“I’m outside every chance I get.”
My name is Lucia Masarova and I’m a Sr. Data Analyst at HG Insights.
I started interning at HG when I was a student at UCSB taking Technology Management courses. I was speaking with a fellow student during a group project and they introduced me to Craig Harris, the founder of HG Insights. I interned for about six months, and then got a full-time offer and began my career in Data Ops as an Analyst.
HG was my first “real” job and I learned so much during my first year. My team built processes and maintained inputs around the data pipeline to enhance and expand our data. We were a much smaller team back then and we all wore many hats.
But first, a little more about me. I love skiing, hiking, running, and swimming—I’m outside every chance I get. Before working remotely became widespread, I took the opportunity to live in a van for a year, driving around the Western half of the US and Canada. Afterward, I parked in Boise, Idaho and have been here since, picking up new “homey” hobbies like gardening and cooking and jumping back into old ones like reading and playing soccer.
Building a Career
A couple years, and a couple jobs later, I was looking for a change in my career. With serendipitous timing, HG CTO Rob Fox reached out to catch up and see if I’d be interested in joining the recently created CoreIP team. When I talked about my various professional goals and atypical background during the interview process, I was met with excitement about all the ways I could grow at HG.
I had nothing but fond memories of HG and the work sounded awesome—an opportunity to be part of a creative technical team and work in an exploratory environment. Though I wasn’t based in Santa Barbara any longer, they invited me to work remotely.
I quickly learned through speaking to more members of the team that HG had only gotten better since I left. I have to say that with every conversation I had with an HGer, it was very clear how many different efforts there were to put employees and happiness first. It wasn’t just a “bust your ass” then go home role, HG wanted everyone to feel happy, and supported, to “bring themselves to work.” To build a career.
All of this was validated through my onboarding experience. Every time I met someone from a different department or team, we always made a personal connection before diving into work—we were all building a strong community. We were all humans at work, instead of just talking about work all the time.
“HG Goes The Extra Mile”
I’ve worked for a few other companies remotely, and I’ve found HG’s remote environment to be particularly special. We have consistent logistics around Slack communication and broadcasted Town Halls that make it very easy to keep up with company news. And outside of our daily work, HG makes a clear investment in us, and our career, as growing individuals through our Food for Thought program. HG goes the extra mile to make sure that us remote folks feel welcome and included by doing things like sharing UberEats vouchers anytime there is an in-office lunch. It’s all the little things added together that make me feel the flexibility and support of HG every day!
“I already feel that I’ve grown professionally”
In the few months since I’ve rejoined HG, I already feel that I’ve grown professionally.
My first few weeks were spent reacquainting myself with querying and the large HG dataset and learning about what has changed in the last few years.
As more time passed, I jumped into ongoing projects to help the team: exciting projects like Functional Area Intelligence, Contextual Intent data, and Platform 2.0. And now, I’m working on exploratory projects around our data. I’ve gotten to work with quite a few of my team members (all of whom are always so, so happy to help), and take the time to expand my technical skillset as I work.
Between the consistent support, team camaraderie, and exploratory day-to-day work, I am so happy to be back.
That’s why I joined HG. And you should too.
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