What It's Like to Work at Corporate Tools LLC

What first attracted you to Corporate Tools? When did you know it was the right place for you and your career?

What attracted me was they were hiring and I needed a job. But honestly from the first interview I knew there was something different about this company. They seemed more focused on getting the right person into the company than getting the right person for the role; if that makes sense. In fact I think I ended up getting hired for something completely different than what I originally applied for. That is when I knew this was going to be an interesting place to work, and so far it has been one of the most amazing journeys of my career.

Share one exciting challenge or project you are working on right now. What impact will this have on the business?

We are working on an application that will allow different teams within the business to create, manage and optimize core communication based customer interactions with our products and services. With this new tool, the business will be able to have greater visibility, agility and control over key interaction strategies which will enhance customer experience, increase conversion rates and boost the effectiveness of operational, product and marketing teams on our platform. We think this will be an absolute game changer.

If your company culture was a car, what would it be, and why?  

I’d say it is kind of like a reliable SUV — a little rugged but always ready for the journey. We work hard during peak periods but we also know how to shift gears when it is time to relax and refuel. Camaraderie is big here and with the right people riding along with you, it makes the ride enjoyable no matter how demanding or rough the road ahead might be.

Describe the key factors or strategies that helped you land your dream job in the tech industry. 

In my opinion, there are two primary factors in any job being a “dream.” The first is to be able to hold an interest in the work involved with the job. I couldn’t say a job was a dream job if I couldn’t enjoy the work, even if an employer has all the best perks and people. I discovered programming was work that I truly enjoyed doing, which led me easily to the software engineer career path. 

The second, but just as equally important piece to making a dream job, is finding an employer with qualities that you prefer. After working for several companies, I figured out that I highly prefer working from home and a good work/life balance, as well as a good company culture where people are upfront, honest and easy to get along with.

What specific skills or experiences do you believe set you apart from other candidates during your job search?

I think my experience with the entire spectrum of application runtime is my strongest selling point. I’ve worked with many different cloud providers, infrastructures, CI/CD platforms, programming languages, frameworks and more, and I believe having this experience allows me to more easily adapt to new ones that a job could require.

How has your dream job lived up to your expectations? What are the types of projects you’re working on and what makes you most excited to come to work each day?

Honestly, I don’t think I could’ve picked a better career. It has its ups and downs, as all careers do, but I can’t see myself enjoying anything as much as I enjoy the work that I do now. I’ve got my fingers in a lot of pots currently, but my favorite project at the moment is the creation and management of our CI pipeline templates for projects. It’s a win-win scenario — I get to enjoy the process of building them out and improving developer’s testing and deployment processes, and the developers get to focus more on programming instead of what knobs to turn or levers to pull in order to compile the app and deploy it out correctly. This fulfilling work that I do, coupled with the trustworthy and friendly people that I work with, is what makes me excited to come to work each day!