"Working at Gallup is like being on an all-star baseball team. Every Gallup associate has the talent to be a home run hitter, and we're always swinging for the fences."
Q: What do you do at Gallup?
A: As a software development team lead at Gallup, I spend about half of my time coding. The other half of my time, I'm acting as a team lead, helping my team get clarification on the business expectations, ensuring that they have the tools they need to do their job and communicating our progress to the stakeholders across the organization. I work alongside our software architects, technical leads, project managers and developers. Together, we develop the software that Gallup's clients and customers use every day.
Q: What types of projects do you work on?
A: I work on the Gallup Access platform(opens in a new window). It's an extremely robust ecosystem of software that allows our clients to gain insights about employee engagement, customer satisfaction and a plethora of other topics that are crucial for running a successful business. Gallup Access also houses our CliftonStrengths® assessment , (opens in a new window) as well as a massive repository of learning material so that our customers can expand their knowledge about their strengths and make continuous improvements within their business and as individuals.
Q: What makes Gallup's technology environment unique compared with other companies?
A: The people set our environment apart from other companies. When Gallup hires people, we focus on talent -- and it works. I have yet to find someone at Gallup who I don't get along with. When we build our teams within the technology department, we look not only at someone's technical skill level, but also at their talents and how they inherently think and behave. I've worked on three different teams at Gallup, and every time, I find myself immediately meshing with my coworkers.
Q: What's it like to work at Gallup?
A: Working at Gallup is like being on an all-star baseball team. Every Gallup associate has the talent to be a home run hitter, and we're always swinging for the fences. Everywhere you look, you will find extremely talented, motivated individuals. Not only is everyone good at their job, but everyone is motivated to make Gallup successful, and they each embody Gallup's mission to make the world a better place. It's infectious.
Q: What are some of your favorite things about your team?
A: Everyone on my team is self-motivated, highly intelligent and easy to get along with. They're all eager to learn new things, and they get excited by the technology that we're developing. We really promote continued education, and we're all very collaborative. Regardless of if you're a level one developer or you're a senior leader, we're all encouraged to bring our ideas to the table -- if you have an idea, we'll listen.
Q: How was the transition for technology when having to switch to mostly remote working in 2020?
A: It is impressive to see how everyone continued working; our velocity and progress didn't slow down at all, and that was true across the board. Everyone just continued to focus on our mission. That said, while we've proven that we can be highly efficient working remotely, Gallup associates (myself included) are eager to go back to our beautiful Riverfront campus, which has great amenities, including a full cafeteria, gym, child care and collaborative spaces.
Q: What are you most excited about in terms of upcoming projects and the overall direction of technology?
A: We've started moving our Gallup Access platform to a subscription model, and it has been really exciting to see something that started as a brainstorming session end up as a full-fledged project that's come to fruition. This project has made a positive impact on the platform our clients are using every day. Being given the opportunity to enhance our product and make it dynamic and more suited to what our clients need is rewarding. We're always embracing new technologies that provide endless opportunities to learn and grow.
Q: What do you do when you're not at Gallup?
A: I lead with Restorative and Analytical, and it shows in everything I do. When I'm not working with technology at Gallup, I'm working with technology at home. My daughter is a Type 1 diabetic, so I've been working on building an app to help track her insulin and glucose. While I know there are apps out there that I could just purchase, creating my own has been a fun project and a good learning experience for me.
I'm also remodeling our basement. I started with unfinished concrete walls, and now I've got an office, bathroom, living room and wet bar all built out. Again, there's my Restorative and Futuristic coming out!
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