Written by Paula, Frontend Engineer in London and originally from Brazil
It’s only been five months since I joined GetGround and it feels like I’ve been part of this team for years. I’m going to share some highlights and reasons why joining this scaleup with a huge mission has boosted my career already :)
Grab your popcorn and brigadeiro! (Brigadeiro is a delightful Brazilian dessert by the way — trust me, pairing it with popcorn is an experience you won’t regret.)
Firstly, GetGround has consistently demonstrated a commitment to its four values that underpin the culture, and is a genuinely inclusive environment — something that mattered a lot to me when assessing whether it was the right next step for me.
Onboarding: a supportive journey to autonomy
From day one here, I was warmly welcomed by my team and assigned a buddy — a person I could turn to with any questions about GetGround or my role. I had plenty of questions during those first weeks as I navigated through understanding the product, the market, and the engineering processes! I never felt alone; my buddy and team were there every step of the way, providing guidance and support amidst the sea of new information.
Besides being supportive, the entire engineering team encouraged me to pursue excellence (one of our values) from the beginning and be involved in essential tasks to improve our engineering processes. For example, in my first week I recognised an opportunity to enhance documentation regarding the frontend deployment process. I took ownership of this initiative, impacting the onboarding of other engineers who have since joined the team. This constant search for ways to improve, combined with a lot of support, contributes to an energising engineering culture.
First projects: initial impressions
One thing that GetGround has shown me so far is that I’ll never be too in my comfort zone, and that things will change fast. I love this. It doesn’t mean I’ll always be in a rush with more things than I can handle on my plate, but I’ll always have a new challenge to work on. As an engineer, I value that very much because that’s how I’m able to grow.
I’ve been involved in 3 projects so far — below are some take-aways.
Career growth and development are central to this company
From day one, GetGround has demonstrated its commitment to my career growth. You never quite know when you’re interviewing if the company will keep to their promises, let’s be honest. In my regular one-on-one meetings with my manager, I have shown that I’m an ambitious engineer and I’ve been given the opportunity to pursue ambitious stretch goals — such as being the captain of technical whiteboard sessions and getting even more exciting challenges day by day. In just a few months, I’ve learnt lots already and feel that my career is really progressing.
Feedback is very well received and addressed
It’s clear the company genuinely values feedback. At various moments during these first few months, I’ve shared feedback with my manager or skip manager, and I’ve been impressed at how seriously they take my input, and how quickly it is acted upon. The commitment to making things better as quickly as possible is impressive.
Good collaboration between teams
Recently, I have been working on a project really important for us as we scale our product offering (we have huge aims for this year!): to add the ability to onboard existing companies to the GetGround platform. This project required the collaboration of two Dev teams; we managed to deliver the project within a tight timeline, and both teams collaborated, communicated, and supported each other in a productive manner. In our retro meeting, we shared feedback (again) on how to improve our processes. These learnings have already been implemented in new projects. This feedback cycle allows us to iteratively improve our engineering processes, and to learn.
Positive attitude even in hard times
To me, personally, maintaining a positive attitude at work is very important as it fosters good relationships between colleagues. That is the case here daily; our environment is positive, fun, and optimistic, even when we have a tight timeline or pressure to make things work, or when the requirements are not yet defined. We find a way to find the answers together as a team, always keeping a healthy ego.
GG Live: fostering our culture and inspiring people
My favourite event since joining has to have been GetGround Live 2024 (check out the highlights video — scroll half way down the page). GetGround Live is an exciting two-day annual company offsite in London where we focus on connecting with our 90+ colleagues, company values and future challenges.
The theme for this year was Experimentation; we heard from inspirational startup leaders who had scaled companies like Uber at an early stage about how to experiment and iterate on ideas. We also had plenty of sessions and activities to focus on our values, as well as bonding with one another. Super fun!
During and after this event, I felt really refreshed, inspired and prepared to take on our challenges for 2024.
GGBL: embracing authenticity and diversity
GGBLs (GetGround Breakfast and Learns) are a weekly event intended for people to share with others things they are interested in (it doesn’t need to be technical). My favourite so far were about Unconscious Gender Biases (for Women’s International Day) and Black History Month. Both are super important topics to me personally, and I appreciate that we invest time in our community.
I had the opportunity to host a GGBL and share my passion for fashion and sewing! It felt special connecting with my colleagues on a personal level and showcase my authentic self — GetGround genuinely embraces individuality.
Given everything I’ve experienced and learnt in my first five months having moved my life from Portugal to London, I’m so happy to be part of such an amazing team and I look forward to all the adventures I’m going to have as a GetGrounder :)
If you’re curious about what it’s like to work at GetGround or have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via LinkedIn. And if you’re interested in joining our team, check out our open roles here!
