Matthew started at AnaVation in 2017 as an intern in AnaVation’s first ever internship program. He began working full-time as a software developer in August of 2018.

While working at AnaVation, Matthew has acted as a Product Owner for the internship program as well as internship co-lead. In each role he has taken, AnaVation has offered him many different options to expand his skillset or offered to move him to new projects if he expressed a want to try something new. “AnaVation has always had my best interest in mind when placing me on projects and has shown a clear want to feed my interest in challenging myself.” Matthew’s supervisors have been a resource on workplace professionalism and the unspoken rules of contracted work.

Matthew says there are several skills he has learned during his work. “I entirely learned frontend development and design while working at AnaVation… [and] I heavily increased my cloud knowledge,” he said.

Events Matthew has attended include online poker, holiday parties, picnics, and quarterly meetings. His biggest memories come from AnaVation’s holiday parties, where he most enjoyed taking fun photos with co-workers and spending time in the party environment.

Matthew also enjoys AnaVation’s flex hours, which have allowed him to have a comfortable work/life balance. “[Flex hours] let me take time off if needed without questions as long as the time is made up for. This allows me to have time off for: personal events I want to attend, vacations, sickness, or just the need for a mental health break,” he said.

Matthew appreciates his fellow AnaVators too. He feels like helpful is the best way to describe them. “I’ve never felt like I’m inconveniencing anyone asking for help with things or for information on a subject,” he said. “It also feels like more folks want to be involved across the board, very nice as the person running the intern program to be able to have an abundance of volunteers for mentoring/other roles,” Matthew added.

Matthew appreciates AnaVation investment in him. “AnaVation has treated me super well in my early career and supported my growth from a CIS major (business major with limited coding skills) into a fully-fledged developer with stronger technical skills and [created] an environment where I am allowed to try new things/challenge my skillset to become a better dev.”