Hiring the data analytics dream team, in fits and spurts
Blue Apron is rarely boring, but the past year has been particularly eventful. The Analytics team doubled in size. We went public. Two co-founders left. My team took on demand forecasting during a major restructuring. We got a new CEO. It was a lot.
But through all of these changes, there has been a single constant: the team. Often laughing, rarely crying, but always “in it” together.
Somehow we stuck together through most of these changes — until recently, when the diverging careers and personal goals of the group finally forced us apart. One to Berlin. Two to LA. One to SF. One to another start-up in NYC. And one to travel the world with a fellow coworker, brought together by love, data, and Blue Apron.
It’s an emotional thing, to watch the cohesive whole that I built so carefully splinter apart. On the one hand, I’m incredibly proud that I grew such a high-performing team at all: I had no idea that we would get so big, and so good, so fast. And I’m also proud that our group has incubated talent that is now in high demand from some of the best names in the biz — Netflix, Facebook, Google, Lyft. Most importantly, it’s been gratifying to hear from each departing member of the team, unanimously, that there was one specific thing that they would miss the most about Blue Apron: the team. Knowing that our shared togetherness will be a career-defining experience for them is important to me, because it not only validates my approach to management, but echoes how I feel as well.
Obviously, there’s “the other hand.” With our most recent departure, there will be no one left to walk down memory lane with me, revisiting the carefree days of Crosby Street when happy hours flowed weekly and animated GIFs dominated company emails. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize the company I joined within the company we have become, and jarring to note the difference. In these darker moments, I think of Yeats: the center cannot hold; things fall apart.
I try to move past these moments as quickly as I can, because it’s my job to put things back together. And, appropriately, with these recent vacancies I have been focused on bringing in fresh faces. April may be the cruellest month — but it’s spring.
Typically, when we build a candidate pipeline, we spend months searching for qualified candidates, and come up dry for weeks at a time. Then, unexpectedly, our hard work pays off and we strike gold, hiring several candidates in quick succession. This results in “cohorts” of new hires who onboard at the same time and form a strong bond. Adorably, some of the old timers on the team call themselves “gen 1,” after the iPod. By that logic, we’re about here.
A few weeks ago, we struck gold. In the next 3 weeks, we have 3 incoming hires. I look forward to meeting these new faces, and welcoming them to our ever-expanding network of nerds.
