Zipline

My time at Zipline pushed me in many ways to be a better engineer and a better person and forever changed my outlook on the world. The expectations are high: you don't come in just to write code. There's no layer between you and your customer, between you and senior management, or between you and the international operations teams. You own projects from gathering requirements through ensuring the code is working well in the field. I was really invested in by my boss and other leaders.

I was pushed to communicate better, take on more responsibility end-to-end, and to think critically about how I should best spend my time to move the needle for the company and the mission. The high "EQ" of the team was felt on the daily. First job I had where employees weren't treated as mules. Yes, the job was stressful, and yes, it is a business, but Zipline really did feel different from other places I've worked in that, on top of all of this, the team really did believe they could make a lasting positive difference in this world. That above all else made this worth it at the end of the day.

Zipline is not an easy, laid-back job: most people here apply more pressure to themselves than management applies.

You'll be pushed and stretched to "wear many hats". The company grew a lot during my tenure, but they still are "scrappy" and the startup mentality is felt daily.