When a company graduates from ‘startup’ status, what happens to that fun and exciting work environment? Well, if that company is Box, the cloud collaboration platform, the answer is: it only gets better. For this week’s Company Spotlight, we spoke with Recruiting Operations Lead, Jennifer Nguyen about the exciting opportunities and life behind the scenes at Box as well as a recent Readyforce student success story.
Over the past two years, Box has grown from 100 employees to more than 700. Most recently, the company announced massive plans to hire another 300 in advance of a possible 2014 IPO. Despite that tremendous growth, the fun and vibrant startup culture at Box is more than alive and well.
It probably has a lot to do with their vibrant CEO, Aaron Levie.
Known for his wacky energy and exuberant voice, this CEO continues to tweet what’s on his mind and keep folks in all departments at Box smiling, laughing, and on their toes. An example of this dynamic personality? At the 2012 BoxWorks Developer’s conference, Levie thrilled the crowd when he entered the stage “Gangnam Style.” According to Jennifer, what you see in the media is only 10X back at the office. Levie is actively involved in all departments at Box and is keenly interested in hiring the next group of talent.
Box CEO Aaron Levie at boxworks via Twitter
Behind the Scenes
At Box headquarters, the vibe definitely mirrors the CEO’s energy; teams pride themselves on not taking things too seriously, and unicorns, the unofficial mascot, are everywhere. It’s a bright and cheery office that Jennifer describes as ‘super laid back and casual’ but also one where driven people work hard and keep things moving. “It’s a really, really fun environment with amazing people that are SO passionate about Box,” laughs Jennifer. How fun? They have a bright yellow slide that will drop visitors from the first floor to the lobby.
Seriously… a slide!
The yellow slide at Box – photo courtesy of Box.
Hiring the Next 300
As part of its recruiting tools, Box has been using Readyforce to source candidates and interns since our beta launch and was a sponsor of the 2012 Hacker Tour. To date, they’ve successfully recruited students for both intern and full time positions. Awesome talent like Ayush Sobti, CS’12 from Drexel University, who will be joining Box as a Software Development Engineer in July.
A Student Success Story
Ayuush Sobti, CS’12 Drexel University, to join Box.
Ayush, who was fairly far along in the recruiting process with some corporate tech companies, hadn’t really considered looking at startups until he logged onto Readyforce. After connecting with several companies on the platform, he was immediately contacted by Box. It was the enthusiasm and energy from the interviewing team as well as the opportunity to work in web development doing massive amounts of scaling that greatly appealed to him. But with another offer about to explode, Ayush and Box had to connect quickly. A marathon Skype interview, complete with coding challenges, was arranged. Ayush says it was the back and forth collaborative nature of the interview, the noisy background full with people working, that told him this was the right environment for him. He definitely didn’t want to work in a cubicle.
Good thing, because Box doesn’t have ‘em.
Jennifer says that one of the best things that Ayush can look forward to is that the level of enthusiasm felt during the interview actually carries through out the entire company. People at Box are really into Box.
Hiring the Next Teams
Ayush will start at Box as a full-time employee this July and the company is still busy recruiting for full time as well as summer internships. What can interns expect? Well for starters, Box puts a lot of faith in them and doesn’t want people who are happy to sit on the sidelines. They want folks that are going to want jump into coding on the product. For example: two years ago, a summer intern redid their entire mobile site… the entire mobile site.
To source new talent, in addition to using Readyforce, the company recently held a coding competition of its own loosely based on the board game of Risk. The competition is now complete but you can read more about it here.
Perks at Box
What are some of the perks at Box? We have to say, they’re pretty sweet. There are the standard catered lunches and dinners, flexible work schedules, and subsidized gym memberships but then there’s also the fact that Box is a sponsor of the San Francisco Giants. On opening weekend, the entire company bonds at the ballpark by taking in a game in their matching Box t-shirts.
The senior leadership has also prioritized the general well-being of the employees. Nutritionists have been brought in to review snack offerings and management equipped everyone with their own fitbit to help nurture a healthy lifestyle.
For the holidays, the entire staff got iPads minis.
The latest perk to be added is a free shuttle from San Francisco to the Los Altos headquarters. Equipped with Wi-fi, employees can save on commuting time and expenses and get a jump on their workday or catch up with colleagues. If folks don’t need to take the shuttle, they still get a Cal-Train pass.
Not too shabby…
But according to Jennifer, the number one perk at Box is the people. There are very strong teams that work collaboratively and also bond across interests. There are all kinds of sub-interest groups that have sprung up at the company like biking and beer tasting to name just a few. Everyone there likes to have fun and is out of their minds committed to making Box a success.
Do you have what it takes?
Jennifer described the ideal candidates as excited, motivated, hard working, and passionate about Box. “You know your friends that are obsessed with their job and just won’t shut up about it? Those are the people that work at Box.”
So do you have the energy and passion to work at Box? Are you driven and enjoy things a little wacky? Are you a hard core hacker that eats and breathes coding? Then they will probably want to talk to you. Check Box out on Readyforce today and connect with Jennifer. Good luck!
