Being Grown Up and Stuff...

Alex Rodriguez

Presented By

Who am I?

Alex Rodriguez

I am passionate about...

• Science & Technology
• Rock Climbing
• Anything Outdoors

And this guy...

I work for...

The College Experience...

• Had no idea what I wanted to do
• Didn't value learning
• Started a Fraternity
  • Partied a lot
  • Learned a lot
• Found an internship junior year
  • Worst professional experience I'd ever have
  • One of the most valuable professional experience I'd ever have 

Lessons Learned

• Get involved in SOMETHING
• Don't chase paper... Find and chase your passion
  • Diploma
  • $$$
• Get to know your teachers
• Make as much time as possible to gain professional experience in or out of your field of study
  • Volunteer
  • Internships
  • Freelance
• College isn't for everyone and thats okay
• Learn how to learn!

Life After College...

• STILL didn't know what I wanted to do
  • Moved back home
  • Got a job at Subway
  • Started freelancing in my spare time

Freelancing

• It's very challenging...
• Requires more then technical skills
  • Social
  • Finance
  • Business
• Spent more time on the business side then the creative and technical
• It's not necessarily WHAT you know, but WHO you know
  • Networking: Quality > Quantity
• You can only learn so much working on your own...

Starting a Career

• After a year and a half of freelancing and working at Subway, I decided it was time to start a REAL career
  • Spent a few months interviewing at various companies
  • Just as I was starting to give up on finding the perfect job, I found...

• Founded in 2001
• I've been with the company for the last 3 years
  • ​Frontend
  • Backend
  • iOS
  • Android
  • Project Management
  • Hiring and On boarding
  • IT Support
  • Process Improvement
  • ...
• I continue to love every minute of it

Our singular goal...

is to be the world’s leading web agency building consistently amazing websites, systems and products. 

How do we measure this?

• Client retention
• Client referrals
• Pulled not pushed
• Having the greatest team
• Progressive opportunities for team
• Employees grow to greater things
• New grads want to work here
• Consistently profitable 

We want to build cool stuff...

With cool people...

For cool clients...

We do work with...

• Startups
• Small Business  
• Large Business

We offer an array of services...

• UX Strategy and Consulting
• Website Design and Development
• Web App Design and Development
• Mobile App Design and Development
• And more...

Expectations

• Manage yourself
• Own the details
  • Make no assumptions
  • Be the most prepared person in the room
• Know/manage the time budget
  • We can do anything, but are we being paid to?
• Do whatever it takes
  • But be pragmatic
• Make yourself proud of the outcome
  • Hold yourself/others to a high standard
• Always do the right thing

Simple Best Practices

• Expectation setting is everything
  • With each other, with our clients and with yourself
  • Under promise and over deliver
• Review early and often
• State and restate everything
  • Make NO assumptions
• Talk in person whenever possible rather then e-mail/chat
• Come to conflict quickly
  • Make NO assumptions

What we look for

• The Three Hs
  • Happy
  • Humble
  • Hungry
• Ability to work in a team structure
• Ability to make decisions and solve problems
• Ability to communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organization
• Ability to plan, organize and prioritize work
• Ability to obtain and process information
• Ability to analyze quantitative data
• Technical knowledge related to the job

Questions?

Thank you