Here at iManage, we prioritize the growth and development of our employees, with the ability to own your career path. By joining our team, you will continue to make new discoveries about yourself and gain new experiences in your day-to-day work. This is why we place great emphasis on promoting internal mobility, as we recognize that not every career path is linear.
As an employee of iManage, internal mobility represents a way to grow your personal and professional skills, be challenged on a daily basis, and work for a company that’s fully invested in your career development. It’s about realizing that the skills you are building within iManage are invaluable, and that there are many routes you can take as you continue to #MakeItMeanSomething in our business.
Our CEO Neil Araujo attributes his success in part to his own journey of internal mobility at iManage: "Many people don’t know that I have held a number of positions across the organization in nearly every department. Some of these roles were my idea, but other times I was presented with the opportunity to try a new role that I accepted with a certain level of skepticism and worry. But in hindsight, I can confidently say that I would not be as effective a leader as I am today without having had these growth opportunities.”
To speak more to our internal mobility process, we sat down with Justin Graham, Support Engineer turned Software Engineer, and Randy Darling, Director of Quality Engineering, to learn more about Justin’s career growth and experience changing teams, as well as advice for pursuing a new career path within iManage.
Justin was initially hired on our Customer Support team, where he worked for just over four years supporting our cloud customers and products. Throughout his tenure in Customer Support, Justin was developing his Python skills and product knowledge along with learning to manage complex customer escalations—all skills that would later translate seamlessly into our Engineering team under Randy.
Justin, what motivated you to start exploring other opportunities within iManage?
Justin: I was getting to work on a variety of projects within the Support team and learning many new things – one of which was coding. I was curating scripts in Python & PowerShell to fill gaps that our applications did not otherwise provide for our customers. It was cool to manipulate the APIs with this script and not have to go to Engineering for enhancement requests. Eventually, the team came to me to make scripts, and I turned into ‘that guy’ within Support. I started to see that I wanted to do what I enjoyed 100% of my time.
How did you find out about and apply for this position?
Justin: I applied for the position through our internal job board, and a member of our Talent Acquisition team (thank you, Libbey!) followed up with me directly to take me through more of an informal interview. The conversations were laid back, and afterward, Libbey helped me to get in touch with the right team and through the right process.
Tell us about the internal transfer and interview process you went through.
Justin: I had a very strong relationship with my Customer Support managers. It was a fairly laid-back conversation, but of course I was initially nervous to tell them I was interested in a new team and new opportunity. However, my team made me feel so comfortable, and I realized we had become great friends during our time working together. It was great to have their support as I navigated the internal process.
As for the interview, I felt relaxed. I knew that we had common experiences from working in the same company, and this helped me to have the confidence I needed. I knew there were some learning opportunities to ensure I would be successful transitioning into a Software Engineer role, and Randy helped to guide me through the data structure courses and coding tests to get there.
Randy, what qualities do you feel made Justin a fit for the Software Engineer position on the team?
Randy: Because Justin has had to handle support issues, he understands how important it is to deliver quality software. I did not have to explain why we needed to test our code and take extra steps. There is a different, valuable perspective Justin brought because of his experience. He’s got an analytical mindset, and he’s looking at the tools we can use not only to figure out the problem but also what might happen if the problem isn’t fixed.
From your perspective Justin, what are you enjoying most about your new position as a Software Engineer?
Justin: The team is awesome, and it’s a relaxed environment. Even in stressful situations that arise when dealing with an enterprise application being used in the real world – you know you are all in it to solve a problem together. Every day I am learning, but I’m still able to do some of the troubleshooting components in my position. I get to be more proactive in anticipating issues and solving them before they reach our customers.
After going through this experience, what advice would you give someone looking to change career paths?
Justin: You should do it. A lot of people may hold back, being shy and scared, as there is a social aspect to it. You may be afraid to get turned down, but go into it knowing that you should care about your career and you should put your focus somewhere you want to grow. Even if you do not think you’re ready or are nervous about the outcome, do it. Take the feedback. Go forward with your passion. I am coming from an environment in Support where I was being ramped up and learning so much. It helped me to learn the product, technology, and how to do the job. This foundation propelled my growth and is the reason why I was ready to make the move into Engineering.
Randy: Find what you want to work on, the right fit, and what you enjoy working with – that is where you will add value. Reach out to the team or the product you are interested in. Find out what it might take to work in that role, and what you can work on to start getting part-time exposure to the group, the people, the work. You can always start by testing and learning a product and gradually grow into a bigger role. If you keep working hard, you will continue to get more work and new opportunities.
At iManage, we encourage you to continue building your networks within the business, and we strive to provide you with the proper tools to own your career path. We fully instill our value of “Hunger to Learn” in our daily lives and aim to reward professional growth with internal mobility. If iManage sounds like a place for you, please be sure to visit our careers page at: imanage.com/careers.
About the author
Shruti Bernardi