BlogIt's not every year your organization is named a "Top Career-Launching Company." Well, unless you're ExtraHop. For the second year in a row, ExtraHop has been recognized as a top workplace for young professionals by Wealthfront. It's no secret that we're proud of our commitment to employee development, mentorship, and learning, and today we're going to hear from two of our own young professionals who kick-started their careers at ExtraHop.
Terry
Terry started as an intern at ExtraHop, and now serves in the dynamic role of Technical Marketing Engineer, which allows him to not only dive into code and build solution modules but act as a technical evangelist through videos, user groups, webinars, tradeshows, and speaking at conferences. He works with many different disciplines including the sales team, solution architecture, support, project management, and engineering.
Q: How would you describe the company culture?
A: One of the best aspects of ExtraHop is its culture. Although we've nearly tripled in size since the day I started, almost four years ago, the culture has remained the same. This has been achieved by placing culture fit as a high priority in the interview process. After all, since we often spend more time with the people we work with than our significant others, shouldn't we enjoy being around them? The company is full of some of the most intelligent and passionate people ever. More importantly, our egos are left at the door. We're building the best stream analytics platform on the market, collaboration is mandatory, and constructive criticism is warmly welcomed.
In addition, we work hard, play harder. I didn't truly understand the meaning of that phrase until I started here. I knew how to work hard, but at ExtraHop, there isn't a single major holiday, or trivial one for that matter, that sneaks by without an elaborate celebration. This really helps foster cross-team cohesiveness and camaraderie. Some of the strongest friendships I have are with coworkers.
Q: What's the most important lesson you've learned at ExtraHop?
A: Fail fast. Failures can take many forms and it isn't about the big issues but rather the little ones. When I first started at ExtraHop there were two of us on the Technical Marketing Engineering team. We didn't have the time or resources to do a full blown target market analysis for new features and offerings. It takes some serious work to talk to a lot of people, gather and assess different points of view, decide what to do, build a schedule, develop and test, then release it. Instead, we were encouraged to quickly build something, get it out there and if it didn't work, fail fast, pivot, and either revise or try something else. We were using the approach that, through many little experiments, some things would work and grow while others would fail. The key is that you need to separate yourself from these experiments so that when they die, which some will, the failure is not taken personally and you can easily disengage from them.
Q: What's it like working at ExtraHop?
A: We're building a product that makes our customers' lives easier. For the past several years I've been focusing on healthcare IT. These network environments are some of the most, scratch that...the most complicated and cumbersome ones out there. Many of our customers struggle in gaining a full understanding of the network they're trying to maintain. So when things break they often find themselves working into the night, or worse, being called in at the middle of the night, to right the ship. The things I've personally built, even the things I built as an intern, are actually being used by our customers and they're dramatically cutting down the time to resolution. It feels great knowing that my work helps people get home on time.
Q: What fictional character would you be, and why?
A: Aladdin for sure. He found a genie, defeated his enemy, found true love, and became a prince. And let's not forget he got to ride around on a magic carpet and hang out with a little monkey. Honestly, what more could you ask for?
Brittany
As Marketing Events Manager at ExtraHop, Brittany started as an intern on the marketing team, and now has a hands-on role with planning and executing ExtraHop's corporate presence at industry tradeshows in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Her responsibilities range from coordinating logistics such as booth design and show orders to creative activities like brainstorming unique promotions to drive event attendance.
Q: How would you describe the company culture?
A: It's hard to describe ExtraHop in just a word...so I've got a bunch of 'em! Innovative, collaborative, strong sense of team, emphasis on people, great place to learn and grow, high mutual respect, and integrity.
Q: What makes ExtraHop unique?
A: The people and the technology. I work with very talented, passionate and intelligent people who all care about each other's mutual success. While I don't come from a technical background, I believe in ExtraHop because they believe so much in ExtraHop.
Q: What's it like working at ExtraHop?
A: On top of really enjoying my day-to-day responsibilities, I get some incredible opportunities outside the office as well. This year I've been fortunate enough to travel to London, Melbourne and Barcelona [see photo to right!] for work and I really value being able to get that international experience and work with our teams abroad.
