Growth and development don’t occur in a vacuum, despite what some influential Massachusetts writers would have you believe.
Consider Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalist writings, which espouse the merits of self-sufficiency and autonomy. These writings are the antithesis of the “it takes a village” mentality. But a closer look reveals that their words don’t exactly stack up to their lived experiences.
Thoreau wrote about the honor found in living off the land in seclusion. But his mom brought him food and did his laundry. Emerson wrote about self-reliance. But Emerson hired Thoreau as a babysitter and handyman and heavily borrowed from his aunt while writing.
Rugged individualism has long been a trademark of American culture, but we can do so much more when the people around us help us achieve more and we do the same in return. At every stage of our lives, environment, circumstances and support networks play a crucial role in determining what we can achieve and who we can aspire to become.
The same is true in our careers. At seven Boston-based companies, team members are fostering cultures and creating professional development opportunities that showcase what is possible when we uplift each other and create opportunities for continued growth.
And — the best news saved for last — they’re all hiring.
MORSE Corp. provides practical solutions to solve complex multidisciplinary national security problems.
Thinking back to your early days on the job, what surprised you or stood out to you most about MORSE’s culture?
From the beginning, it was clear MORSE’s culture and values are actually true to what employees experience. I’ve interviewed and worked at many companies that will tell you they have a flexible working environment. It’s a great selling phrase, but often not true. However, with a toddler at home, it’s important for me to not completely miss her growing up. MORSE’s leadership and policies allow me to create a work-life balance that works best for me. From day one I’ve been told family and life come first. I believe it because I’ve seen it in practice from both a contributor and manager point of view. We care about each other. My family and I are grateful to be a part of MORSE. Happy cows make happy cheese!
From the beginning, it was clear MORSE’s culture and values are actually true to what employees experience.”
What's the coolest project you've worked on recently, and what skills did it help you develop?
Most projects at MORSE are novel and we start with a clean slate. When you start from scratch, it’s easy to go off the rails if you don’t have a solid foundation. I am part of a team designing a new unmanned air vehicle. For the first time in my career, I’ve had to deep dive into system requirements and trade studies before markers ever hit a whiteboard. Siloed engineers can become out of touch with the problem itself and the solution will suffer. Working with my team and our end users, I’m able to gather important feedback firsthand and identify the most important elements of the problem. Because I end up learning about the problem inside and out, I can design quickly and effectively. Those “back to the drawing board” situations happen less frequently and far earlier when they do. At other companies I designed. At MORSE I create solutions.
Definitive Healthcare is a platform that reduces market complexity and provides commercial intelligence on delivery systems, physicians, payors, patients, government organizations and more.
Thinking back to your early days on the job, what surprised you or stood out to you most about Definitive Healthcare’s culture?
I started with Definitive Healthcare right out of college and had no idea what to expect. I remember interviewing with Jason Krantz, our CEO at the time. Jason was talking about DH’s winning culture when we heard a massive roar outside — someone had just closed their first deal! We stepped outside, and everyone in the office went over to congratulate this individual. I remember going home asking myself, was that staged?
Within my first week on the job, I knew the glimpse of what I had seen in the office that day was very real, and DH’s winning culture didn’t stop there! The leadership team always had their doors open. Not only did they welcome you in, but they wanted you to stop in even just to say hi. People truly wanted to help. Every day, someone new would go out of their way to offer advice on what had made them successful. Finally, the work hard, play hard culture was unbeatable. Everyone was intensely focused on setting new bars and accomplishing new goals. When this happened, the office would roar as it did during my interview, and we would celebrate accordingly as a team. Eight years later, I am proud to say this has not changed!
How long have you been with Definitive Healthcare, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
On my first day of work, my dad told me to be a sponge and absorb as much as I could about the business, our clients and our product. I am lucky to say I had the opportunity to absorb and truly learn from the best of the best here at Definitive Healthcare. Over the last eight years, I’ve had eight different roles that led me to where I am now. I started off as a customer success associate working with our clients. This role quickly transformed into a new opportunity when we did two back-to-back acquisitions.
I am lucky to say I had the opportunity to absorb and truly learn from the best of the best here at Definitive Healthcare.”
After two years of acquisition work migrating our clients, I was approached by a few leaders asking me if I had ever considered sales. It was that conversation that completely changed my career trajectory. With support from my leadership team, I dove into the deep end of sales as an account executive and I haven’t looked back! Over the last few years, I stepped away from being an individual contributor and grew into leadership as director and then as assistant VP of account management. This year I am honored to be VP of Sales for our diversified market. Not only have I grown with DH, but DH has grown with me. My recommendation is to be a sponge and put in the work — you won’t be sorry!
Wasabi Technologies provides businesses worldwide with hot cloud storage solutions.
Thinking back to your early days on the job, what surprised you or stood out to you most about Wasabi’s culture?
I started during the early days of Wasabi, a phase when everyone pretty much knew everyone at the company and it was very easy to build relationships. The best part is that that hasn’t changed much, even today. When you think of unicorns and billion-dollar companies, you might imagine a strict corporate culture. But the success stories here show the importance of a relaxed and fun environment, building relationships even as the company grows.
How long have you been with Wasabi, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
This is my fifth year with Wasabi, having started as a co-op. We continued to grow at the rate we envisioned and so did the support engineering department I am in. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with” couldn’t be more true in my situation. I am fortunate to have been around excellent mentors, and I took every opportunity I got to collaborate with others, whether in the same team, product, sales, engineering, operations and so on. For someone who just stepped into this industry as a newbie, I got an amazing opportunity to learn many things from scratch, build relationships, grow a team and now manage a team with almost 20 people in it.
For someone who just stepped into this industry as a newbie, I got an amazing opportunity to learn many things from scratch, build relationships and now manage a team.”
From my mind thinking, “What are they really talking about?” to “Hey, I have a proposal for our product,” this journey allowed me to understand the various nuts and bolts of Wasabi, which in turn led to a pathway for me to work closely with not only my own team but also other departments like product on new products and features, sales engineering in building solutions for customers and various engineering teams on improving our services. That, to me, is personal and professional growth.
Healthtech company PathAI’s platform helps improve diagnosis accuracy and treatment efficacy.
Thinking back to your early days on the job, what surprised you or stood out to you most about PathAI’s culture?
PathAI’s culture is defined by our strong mission of improving patient outcomes and by our core values that drive the work we do every day. Our goal of creating products to help improve the lives of patients is evident across the company. Being one of the first employees at PathAI, I have seen our culture evolve as we grow, and I can say firsthand that the principles of our work and dedication to improving patients have embodied our culture from day one. Early on, I knew PathAI was special after I started working with our immensely talented, humble and dedicated team. From engineering to product to HR, the whole team creates a sense of community that is focused on trust, innovation and an all-in attitude that makes work so, so much fun.
How long have you been with PathAI, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I’ve been with the company since day one, and it’s been the most amazing experience. The amount of professional development and learning opportunities at PathAI is unrivaled, given the fact that we’ve brought in such a great team that is focused on learning, communication and product development.
The amount of professional development and learning opportunities at PathAI is unrivaled.”
For myself, PathAI has given me the building blocks to excel and grow in my career, as the company is truly an environment focused on growth and learning. Our team values career development and has built a community of education, creating an environment focused on growth.
1upHealth’s platform is used by providers, payers and other healthcare industry professionals to manage and compute patient data.
Thinking back to your early days on the job, what surprised you or stood out to you most about 1upHealth’s culture?
1upHealth was my first fully remote start for a new job. I was worried about making connections with the team and successfully onboarding. During my first few weeks, everyone I interacted with went above and beyond to make me feel welcome. People would set up a time to simply check in and have a casual conversation. I felt comfortable with my new team and forged relationships beyond work without meeting anyone in person. I felt included from the first time I opened my computer. What is most remarkable is that, as the company has grown in the past two years, each new employee is greeted with the same enthusiasm as I was.
How long have you been with 1upHealth, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I am about to hit my two-year mark with 1upHealth. During that time, I’ve had the opportunity to sit in various roles throughout the organization, giving me new insights into the healthcare industry and our product. I started in an implementations role, helping our early clients trudge through a new way of thinking about their data and then moved to our customer success team. While on the customer success team, I was able to support a wide array of clients who were all using our platform for different reasons. Getting to dig in and understand each client’s unique strategy helped broaden my understanding of how our product works!
I’ve had the opportunity to sit in various roles throughout the organization, giving me new insights into the healthcare industry and our product.”
Most recently, I pivoted to our product team to combine the skills built in prior roles to focus on making tools to meet our client’s needs. 1up allows you to grow and shape your career over time and have ownership of outcomes and your journey.
SmarterTravel is a data-driven travel resource that leverages AI and machine learning to create a customer-centric experience.
Thinking back to your early days on the job, what surprised you or stood out to you most about SmarterTravel’s culture?
What stood out to me the most was my co-workers’ optimism. 2022 was a challenging year for us. When I joined, the company was struggling with layoffs in the midst of overhauling and updating massive elements of our back-end services and tech stack. I had been laid off from my previous role under similar circumstances and was worried I’d walked out of the frying pan into the fire. What set SmarterTravel apart was the trust that both my colleagues and our leadership showed in each other. None of us were under any illusions about the company’s ongoing struggles, but neither was upper management. They clearly acknowledged those issues and shared realistic plans, metrics and goals to overcome them. That shared optimism and camaraderie enabled us to persevere and see SmarterTravel through a rough 2022, and 2023 is looking brighter than ever!
What set SmarterTravel apart was the trust that both my colleagues and our leadership showed in each other.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what skills did it help you develop?
I’ve only been with the company for a few months, but in that time, I’ve already wrangled a bunch of JavaScript, come to grips with npm and Maven, dived into MySQL databases and learned a whole lot about website infrastructure and design. Right now, my work focuses on fixing and improving various aspects of our legacy systems that haven’t kept up with the pace of web development, and the sheer scale and complexity of modern web infrastructure have been eye-opening. It’s also been remarkably interdisciplinary and collaborative. I work with programmers in Portugal and magazine contributors who have climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro! For a somewhat junior engineer like myself, it’s been a really rewarding work experience and I’m excited to continue.
BookBub helps readers discover, purchase and sell books that are curated by experts.
Thinking back to your early days on the job, what surprised you or stood out to you most about BookBub’s culture?
How connected our culture is! From our “new cat” emails that introduce new employees and generate warm welcomes to our weekly company meetings where we all come together to review performance and team updates, BookBub prioritizes community and inclusivity.
From our emails that introduce new employees to our weekly meetings where we all come together to review performance and team updates, BookBub prioritizes community and inclusivity.”
How long have you been with BookBub, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I’ve been with the company for almost four years. During that time, I’ve broadened my channel-specific expertise to become a marketer who thinks more holistically about performance and strategy. I’ve also enjoyed frequent collaboration with teams across the business — like design, analytics and product — which has helped me learn so much about other disciplines.
