Sprout Social’s engineering culture
When I first heard about Sprout Social, it was a return to my passions—people and social technology. I was thrilled to join the team last summer, with an engineering squad that was nearly half women and an engineering culture that rallied around learning and growth.
In my first weeks
I found the motivation and strength of the team to be evenly matched by its humility. I was encouraged to ask questions publicly and honestly, to admit knowledge gaps without judgment, and to reach out to anyone at any level. Moments that could have been special database intimidating became genuine learning opportunities and my confidence grew alongside my technical skills.
An exciting early project
was our partnership with TikTok.
integrating the viral platform as a new social network in our suite. Designs and technical documents evolved into TikTok.
posts popping up in our message and calendar tools, and the effort that came between was fluid and impressive. For me.
there real-time data monitoring was plenty to learn—our designs dipped into less familiar waters, from webhooks and asynchronous processing b2b phone list patterns to data model compatibility.
Working closely with other engineers and designers (and syncing often with TikTok) I became friendly with these concepts and many more. By the time we went live.
it was clear we took both our wins and losses as a team, and I found that to be true even outside of engineering.
Finding solidarity through Community Resource Groups
In our hybrid work world, I searched for spaces to build connections and relationships. Knowing the power and bond of minority communities, I joined two of our community resource groups almost immediately: Underrepresented Genders in Tech@Sprout (UGIT) & Asians@Sprout.
In our organized Slack channels and meetings, real and authentic conversations bloomed. Members in each community supported each other through both work and personal issues. Each group had at least a handful of fearless members.
driving vulnerability and honesty through even the most difficult of topics: from work-related themes like burnout or promotion advice to more .
emotional fronts like mental health.
Even painfully relevant issues like pandemic-spurred
Asian hate crimes or political threats to women’s rights were discussed and grieved in the open. It was a breath of fresh air. In a mostly virtual environment.
these communities had carved out a safe space to .
be unapologetically yourself, and the relief that came with it was evident.
I found the effects on my comfort and .
confidence to be far reaching, extending past our gatherings to my every day work.