From Roam to Home

By: Saman Arif, Associate DevOps Engineer

When I think of a dream job, I don’t think of a work environment like the TV show “Cheers” where everyone knows your name, nor do I think of having an office with a door or a job where the work is always easy. To me, a dream job is where the feeling of work doesn’t follow me home at the end of the day; it’s being on an awesome team and in a place that helps me grow both professionally and personally. Not to sound too cliché, but I have definitely found that place at Veeva.

I started my career at Veeva Systems in August 2019 by relocating from my home in Windsor to Toronto and starting at a company where I didn’t know yet anyone who worked there (unlike at my previous job). My first week at Veeva really defined how the rest of my tenure here would play out. Onboarding was incredibly organized and HR was friendly. After the first day, I knew that this job, at the very least, wasn’t going to be stressful from a work culture standpoint. It was a good feeling knowing that I wouldn’t be bringing home any stress from work. Now more than ever, I think it’s important to have a good work-life balance — having a job that you look forward to rather than stressing out about is a big part of that. As a recent university graduate, I’m also a member of Veeva’s Engineering Development Program, which helps integrate new university graduates into their careers. The program is awesome and has loads of extra help to help you start your career. This is one of the reasons why the onboarding process was seamless as well.

Trivia Night

The Toronto office and its culture — or rather, how seamlessly I was integrated into it — was a bit of a shock to me. Usually, when you start a new career, it takes a while for you to adopt a routine (at least, it was that way for me at IBM), but right away I could tell that this wasn’t going to be an issue at Veeva. I should point out that it probably depends which team you’re on and who you work closely with, but Veeva’s culture certainly helps. On my first day, my coworkers left a note on my desk welcoming me to the office — a small, but awesome, gesture to make me feel comfortable. Whenever I went to grab coffee or a snack from the kitchen, there was always someone from another team doing the same, usually with a smile on their face. When I traveled to California to visit HQ, it was much of the same culture, but on a larger scale. It was nice to see consistency across multiple locations.

All of these great attributes have been a big benefit in the past 12 months. In no uncertain terms, COVID-19 has changed life for all of us. I don’t need to ramble on about how important it is to be able to work from home and maintain a healthy balance throughout the pandemic. I feel incredibly lucky to be working at Veeva throughout all of this. I haven’t missed one day of work and I couldn’t be happier (as far as my work life goes). Being able to work from home has allowed me to dedicate more time to my home life, especially during these abnormal circumstances. Veeva allowed us to work from home quickly, and as a result, I was able to quickly adopt a routine. IT provided me with the home office equipment and support I needed in order to make working remotely go as smoothly as it could in all this madness. I have to say, given all of the negative experiences I could’ve had as a result of the pandemic, Veeva has ensured a positive work environment, even while working from home.

Home office setup

All in all, it’s already been a wild ride for me at Veeva and it’s only been 17 months. I’ve already visited three new states (as a Canadian, this is a big deal for me), I’ve made some awesome friends on and off my engineering team, I’ve gotten recognition for work, I’ve been absolutely pampered with work-from-home perks, and I’ve been able to focus on my personal life by not being burdened by the stress of work. I can’t wait to see what the future holds and I’m looking forward to growing with Veeva.

… Did I mention that Veeva also paid for my gym membership?

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Veeva.