Whether a tech company has 6,000 employees spread across the world or 45 working out of a single office in Midtown East, they often look for the same qualities in team members. Self-starters are in high demand, as are those who value communication and collaboration.
But it goes deeper than that. Some companies take into account a person’s willingness to advocate for change when assessing communication skills, while others seek self-starters who maximize opportunities, like building out an entire department from scratch when the original ask was simply to spin up a small team. Other startups value collaboration in large part because teammates spend so much time working together, whether it’s in group whiteboarding sessions or pair programming.
All of these examples are pulled from real NYC tech companies. Continue reading to learn how each of them puts a unique spin on a handful of the tech industry’s most common values.
What Covera Health does: Covera Health uses data science to help prevent radiology misdiagnoses. The company partners with healthcare providers across the country, enabling it to both train its models on years’ worth of medical records and provide actionable feedback to radiologists
About the culture: Covera Health’s mission is to reduce medical misdiagnoses, but the team doesn’t take itself too seriously. As evidence, look no further than its monthly town halls, which can feature everything from costumed speakers to elaborate decorations. In addition to having fun, the company is also close-knit. Employees eat lunch together in the office game room and hang out after-hours during company-sponsored events.
“It is so nice to work at a company comprised of people who really care about each other. I believe it makes us feel connected to the mission and to each other,” Operations Lead Shane Courten told us earlier this year.
Calling all candidates: While Covera Health is hiring across the board, the majority of open roles are on its data team. Candidates for this team should ideally have experience working with medical data sets and be up-to-date on the latest developments in both computer vision and natural language processing. More broadly speaking, Covera Health values transparency and collaboration and looks for team members who are excited to strategize, hit goals and grow as part of a team.
What EquityZen does: EquityZen is a fintech company with a platform designed to make it easier for investors to acquire shares of private companies and for employees to sell their stock options.
About the culture: EquityZen doesn’t believe silos lead to success. Principal Engineer Bryant Khau said that constant communication and feedback, which include design sessions and code reviews, help ensure the smooth release of new features. To help employees beat burnout, the fintech startup offers unlimited PTO, company-sponsored happy hours and wellness programs. EquityZen also places a premium on diversity and has programs designed to bolster the diversity of both its management team and workforce.
Calling all candidates: EquityZen looks for candidates who are ambitious, humble and want to grow their skills. The company offers stipends for continuing education, subscriptions to online courses and industry certifications.
“[Engineers] own the technical design of their respective features and work with product and UX to whiteboard, brainstorm and debate the merits of various ideas to collaboratively arrive at the best solution,” said Senior Director of Engineering Shanon Levenherz.
What Primary Kids does: “No logos, no slogans and no sequins.” That’s how Primary Kids describes the colorful, gender-neutral children’s clothing it sells directly to consumers. The startup was founded by Galyn Bernard and Christina Carbonell, who met while working as executives at Quidsi, the parent company of e-commerce sites like Diapers.com, Soap.com and Wag.com that was acquired by Amazon back in 2010.
About the culture: Primary Kids has a family-friendly culture. The startup offers flexible working hours, three weeks of PTO (which is boosted to four weeks after an employee’s two-year work anniversary) and 12 weeks of parental leave. The company’s office is open, dog-friendly and stocked with snacks. To encourage employees to keep their skills sharp, Primary offers a monthly stipend of $100 to spend on classes and courses.
Calling all candidates: Primary Kids raised a $20 million funding round in September and is actively hiring for several senior roles, including a CFO. The company describes itself as “change-friendly” and is looking for candidates who are happy to share ideas about how to improve the company’s culture, processes and products. Primary Kids also values collaboration, so expect a lot of group brainstorming sessions and, for engineers, pair programming.
What Tipico does: Tipico is one of the largest sports betting companies in Europe, with more than 1,200 physical betting shops and 6,000 employees. Despite being such a big name abroad, the company has just recently landed in the United States. Its U.S. headquarters is located right along the water in Hoboken, New Jersey.
About the culture: Katja Meyer, a gaming CRM manager, described Tipico’s team as multicultural and said continuous, open-minded communication is a priority for everyone. According to Talent Acquisition Specialist Elisabeth Mertens and Data Marketing Manager Nicholas Lebeouf, the company gives employees the ability to schedule their days how they see fit and considers work-life balance a priority rather than a luxury. Tipico offers a generous PTO package and sponsors team outings to ensure employees have ample time to recharge and connect outside of the office.
Calling all candidates: Tipico sees itself as a startup in the U.S., and as such, it’s looking for employees who are entrepreneurial self-starters. Take Adrian Vella, who joined the company in 2014 and built and scaled a data engineering team. He’s now a managing director at Tipico and is leading the company’s expansion into the United States. To help employees reach their full potential, Tipico offers professional development benefits around job training and conferences.
