Summer nights in Chicago are missing only one thing — a sky full of stars. Everyone knows they’re there, but approximately only 35 are visible from within the city, according to the Adler Planetarium. But for those who want a better look, the Adler is home to an exhibition meant to open visitor’s eyes to the sky above Chicago and the 4,500 stars that can be seen in a dark sky.
There are similarly vast constellations of reasons for job seekers to join Windy City companies this summer. Picking out the individual facets of company culture may be difficult while reviewing open opportunities, but hearing from current employees can be as revealing as the exhibits at the Adler.
“I was looking for an organization with strong leadership, a great culture and a clear North Star that everyone in the company worked towards,” Araceli Ortiz Steger, head of people at Tegus, said.
While company culture looks, sounds and feels different in every workplace, Ortiz Steger highlights the value of finding the culture fit that works best for each individual. “Nearly two and a half years in, I still love being part of building our performance-driven, transparent culture where employees like to roll up their sleeves and help one another,” she said.
Built In Chicago spoke with Ortiz Steger and professionals at six other local companies who joined teams with bright cultures that guide their work and all of which are hiring new star talent this summer.
What they do: Walgreens is a drugstore and care provider across the US, and its tech teams are updating infrastructure, expanding network capabilities and adopting new collaboration tools.
Why I joined: “I have been with Walgreens for 25 years. I started with the company as a secretary in the maintenance department primarily because there was a daycare on site and I had just given birth to my first child. I quickly came to realize Walgreens had more to offer than daycare. I have found encouragement, support, mentorship and opportunities in abundance in my time here. As I went back to school to earn my degree in information systems (IS), my leadership team provided opportunities for me to use my new knowledge and rewarded it. Once I completed my studies, it was an easy and supported transition to IT. This is a company that recognizes talent and dedication and rewards it.”
Coolest recent project: “Honestly, the project I hold dearest to my heart was way in the beginning of my career when computers and laptops were just becoming mainstream. I worked on a project that transformed a paper store maintenance process into an on-line ticketing and billing system for store maintenance, which included getting all our field mechanics PC savvy. It was a project that I was able to bring from an idea to life. It is what pushed me into getting my IS degree. However, more recently we launched an updated centralized in-store printing system, replacing an old AS400 system. This was a challenging project due to the complexity of the system, its multitude of system interfaces, the number of teams involved, other enterprise wide changes, store impact and Murphy’s Law. It was an opportunity to pull different areas together to work collaboratively to find and correct the root causes of issues. It was rewarding to get all the different areas to fully participate in the analysis and to take ownership of fixing the issues in order to provide the stores a reliable system that was a tremendous improvement over what they were currently using.”
What they do: Tegus is a market intelligence platform.
Why I joined: “I was inspired by the enthusiasm and passion that our co-founders conveyed, and I believed in their vision to create a category-defining product that customers love, while prioritizing hiring top talent. In my time at Tegus we’ve grown from under 50 to nearly 500 team members, yet, who we are at the core — great people building customer-focused products — hasn’t wavered.
“Personally, I’m grateful for the long-term orientation we take to build the business and our people. I appreciate the support I received to fully take parental leave and prioritize my recovery, my baby and my family, in spite of our hyper-growth and lack of redundancy in roles. In fact, I earned a promotion ahead of my leave that demonstrated Tegus’ commitment to keep me. The consistency in words and actions to keep top talent is remarkable. It’s a treat to hire and welcome amazing talent on a weekly basis!”
Coolest recent project: “The last six months have been all about hiring and scaling processes and systems in order to maintain the high bar we have set for talent. The single greatest part of Tegus is the people here. Welcoming A+ people to the team has been a key value for our company since day one, and that won’t change.
“We started 2022 with about 230 employees and have already doubled in size this year, organically, including opening an EMEA office in Waterford, Ireland. Building out the talent acquisition team and collaborating with department heads and hiring managers to optimize our hiring processes while continuing to recruit top talent at scale has been an incredible experience. Although talent acquisition is only one part of my job, the hyper-growth we are experiencing has helped me gain additional practice at scaling systems rapidly. I’ve grown in my ability to manage a larger team, use data to identify areas for improvement in the recruiting funnel and gained practice in combining the art and science of recruiting to make strides in achieving our recruiting targets.”
What they do: Enova provides online financial services through its AI and machine learning powered lending platform.
Why I joined: “I’m actually a boomerang employee at Enova, meaning I’ve made the decision to work here twice! The first time, in the summer of 2017, my decision to work at Enova was driven by a desire to get back into Fintech after a couple stops in other industries. The second time was right before the pandemic hit the Chicagoland area, and I wanted to get back to a company that could weather that type of storm. I had nothing but good memories and experiences at Enova the first time and knew I would be able to continue my career at a company that would help me grow. The executive team at Enova has proven they can put together a winner and make the needed steps and tough decisions to keep growing and provide job stability. Through the pandemic, Enova maintained its workforce and has been hiring since mid last year. We’ve hired lots of new team members, and I’ve been able to help them grow and watch their careers blossom.”
Favorite perk: I’m writing this about a week before I take off to the Caribbean with my family for a four- week sabbatical so you’d think that would be my favorite perk, but really it’s the Summer Fridays. Every Friday from Memorial Day to Labor Day, everyone can log off at 2 p.m. local time. It is nice having a fridge filled with a multitude of ice cream options and all the soda and fizzy water I can drink, but you can’t beat time off, especially when you have young kids. My children love getting a head start on the weekend, especially since our current hybrid schedule means we can work remotely on Mondays and Fridays. And the best part is how seriously everyone takes it. I’ve seen Senior Managers and Executives telling people to shut down their computer and go home when they see people working past 2 p.m. on a Friday.”
What they do: Life Fitness has been creating fitness solutions that benefit both facilities and exercisers for over 45 years.
Why I joined: “I first became interested in Life Fitness because of my passion for the brand & what it stands for. I’ve stayed because of the growth, learning opportunities and people I’ve worked with during my time here.
“Through the hiring process, the interactions with the people I’d be working with drove my decision to join. The team was collaborative, looking to drive change and become a true finance business partner. Aside from the team, another motivating factor behind staying has been the opportunity for continual growth and learning. There are regular opportunities to be involved in projects, work collaboratively with other functions and have exposure to different levels of leadership. Additionally, the breadth of industry exposure has been a continued draw. Understanding the business goes beyond just following the fitness industry. Life Fitness serves health clubs, hotels, apartment buildings, government and military facilities, consumers and more. Each of these customer bases’ industries have different macroeconomic factors, trends and positioning allowing for continual learning.
“The type of experiences and growth I’ve had would not have been possible at another company in such a short time.”
Coolest recent project: “Over the last 12 to 18 months, every industry has been impacted by commodity cost pressures, supply chain disruptions and price sensitivity in the market. One project I recently worked on was quantifying and understanding the impacts the business was seeing as it relates to product costs, as well as the potential impact of different pricing actions. This project helped me grow professionally as it required extensive cross-functional collaboration and appreciation of the wing-to-wing processes, from raw material purchases to manufacturing inputs and ultimately a customer sale, while evaluating the financial impact to the business. The project was a great learning experience, but the best part was seeing that it had a direct impact on the business and decisions that were made because of my contributions.”
What they do: Supernova Technology provides digital wealth management lending software.
Why I joined: “I joined Supernova a year and a half ago as the first dedicated HR representative. Back then, the company had less than 50 full-time employees, and we have grown to over 80 people today! I joined Supernova because I enjoy a smaller company environment where I can really get my hands dirty, avoid red tape and organizational hierarchy and focus on executing important initiatives.
“I have stayed because I work with the most pleasant and intelligent people I have ever gotten to know. Everyone is extremely responsive, respectful and fun! I also get opportunities that I would never have gotten at a larger corporation. Our leadership trusts our employees to take ideas and run with them and will provide support if needed, no matter how big or small the issue is.
“My day-to-day includes speaking to candidates and answering the question, “Why do you enjoy working at Supernova?” When I am asking someone to make a major life decision by joining our company, I have to stand behind what I’m selling. At Supernova, I am confident that every employee we offer a position to will not regret it because it really is a great place to work.”
Favorite perk: “Supernova works with a professional employer organization (PEO), giving us access to a broad network of competitive perks and benefits. As a company, we are enrolled in their most generous benefits package. This includes educational assistance, multiple medical plan offerings with most premiums being 80 percent covered by Supernova, adoption assistance, 401(k) with an Employer Match and a discount marketplace just for being members of our PEO.
“My favorite perk is definitely the free membership to the awesome gym in our building. I can just pop down for a quick workout anytime I want. We also just rolled out a generous parental leave policy that provides up to 8 weeks of 100 percent paid leave for parents to take within 1 year after the birth or adoption of their child. Additionally, mothers receive up to 6 weeks of paid birth recovery leave.”
What they do: Aprimo is a SaaS solution provider in marketing resource and digital asset management.
Why I joined: “The company culture was the biggest selling point for me. Aprimo offers a forward-thinking and employee-first atmosphere that is based in both collaboration and flexibility. Team members are friendly, intelligent and enthusiastic people who truly believe in and are committed to the product and mission here at Aprimo.
“The unlimited PTO, flexible work schedules and all positions allowing for either entirely remote or hybrid working arrangements create a work-life balance that I hadn’t previously experienced — in fact, in a recent internal employee survey, work-life balance was cited by a overwhelming majority of our employees as one of the key benefits to working at Aprimo. It doesn’t hurt that Aprimo is also a very casual environment that mirrors the Silicon Valley tech atmosphere.”
Coolest project: “I joined Aprimo about five months ago as our senior talent acquisition partner, and I was immediately given the opportunity to evolve some of our recruitment practices. Any changes I suggested were met with open enthusiasm and approval, including ideas to expand our job descriptions, build out the functionality of some of our job boards and add a Built In membership as one of our recruiting tools. I believe this is reflective of Aprimo at large, as employees are given a great deal of freedom in their individual roles, and they can grow quickly and professionally through that level of autonomy. Since Aprimo is a flexible environment that is open to new ideas and suggestions, employees are entrusted to take their roles, make them their own and ultimately leave an immediate impact and a lasting footprint within the organization.”
What they do: Rewards Network is a dining rewards partner supporting restaurant growth.
Why I joined: “The product and the culture. I love working with our clients and helping their restaurants grow by building long lasting relationships with our dining members. Combining that with a culture that cares about their clients and employees is why I continue to be a part of Rewards Network. Most recently, I was able to move to a team lead role, and I know I will have all the support to grow professionally and be successful.”
Favorite perk: “My favorite perk about Rewards Network is all the time an effort put into their employees happiness. Each of us has a voice and can make a difference within the company. There is always an event, lunch, seminar, etc., put in place for us to grow, expand our knowledge or just get together as a company. We have events all throughout the year, whether it be a Cubs game we attend together or zoom trivia about a celebrated month, there is always something fun happening when you are a part of this company.”
