Last updated at Fri, 15 Oct 2021 16:31:28 GMT
Growth and learning – in any career at any level – are imperative for job satisfaction and company commitment. While it is necessary to have inherent curiosity as well as a desire to grow and achieve, it is also important to work for an organization that encourages and enables this curiosity and development. As an employee-first organization, Rapid7 does its best to support, encourage, and provide resources to employees to ensure they are able to continue progressing in their careers and feel adequately supported in doing so. While the necessary tools for this growth and development vary depending on the role, department, and skillset, these opportunities are never scarce. With the recent launch of our new continuous growth and development planning tool, Moose GPS (Growing, Partnering, Succeeding), we aim to provide all of our Moose and Managers with the tools to facilitate effective feedback and development conversations to achieve the career experience of their lives. However, it is up to all of our moose to be personally accountable and proactively engage to drive their unique journeys!
To further understand how our employees have benefitted from our commitment to supporting career growth and development, we talked with 5 of our Belfast Software Engineers to hear firsthand about how Rapid7 has supported their career growth and learning, why they would recommend Rapid7 as a great place to work, and cool projects they’ve had the opportunity to work on.
How has Rapid7, your managers, and/or your peers supported and encouraged your career growth?
“Since joining Rapid7 as a senior developer I have had amazing interactions with my management team. I was always given support to achieve as much as I could. With this support I was able to progress my career into a leadership role, and was given the opportunity to manage my own team of developers while still being able to build and deliver code myself. I have worked with many amazing people who have provided many different levels of support, which in turn has allowed me to constantly grow my abilities.” - Chris Laughlin
“Rapid7 is defined by its great people. I’ve had people at every level and area in the company positively impact my experience working here. The level of knowledge throughout the company is outstanding. Combining that with the open and friendly culture, I’ve found it really easy to ask for help from anyone, and that has definitely accelerated my growth. In addition to the amazing technical expertise I’ve leaned on, the social experience has been unbelievable. There is a group that I’m part of that meets regularly to practise public speaking. I’ve learned a lot of cool stuff from the people in that group and have also had the chance to work on soft skills in a judgement-free zone. Rapid7 collects the kind of people and culture where groups like that can form and thrive.” - Ralph McTeggart
“Rapid7 and my team have both massively supported my career growth. Starting out as an intern, I was supported the entire time by my team and always had people to turn to when I didn’t understand something. Before returning to University, Rapid7 offered me a graduate position. This allowed me to take on my final year of university without the worry of having to apply for graduate jobs, enabling me to fully focus on my studies. Upon returning to Rapid7 as a graduate, I was able to return to work with my original team so that I could quickly get caught up and start contributing again in no time.” - Erin McAnearney
Why would you recommend Rapid7 as a great place to work and grow in your career?
“Rapid7 is a company that cares about their employees, they want us all to succeed in our careers and be happy in our roles. There are so many opportunities for growth in your career, technical ability, and personal development and Rapid7 is happy to support you. We are given the time to research other technologies and possible solutions to improve our products and services. Employees are praised for their work and rewarded for their contribution in making Rapid7 a success. In addition, I can’t praise Rapid7 enough on how they have successfully handled the Coronavirus pandemic, showing that they care about our well-being and mental health during this crisis.” - Róisín Grimley
“Our culture and our people is what makes working for Rapid7 more than just a job. Even though I started remotely due to Covid-19 and I’m yet to work in the office, I’ve been able to connect with so many people and have truly been made to feel like part of the herd. This makes me even more excited for when we can all get back together.” - Sevvy Yusuf
“I can wholeheartedly recommend Rapid7 to others. I was able to progress my career at the pace that suited me, and was given the needed support along the way. I have also watched so many others grow, either on my team or in the wider company. At Rapid7 there is not one set path; you can choose how and where you progress, which means there is something that fits everyone.” - Chris Laughlin
“Purely from an engineering standpoint, I think the level of autonomy and trust is a great attraction for me. There is very little ego or attachment to technology. This means you not only get to have complete ownership of your services (with support as needed), but that you can use whatever resources and tooling you need to solve the problem at hand. I’ve never worked anywhere with that level of autonomy. It leads to a really great developer experience and provides exposure to all levels and varieties of technology that you’d struggle to find elsewhere.” - Ralph McTeggart
“Rapid7 provides an environment where you feel comfortable to ask questions if you are stuck, but also consistently pushes you out of your comfort zone so that you are always learning and growing. There is a clear vision of progression for each role, and that allows employees like myself to know exactly what areas to focus on to move forward on my career path. There is a constant level of communication between team members that allows each member to feel supported as well as frequent 1-1’s with managers so that any questions employees may have are always addressed and answered. All of these things make you feel respected and valued within your team and Rapid7 as a whole; and where you feel respected and valued, you want to grow.” - Erin McAnearney
Which completed project has been the most impactful/memorable during your time at Rapid7?
“The first initial release of InsightAppSec. This was the first time that I deployed a fully functional product to customers. It was a career milestone, as I was able to justify all the learning and growth I had made. Getting feedback from customers and stakeholders added to the reassurance that I was working on something with great impact.” - Chris Laughlin
“The project I’m currently working on, which is migrating our services to run in Kubernetes. I would say it’s the most impactful one, as it’s improved the performance of our applications and given us more flexibility. It’s also a big one for me, as I’ve had to step out of my comfort zone and learn a lot about infrastructure.” - Sevvy Yusuf
“Recently, a project was started by my team which required a fairly large redesign of an existing part of our product. The new architecture utilised software which was entirely new to our team, and we had to implement it on a fast scale. This was the main area of work I focused on and was definitely the most impactful project I have undertaken. At first, it was difficult to learn the software alongside completing my tasks using it, but it was a massive turning point of growth in my career. Prior to this work, I would have been quite nervous about taking on a number of tasks utilizing a completely new software, but now I wouldn’t think twice about doing it.” - Erin McAnearney
Interested in learning more and joining the herd? Check out our Belfast LinkedIn Life page and our open roles in Belfast today!
