grown and childcare, school and other activities have changed. The peace of mind knowing I have the ability to leave early to catch the train home or to block out a couple hours in the afternoon to pick the kids up from school and get them to dance class is beyond any monetary benefit.
