Why startup engineer Erin can’t see herself working anywhere else
“Everyday, you are expected to be as much of a teacher as you are a student. And ultimately that leads us to have a really quick turnaround on improving our code, ourselves as developers, as well as our product.”
Erin Luthern is a full-stack engineer at Tandem, meaning she works on the front and backend of the product, the database, and everything in between. While building out a core team, Tandem has decided to title every engineer “full-stack” so that employees have the opportunity to influence all aspects of the product and grow into other roles organically.
For Erin, having this opportunity was invaluable. She says receiving a job offer from Tandem was a “dream come true;” it checked all of her boxes.
The company is women-led and founded, and focuses on users who are not the first to be served by technology, which is important to her. Tandem aids families, typically women, in finding child care, and workers in the gig economy in finding jobs. “Giving power and voice to those people is powerful for me,” she says. Having a people-centric mission allows a team to work collectively. She notes that “both our team and our product are hugely people-driven. This gives our team something to rally around.”
Aside from the company mission, team culture was largely important to Erin while considering her next role. She describes the team she ultimately joined at Tandem as “hard-working and humble.” On small, growing teams like Tandem that intentionally lack hierarchy, everyone has an equal responsibility to build an open, communicative environment. “Culture is not just a word or a static thing. Our culture is very active participation, we all have to put effort into it,” she notes. At Tandem, Erin discusses how everyone shares common values and characteristics; team members are kind, thoughtful, helpful, and inclusive. “And we’re also silly, and that’s a big part of it (the culture),” she adds.
Equality and inclusion have created an open environment, one where everyone feels as if they can share their ideas, and then can execute them. This autonomy warrants a deep individual responsibility. Erin says, “We collaboratively lean on each other through that pressure to be open-minded, learn, accept mistakes, and do better.” The weight that each employee feels to move Tandem in the direction of success is not only collectively motivating but has created a highly productive, fast-paced environment.
Without the red tape that exists in larger companies, Tandem and other startup employees can create and execute together. Erin says, “There’s something really special about collective ownership of the product. I am fully responsible for the work that I do, and every piece of code I review for my co-workers. We are the safety net for each other. It’s like building a human pyramid; we can’t do anything without depending on each other.”
Tandem looks for candidates who they see fitting on the core team and influencing the company long-term. This means being flexible with specific tech stack experience if the candidate shares company values. “I had never worked in our stack before working at Tandem, but the team is super welcoming and helpful in giving you the tools to help you succeed. I was pushing code my first or second week here,” Erin says. This “learn by experience” approach allowed her to get to where she is today. “Every day I come in and think ‘I am a better developer than I was a week ago, or six weeks ago, or six months ago.’ You can see this on the personal level and in our product,” she says.
Erin reflects on her decision to work at an early-stage startup instead of a larger company. At Tandem, she’s found a team she fully believes in, and one where she’s confident everyone is doing everything in their power to create a robust and scalable product. She notes, “At a large company, I’d be on a very specific team and wouldn’t have a full view of the product or application, and something I love about this is seeing an end to end every piece of the puzzle.” Ultimately, she decided that salary does not equate to the “breath of experience, sense of ownership, and freedom to learn and create” that she has at Tandem.
The Tandem Team is looking to add to the engineering team. Erin says her advice to a prospective candidate is as follows:
“If you have ever looked at a job posting and thought ‘maybe I won’t fit in,’ I can tell you your best bet is at Tandem. We pride ourselves on having a diverse, inclusive environment that encapsulates unique perspectives. To know that this is a number one priority on team Tandem was one thing that sold me.”
