Welcome to another installment of Metafora’s new series: Employee Spotlight!
This post is particularly unique because it’s an Alumni Edition. What? Yes we are featuring an employee who recently decided to start a new chapter in their career.
It’s not everyday that you see a company celebrating one of their stand out employee’s leaving the team to embark on a new adventure. So why are we doing this? BECAUSE we are so proud of Ben’s journey and grateful for his contribution to Metafora’s progress and growth. He spent four years here at Metafora (formerly CarrierDirect): This is double the tenure many software engineers have at one company.
We want to celebrate Ben’s journey with us, and let software engineers know about the valuable growth opportunities we offer on our team.
According to Developer Pitstop, “Around 50% of software engineers only stay at a company for two years before switching to somewhere new. The national average for job tenure is 4.2 years so software engineers stay at one place for half as long.”
Even more noteworthy, Ben started here in a junior type role on our LTL Select team and grew into a Senior Engineer role where he was not only able to earn more accountability, but also took new junior engineers onto his team as part of our Metafora dedication to career growth and mentorship.
Ben started his Metafora journey in 2018 as an individual contributor. He leveled up from receiving tickets to writing them, and continued earning more accountability and ownership within the company, leading him to a well deserved promotion to Senior Engineer. In this step, Ben was given the opportunity to work on projects beyond LTL Select. He took on management responsibilities and began mentoring junior engineers, he got involved on other teams and was able to spend time on a variety of projects doing things like architecting front-end repositories, evaluating requirements, and estimating scope.
Ben states that the diversity in his role and responsibilities helped shape his career by growing both his soft skills and technical abilities.
One of the benefits of working at a consulting firm was the business lens Ben learned to apply to his engineering perspective. Ben explains, “A skill set that I really appreciate learning is being able to justify engineering ideas and concepts in business terms and tying clear business goals and value to engineering suggestions.”
Let’s jump into some of the highlights of our interview with Ben.
What were the best parts of working with Metafora?
The people and the everyday interactions. Ben explains, “The people that we hire are friendly, respectful, fun, and interesting, and that's the #1 thing anyone should look for in a company.”
What is a typical timeline for a junior engineer to become a senior engineer?
The average is usually longer than Ben’s experience. With Metafora’s consulting environment, this growth path was accelerated. Ben had more opportunity to take on more responsibility quicker in his tenure.
Many companies try to focus on hiring senior engineers rather than bringing in junior engineers who can grow with the company. Metafora understands and embraces the importance and value of both.
Ben comments on why he appreciates that Metafora is committed to hiring newer software engineers, “You definitely need some senior engineers, but hiring junior engineers who show potential for growth is great. When you pair juniors with quality mentorship on fast-paced projects, they can develop quickly into mid level and senior level employees.”
Would you recommend Metafora to engineers looking for a new career opportunity?
“I definitely would recommend Metafora to engineers interested in rapid growth and looking to develop leadership skills - this is a place where you can quickly find yourself with a lot of accountability and responsibility which is highly rewarding.” - Ben Strick, senior engineer
For senior engineers, Ben recommends Metafora to anyone who is looking for more than coding all day.
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We took a moment to chat with one of the front end developers on Ben’s team, Kristiana Llanos. Her role here at Metafora is her first professional job as a software engineer! She joined us after graduating from an Advanced Immersive Software Engineering Immersive Program from Operation Spark. She’s been great and we’re excited to see her growing with the company as well. She had this to say about working with Ben:
“Ben is the type of person who gives you his best every day, which inspires you to bring your best self to the conversation. His leadership style role models the kind of mentorship that allows for trust and camaraderie to grow, and I have felt his support from the day he interviewed me. I know his influence on my development will stretch for years to come as the lessons I have learned from him this last year are now woven into how I code and navigate my projects. I'm so grateful to have had such a talented mentor and manager, and will miss my friend very much, but I am so excited for him to enter the next chapter of his career and wish him all the best.”
We couldn’t agree more!
A little more about Ben… Ben was the winner of our 2022 Values Champion Award for our company value: Speak Your Truth. He also took time out of his busy schedule to help with marketing efforts such as web updates, improvements, accessibility, and content development! And of course, Ben’s love for custom mechanical keyboards will stay with us even as he goes on his new adventure.
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Are you an engineer looking for a new exciting career at a company that is committed to employee growth, happiness, and well being? How about a company that has been honored with multiple “Best Places to Work” awards? Metafora is on a mission to help overcome obstacles so we can achieve progress and growth together. This goes for our clients, partners, and employees! We update the listings on our careers page frequently, and we’d love to hear from you.
