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I have always worked in small to medium sized companies, so not from a very ‘corporate’ background, but I had never worked in anything like that, of the startup environment. I’m seven months in now and below is what I have found:
What I Haven’t Found
- Defined Roles – while roles are broadly defined, when something has to be done everyone chips in (within reason, I can’t code but I can support on things like testing). What you will never hear at CARAGON is ‘that is not my job’ or ‘I’m too busy’ (statements that don’t sit well with me).
- Massive Salaries – in startup mode, companies just can’t afford to pay them, but what they often have to offer, is share options, which could end up being far more fruitful!
- Endless Policies & Procedures – we have what we need, to do business effectively, but are not drowning in them.
- Meetings About Meetings – in previous jobs, my work life was an eternal cycle of meetings; preparation for meetings, the actual meeting, the lost time from overruns and the meeting actions. With fewer people and a focus on efficiency (time is precious), the process is streamlined and a lot more effective. I feel I have my work/meeting balance just right!
What I Have Found
- Flexibility – freedom is at the core of everything we do at CARAGON and the freedom to have a healthy work life balance is a huge part of that. There is complete flexibility around working hours and location. Our main base is Limerick, but we currently have staff members based in Kildare, South Africa & Canada. I mostly base myself in the office as I enjoy being around the team, but it’s great to know I can choose what works best for me.
- A Real Sense of Team – our co-founders (Garron Mosley & Tony Rudden) have ensured that every hire is a ‘fit’ for CARAGON, which has resulted in a tightly knit team, all working towards shared goals. Of course there is lots of ‘healthy debate’ but we balance that out with being able to have a laugh.
- Opportunity – a small company will give you a lot more exposure to all areas of the business and opportunities to develop. I interviewed a UL Coop student recently who couldn’t believe he would be reporting to the CTO, exposure he would never get in a larger organisation.
- Job Satisfaction – there is great satisfaction in seeing our solutions solve real problems for our partners and it’s exciting to be part of a business that is growing!
My name is Trisha O’Gorman and I’m the Marketing Manager for CARAGON. Based in Limerick, we are a business with a purpose; aiming to ‘facilitate freedom’ for our end users from mundane data tasks with our Data Solutions; CARAGON FLEX – A Data Management Platform and CARAGON DATA – An ETL Service (Extract, Transform & Load). Click here if you want to read more about what we do.
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