How would you describe your role?
My role is to help the company scale, build systems and processes, and bring good people in the door. I’m an extrovert and I like getting in front of people, telling my story, and sharing what we have going on here and why we’re an awesome place to join.
What is your team like?
Matt, our Director of Talent Management, and I really offset each other because he’s really good on the backend stuff, like the data analytics, where I’m more the recruiter, the people person. We’re a small team, but we’re part of the Admin department and we partner with HR on a variety of things. I’ve been given a lot of autonomy and creative freedom to be able to build what I want to come to fruition in the long term.
What part of Ridgeline’s mission do you connect with?
We have a really unique mission and I connect with so many parts of it. Everything that I touch has a direct correlation with our customer because the people we bring into the organization have a direct impact on helping our customers do what they do. So I make it a top priority to ensure that we’re bring in the right people to help our customer succeed in their mission and help Ridgeline meet its organizational goals.
Also, one of the things I think Ridgeline does really well is make our company a space to bridge the gap for people transitioning out of the military or US Security mission backgrounds and the corporate world.
What has been your biggest accomplishment at Ridgeline?
Having the company double in size, finding awesome people. When I joined, there were just about 100 employees and now we’re teetering in the 200 range. That’s a lot for a small team of two recruiters. And we’re not doing volume hiring either. These are very well-thought-out hires. Also, I’m proud of helping to put systems like our applicant tracking system in place and managing them. It’s helping us become better at attracting top people.
How have you grown professionally at Ridgeline?
A lot of my growth has been because of my boss, Matt. He has a completely different skill set than I do, so I’m learning a lot from him about things I don’t do on a regular basis. I’m a lifelong learner, so I seek out chances to learn something new, and then Matt is helping me get more experience in things like compensation and seeing how we put our structured compensation plan in place.
What resources have you taken advantage of at Ridgeline?
There’s a huge opportunity for mentorship here because people do such different things across the company. I love immersion, so I can sit down with anyone and ask them what they’re doing or just pick their brain. I’ve also used our training allowance for conferences, and I’ve used every penny of our clothing allowance. It’s one of my favorite benefits.
What makes Ridgeline unique?
Our benefits are different than a lot of other companies, like the clothing allowance, training allowance, self-managed PTO, those things are awesome. But it’s also the work. You’ll work on interesting, meaningful things. And it’s the culture too. We’re a social company. We do things together. We have monthly offsite events. Our birthday party – we have a straight-up banger to celebrate Ridgeline’s birthday. I think it’s the people who drive the culture and we’re at a place where you’re doing something awesome and working with a great team that’s collaborative with you.