Innovators

In this episode, we chatted with Inga Jonsdottir, Engineering Manager at Wealthsimple, about all things front-end. Inga shares her experience of being a female software engineer and what a day in the life of a front-end developer is like. From personal anecdotes, she stresses the importance of a healthy work-life balance to avoid burnout and sets this example as a manager. She advises job candidates wanting to break into fintech to become life-long learners and to keep an open mind. Her employer, Wealthsimple, is an investment platform trusted by over 2.5 million Canadians. Their total assets under administration are worth a whopping $18B Canadian dollars with a North American workforce of over 1000 employees.

In this episode, we got to dive in deep with Aurelie Guerierri, Chief Marketing Officer of DataDome, a leader in online fraud and bot protection with 250+ enterprise customers worldwide, including Reddit, Patreon, and AngelList. Aurelie discusses her passion for scaling business innovation, the future of cybersecurity, and what makes a successful company culture – especially in today’s remote work environment. 

Link to DataDome: datadome.co

In this episode, Ezra Parnall, Head of Operations, at Lumen5, opens up about company pay structures and discusses why they believe it’s important for companies to be transparent about wages to close the wage gap. Lumen5 is fully committed to Equal Pay. They pledged themselves with Unbounce’s Pay Up For Progress initiative back in 2020, along with companies like Bench, Klue, Thinkific, Clio, and Hootsuite. Lumen5 was recently recognized as a top 3 finalist for Culture of the Year in BC Tech’s Technology Impact Awards for the second year in a row, and has been repeatedly recognized for being one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada.

Link to Lumen5: lumen5.com

In this episode, Justin Laufer, Senior Product Manager of Cloud Services at WestJet, chats with us about innovating at one of Canada’s largest airline companies. He explains how the airline industry struggled during the pandemic, and how WestJet bounced back through adapting to a changing world and trends in technology that prioritized safety and reliability. Justin also provides insight on what it’s like to apply for leadership positions at WestJet and if higher education is necessary on a resume. The WestJet group of companies offers scheduled services to more than 100 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe.

Link: www.westjet.com

In this episode, Kevin Mueller, Director of Program Management at Hootsuite, discusses his personal journey in tech, how large versus small companies approach innovation and current changes he’s seeing in product, sales and marketing. Kevin provides sage career advice for job candidates struggling to find the right career path and when is the best time in someone’s startup career to transition to a more large scale organization. Hootsuite is a Vancouver based social media media management company whose social insights, employee advocacy, and social customer care empowers organizations to strategically grow their brands, businesses, and customer relationships with social media.

Link to Hootsuite: hootsuite.com

In this episode we got to chat with Maricar Traballo, Employer Relations & Partnership Manager, and Meri Ghazaryan, Senior Manager of Employer Partnerships at Lighthouse Labs about their bootcamp programs that they offer job candidates seeking to upgrade their skills or switch careers. Lighthouse Labs is a Canadian-based tech education company specializing in data science, web development and cyber security, making online education accessible from anywhere. They have equipped over 40,000 Canadians with the tools to thrive in the future of work through hands-on tech education and projects. They provide career services for life as a guarantee to their graduates and help to secure placements for them with their vast network of employers. Maricar and Meri also discussed what it’s like working at Lighthouse Labs and the different ways they support their remote team with unlimited sick days, extra hours off in summer and winter and a learning fund to promote professional development.

Link to Lighthouse Labs: www.lighthouselabs.ca

In this episode, Shelly Bardai, Associate Partner at IBM Consulting, opens up about supporting women in tech and leadership roles, the barriers they face, and solutions on how to retain them in these roles. Shelly also shares her thoughts on major industries adapting and changing to meet diversity, inclusion and equity, and provides tips for job candidates on applying for roles at IBM. IBM iX, an arm of IBM Consulting, is a hybrid digital agency and consultancy that works at the intersection of progressive strategy, creative vision and transformational technology to tackle the biggest business challenges.

Link to IBM: www.ibm.com

In this episode, we got to chat with Peloton Technologies co-founder and CEO, Craig Attiwill, about his mission to disrupt the payment technology industry in Canada by streamlining the payments process for businesses of all sizes. Craig discusses his thoughts on where the fintech industry is going and encourages job candidates interested in the industry to reach out, with an emphasis on software development. In less than one year, their team has tripled in size and raised more than a million dollars in capital of which a portion was through equity crowdfunding.

Link to Peloton Technologies: https://peloton-technologies.com/

In this episode, we got to chat with Chris Taylor, CHRO at Best Buy Canada about building a career with one of the largest tech retailers in North America. Chris opens up about the mission and values of Best Buy and their transformation during the pandemic and vision for the future. He also talks about what it’s like to work at Best Buy and how to succeed as a job candidate. With more than 160 retail stores and 10,000 employees from coast-to-coast, Best Buy has been named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for the last 5 years.

Link to Best Buy Canada: www.bestbuy.ca

In this episode, Adrian Moise PhD, CEO and Founder of Aequilibrium, discusses his career journey from Microsoft and Electronic Arts to founding his own software company in Vancouver, BC. He shares his passion for digital transformation, giving his take on the opportunities of the Metaverse and the workforce of the future. Adrian also shares some of the challenges of hiring remotely and tips on how to apply to Aequilibrium. Aequilibrium is one of the Top 5 Digital Agencies in BC, providing technology consulting and implementation services. They have won multiple Vancouver UX awards for digital product design, and have been voted twice among the Top 5 Companies to work for.

Link: https://aequilibrium.com/

In this episode, Brianna Blaney, CEO & Co-Founder of Pocketed, shares her startup journey on how she created a platform to get much-needed funding into the hands of businesses and employees. Named a 30 Under 30 by BC Business in 2018, Brianna is not new to founding startups. To secure your dream job, she suggests identifying a grant your potential employer could use to subsidize your salary. Talk about a compelling value proposition! Pocketed’s platform unlocks billions of dollars in grant funding & tax credits for startups & small businesses across North America.    

Link to Pocketed: hellopocketed.io

In this episode, Shams Albayati, Director of People and Culture at Owl.co, discusses their ambitious mission to combat the insurance industry’s $80 billion fraud problem. She explains what it’s like working at a startup in its pre-seed, seed, A, B stage and shares her thoughts on how to find a dream company to work for. Founded in only 2018, Owl recently raised $30 million USD in Series-B funding and quadrupled in staff in only 8 months!

Link to Owl: owl.co

In this episode, Ilya Brotzky, founder and CEO of VanHack, opens up about what led him to founding a network of the world’s top software engineering, design, and digital marketing talent. Ilya started his career co-founding startups in Brazil before returning to Canada and realizing that he could help solve the issue of a lack of tech talent in BC. He discusses the benefits of hiring remotely and provided his top 3 tips for standing out as a job candidate. With close to 400,000+ developers from over 120 countries, VanHack is the largest diverse workforce specialized in helping companies hire tech talent fast.

Link to VanHack: vanhack.com

In this episode, Jonathan Watson, CTO at Clio, shares his journey through the tech industry to find his passion in legaltech. Previously a Director of Engineering at Zynga and Shopify, Jonathan has discovered the very meaningful impact legaltech has on people's lives through his work at Clio. Jonathan talks about the importance of having boundaries between work and personal life, and encourages anyone to apply to Clio regardless of knowledge of legaltech or of Clio’s stack. Clio is a leader in cloud-based legal technology offering practice management, CRM and client intake software that recently achieved centaur status. They aim to be a 100-year enduring company.

Link to Clio: Clio.com

 In this episode, Erica Rizzo, Director of People and Culture at Metafy, opens up about the joys of working at a rapidly growing 100% remote e-learning startup. Erica discusses how they’re navigating company culture with a global team, how they don’t believe in location based salaries and shares her own personal journey of getting hired at Metafy while being an expectant mother. She also provides tips on how to be the ideal candidate for their expanding operations in Canada. Founded in August of 2020, Metafy raised an impressive $25 million dollar series A in 2022, led by Tiger Global and Seven Seven Six.

Link to Metafy: metafy.gg

In this episode, Andrew Donaher, VP of Consulting at CGI, talks about exciting tech industry changes, the differences between data and AI, and CGI’s commitment to sustainability. He also reveals who the most important person in the room is these days and the story behind his personal motto of community, curiosity and courage. Andrew also shares his personal insights for job candidates, who may be looking to pursue their passion at CGI. With 84,000 consultants and professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. CGI also collaborates with the European Space Agency, supporting its satellite missions.

Link to CGI:
www.cgi.com