Affinity

My coworkers at Affinity are AWESOME. It's great to work with people you can rely on to get the job done well, people who can communicate their thoughts effectively, and people who will celebrate your wins and give honest feedback about areas where you can improve.

From a "getting things done" standpoint, it is great to have talented and reliable coworkers, but they also regularly help me learn new things and grow in my role. The employees foster a culture that has humor and kindness in a way that makes me enjoy the social aspects of work.

Obviously, a lot of this culture has to do with the individual employees at the company, but Affinity does a good job of hiring people who fit into this culture and encouraging it to flourish.

Management at Affinity, from first-level managers to the CEO, has a real commitment to listening to feedback and trying to address that feedback. Managers regularly solicit feedback from their reports and genuinely try to make improvements based on that feedback, or at the very least do a better job of explaining the constraints that have led to the situation.

This is also true of senior leadership. They truly want to hear employee feedback and regularly schedule all-hands meetings, roundtables, and one-on-ones to hear suggestions from people at all levels of the company.

There are lots of other good things, but they mostly flow from these two: great culture, but also a commitment to learning and improving.

Work-life balance note: The company is very supportive of work-life balance. You are not expected to work outside normal working hours, and everyone is very supportive when you need to take time off for personal emergencies. You also get encouraged to take enough vacation.

Affinity definitely isn't the best fit for everyone! It's a medium-sized startup, so there is a balance of process and chaos, and your contributions as an employee are important.

If you're looking to clock in, put in minimal effort, and clock out, Affinity isn't the right place for you! The work you do is important, and the expectation is you'll bring your A-game (no "rest and vest"ing).

You'll also need to be willing to be flexible. Company priorities change, projects can get shelved as we pursue new opportunities, people sometimes shift priorities and teams based on overall company goals, and we iterate on process to best fit the team as we change and grow. Personally, this totally works for me, but I know some people are stressed out by changes, and so the company might not be a great fit!

On the flip side, if you embrace chaos and want an experience with minimal process where you can just work on whatever, interface closely with customers, and wear a lot of hats while growing into your role, an earlier-stage startup is probably a better fit! Affinity has a decent amount of process; product decisions are made by a built-out product team, so an engineer can't just work on whatever they want, and a salesperson can't just ask for a feature to get done for one customer.