5 Years Later, 5 Reasons Cleartelligence is the Best Place to Work!

It was February 2016 and I was having lunch with one of my old colleagues from my EMC days at a local spot in one of the Massachusetts "boroughs". His name was Ron Keler, a super-talented data/analytics consultant who had started his own consulting firm with a couple friends.

We talked pretty regularly up to that point, but this time I was grappling with a possible career change. Staples (my employer at the time) had just gotten blocked by the government in their attempt to merge with Office Depot. I wasn't sure if I wanted to stick around for the instability to follow.

Ron asked if I thought about being a consultant, which took me by surprise. "Me, a consultant? I'm not sure...", I said. A million thoughts went through my head about work/life balance (I had a 9 month old at the time), travel, hours, etc. Ron assured me that Cleartelligence was different and that they were acutely in-tune to their employees needs around their home lives.

Well, a couple weeks later I met with Ron, Joe, and Anil for one of those (now infamous) legal seafoods lunches and they gave me an offer (a great one too!). It was an agonizing decision with my wife Becca because of our stable co-commuting life (she worked across the street at Bose). Eventually, the Cleartelligence partners' words stuck in my head "if you are going to try consulting, this is the place to do it!". I went for it and became employee #8!

(a pic from the early days!)

5 years and tons of life/career experience later, I can say with 100% confidence that Cleartelligence was the right decision!

Here are 5 reasons I think Cleartelligence is the best place to work.

1) Experience

Over the last 5 years I've seen and worked with data from hundreds of companies (literally!). Not only that, but I've been able to dive deep into industries I had never experienced before and may not have had the opportunity to if I hadn't been here. Working at Cleartelligence has allowed me to grow the breadth and depth of my experience beyond what would have been possible at another company.

2) Autonomy

"The Guys", as I refer to the partners, are all about self-direction and autonomy. There is no micro-management, no clunky hierarchy of management, and no quarterly "goal tracking" activities at Cleartelligence. Of course, the team always has your back if you ever have a problem, but you are trusted to do your job - which seems like a simple idea, but is rare in many corporate roles.

3) Technology

Coming into Cleartelligence I was pretty good at Tableau. I had no idea that I'd get experience way beyond this single tool in my role. Every client has their own data, software, and challenges and that meant I would need to broaden my knowledge quickly and skill-up to execute effectively! Tableau, Alteryx, PostgreSQL, Snowflake - the list goes on and on. The goal is always to specialize deep in one area, but get a broad swath of experience in peripheral tech!

4) Company Culture

I think most of the time when people talk about company culture it's something that you kind-of think "yeah that's the thing in my employee handbook". At Cleartelligence its not written down or handed out when you join, but we definitely have a culture! Some of the top items:

Don't sweat the small stuff

Need a day off - do it! Have a tough schedule because of virtual learning with the kids - No problem! Can't make a meeting because the Nanny leaves before it? You're good!

Things that used to make me think twice at a big company before asking are just not a big deal here!

Help each other

We really do help each other all the time. Either in our slack channel, bi-weekly meetings, client engagements, or personal lives - it is encouraged to reach out and ask for help from the team!

If you want to try something, run with it!

This one is one of my favorite things about this company! If I have an idea and want to bring it fruition, all I need to do is give the team a heads up and I almost always get the green light. This rule has lead to things like our annual Chart Champ event, the Cleartelligence eLearning platform and some of our amazing custom applications.

5) People

The biggest reason for coming to and staying at Cleartelligence has always been the people. I always say that we "don't hire Jerks", which is probably the most true statement I can say about our hiring process. I've helped bring in over a dozen people in my 5 years here and the #1 quality that I look for is personality. Is this person someone I'd want to be on a 10 hour zoom call with? Will they be excited to work and bring a sense of humor to the job? It means alot that "the guys" must unanimously approve of a new hire before bringing them in, and it shows with how our team has been built!

Honestly, joining Cleartelligence has been one of the best decisions of my life and I'm excited to see how we grow in the future! Contact me if you are interested in joining our team!