CEO for a Day

I have had the chance to meet with WalkMe’s CEO, Dan, twice this summer when he came to visit our New York office. He usually works out of the much larger San Francisco office and also makes trips to visit the office in Tel Aviv. I would have to say that so far Dan is doing an amazing job building WalkMe so far and so I can’t say there is much that I would want to change. I think it is more about what I would want to preserve. WalkMe is a tech rapidly growing tech startup and everyone has heard the tale of a fun tech atmosphere depleting as the company grows larger. I think that it is important to maintain this culture at work. When people are happy and excited to come to work, they produce better results and that’s definitely what you want. Keeping employees excited about the work that their doing is so important and is what made me want to continue this internship over the school year. Everyone at WalkMe is genuinely happy to be there and that is an amazing environment to surround yourself with.

I think one thing that can be improved upon as the company continues to grow, is the internship program. I would not say that I had a negative experience at all, but I was one of the first two interns to ever work in the NY office. As the company becomes more established, there can be a more defined program for the interns, whereas we took a sort of “figure it out as we go” kind of approach. It led to a great experience where I got to talk with and learn from almost everyone in the office, but this does not seem like it will be as feasible if the company continues to grow at such a rate. Overall, I am very thankful for the opportunity and knowledge that I have gained through this experience.

Looking Back

It was a very rewarding experience to be able to continue my internship while still being in school this semester. I think that being a student at the University of Michigan prepares you well to be able to have an internship. Having the opportunity to take a wide variety of classes helps you to be able to handle all kinds of different situations that occur in the work environment. I think one of the skills that I probably used the most were all of the problem solving skills that I have learned through taking computer science classes. Being able to think about a problem and come up with an efficient and effective solution is an important part of computer science and I think that translates well to all different kinds of situations. Sometimes you have to think creatively in order to come up with an idea to solve the particular problem you are having and CS forces you to do that all the time. I think another skill that I used a lot during my time at U of M that prepares you well for an internship is working in groups. There are many times that I was asked to work in a group, whether it be an actual statistics group project where we had to create a survey and analyze our data, or whether it be turning to your neighbors in class to have a discussion, we were always encouraged to work together. Knowing how to work well with others and express your ideas and opinions are also important skills in the workplace and I think I will be able to take these skills with me in the future. Specifically at WalkMe, there are multiple people that work together on a project.. You have the CSM, who talks to customer to make sure we understand their idea and vision, who then relays that idea to the PS member who builds the implementation, who then passes that down to the QA team to make sure what they built works well. It is important that all of these people can work and communicate well with other in order to provide the best product we can for the company. I am incredibly grateful and lucky that I was able to obtain these skills as a student and that I will be able to use them in my future.

Changing Perspectives

I do not think that my perspective on WalkMe has changed since my first blog post. During my bi-weekly video chats with my boss, other people frequently pop their head into the video chat to say hi. A couple weeks ago for Halloween, everyone in the office dressed up in costume. Sung video chatted me that day to show me everyone’s costumes. One of my favorite things about working at a startup company is that the culture still has the ability to stay fun while being in a productive work environment.

Over Thanksgiving break, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend a day back in my NYC office. It was so great to reconnect with everyone that I spent all summer working with. They all greeted me with hugs and were excited to ask about my semester. I ate lunch at the table in the middle of our office and caught up with everyone and chatted about the big Michigan football game that weekend (I was sure we were going to win at that point 😦  ) .

The coolest part about my visit to the office was that there were a ton of new employees that were hired since I left! It was great to see all of the familiar faces but I also got to meet so many new people that have joined our team. Our office was almost twice as full as when I worked there this summer! The New York office has grown so much that we are actually moving offices into a bigger space. I was so happy to see that even though we are expanding, the amazing culture that WalkMe has built was still intact. Tomer took me to view the new office spaced and told me all about the plans for the “egg shaped chairs” that he bought and the basketball game that he was going to put in the corner, seems like not much has changed since my initial impressions!

 

Overcoming Obstacles

I think that a lot of the obstacles that I have faced so far during my internship have to do with working remotely. It was a hard transition from working in the NYC office every day and interacting with my colleagues to working on the projects on my own from school. My job involves testing implementations that someone else has built and so obviously sometimes these projects break. While it is my job to just find the points where the projects aren’t working, sometimes it is a problem that could easily be solved by talking to the project owner a few desks away from me. This has not really inhibited me from doing my job, but makes the process seem a little more disjointed than when I was physically in the office.

Another way in which this has been an obstacle for me is because our WalkMe implementations are built on a variety of different websites. Sometimes it isn’t obvious how the website works or how our product is there to help. Once again, this comes down to not being able to ask the actual builder of the project for some more specific directions.

In order to combat these issues, I have had to become better at communicating with my colleagues, even if it is over Google Hangout Messages. I have come to realize that everyone is so willing to answer questions over message because they would rather have the project tested properly. Since realizing that reaching out over message is not at all awkward, I have been able to obtain answers to questions and work more efficiently even from afar. One of my coworkers even emailed me some extra resources to help me understand the project further and that was a great help! I want to ensure that I am delivering the same quality of work to the company remotely as I was when I was in contact with everyone so learning how to be communicative about difficulties I was having has been really important for me.

Getting to Know Your Colleagues

I have had plenty of mentorship throughout my internship at WalkMe. Before I even began my internship, I received an email from someone within my office that was going to serve as “my buddy”. She told me that I could ask her any questions leading up to my first day and that she was excited to meet me. When I started on my first day, I got lunch with my buddy, the other intern and her buddy along with our Team Lead, Sung. It was great to know that all of these people were already willing to help guide me along the way.

Throughout the beginning of my internship, I was encouraged to ask anyone in our office for help with understanding certain tasks or for clarification when things were unclear. We also had a global meeting via video chat where I was able to meet the other members of our team that were working from other offices. The head of the QA departments in each of the other cities also encouraged us to message them for any advice or help. All my colleagues were really supportive in helping us get our start at WalkMe.

Now that I am continuing this internship remotely from school, it is great to know that I formed these connections back in my NYC office this summer. I have bi-weekly video chat meetings with my Sung. In our meetings we go over tasks that I’ve been working on and Sung always makes sure that I’m not struggling to stay onboard even though I am away from everyone. Sometimes she even does a loop around the office so I can say hi to everyone back in NY! It is great having Sung as my mentor at WalkMe. She is always willing to help me when I am confused about a task and is adamant about keeping me connected to the office. In our last chat, we set up a day that I am home for Thanksgiving break for me to come work from the office for the day and reconnect with all my colleagues!

Initial Impressions

When I first started my internship at WalkMe this summer I didn’t really know what to expect. As I made the trip into NYC and down 5th ave among all of the other New Yorkers making their morning commute, I was worried about what I should be wearing and how my interactions with my new colleagues would go. What I quickly came to learn was that WalkMe’s culture was nothing but inviting and my mentor Sung told the other intern and I that we were more than welcome to wear jeans to work. I was introduced to everyone in the office and was excited to learn that most of them had just graduated from college a few years ago themselves and some office rivalries soon formed (we have some Ohio natives and Notre Dame grads in the office … Go Blue!).

WalkMe also has a large office in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was clear from the start of my internship that communication between the offices was essential to the business. Despite the 7 hour time difference, I was always encouraged to reach out to other members of my team via google hangouts for help with any questions or advice. We held video chat meetings with them on occasion as well so even though we did not physically work together we could still get to know the people that were doing the same work as us.

I am excited that I have the opportunity to continue working for WalkMe this fall remotely. I was nervous about being able to balance the internship with my schoolwork, but my mentor Sung has assured me that I can always let her know if it becomes too overwhelming. So far this has not been an issue and I am enjoying staying connected with my work from this summer.