I had first heard about Movio at the 2015 NZ Hi-Tech Award finalists announcement, so, when I was looking for my next challenge the opportunity to work on internal recruitment as a contractor for Movio was perfect. I joined in late August 2015 to oversee Movio’s latest recruitment drive and this was my first contracting job so naturally I was a little nervous. As always, I did my research prior to starting; I watched the Meet Movio and Our Products videos on YouTube as well as visiting Movio’s website. Inevitably I also did some good old stalking on LinkedIn, who doesn’t right!! Now that I’ve been here for a few months and now as a permanent employee, the last of 16 new employees hired in 2015, I wanted to share a few of my experiences with this great Kiwi tech company and what it’s like to work here.

On my first day, I was made to feel very welcome and I quickly came to realize just how much this team of people loved working at Movio. Everyone is very passionate about what they do and many of the team often get involved in events outside of work like our regular Functional Programming MeetUps.

Movio, like lots of other organisations, actively promotes a cool culture and flat structure but it’s not until you actually start working here that you see its effects in action. It’s great to work with this motivated team who love what they do and collectively care about the future and success of the business. The flat structure is evident immediately as everyone is very approachable. The transparency of the leadership team is shown weekly when CEO Will Palmer gives an update on the business to the whole team across the globe. Anyone is welcome to contribute to inform the team on new features they may have developed, give customer announcements or share a cool company event that’s coming up. A lot of the new starters are surprised at how transparent the business is at these meetings and I too found this approach to be very refreshing. I even had my engagement announced and was delighted/embarrassed to be surprised with a bottle of champagne!

Every Friday we have drinks and nibbles and everyone gathers together for a catch-up. However, at the end of my first week, we had our monthly BBQ, I must admit I was very impressed that it was more than just a sausage sizzle!!

In my second week I learned about the Movio Run Club, and when I was asked if I wanted to join I kindly declined; the only time you would catch me running is if I was chasing Tom Hardy down the street. The foosball table is incredibly popular in our office and gets lots of action throughout every day, emotions are high and competition is fierce therefore I stay as an observer as I’m not a very good foosball player.

Through their digital marketing, Movio has done a great job of introducing the outside world to the company via social media, blogs and videos in the #MeetMovio series. This strong employment branding had meant that it has not been difficult for me to attract candidates, however, the difficulty still lies in finding the right passion and skills set alongside the right fit for the team.

The end of 2015 saw a momentous event occur…. 17 December was a big date in film history with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens but it was also a big day for us as Movio turned five. The celebrations were great fun and gave me a great insight into how Movio has become the company it is today, have a read of this Happy Birthday to us blog to see what went down on the night.

At the end of 2015, I was given an early Christmas present by Movio when I was offered a permanent position as Talent Manager, People & Culture which I have obviously accepted. I am responsible for the day to day running of Movio's talent acquisition globally looking after candidate care and making sure that Movio's environment is fun and dynamic. I like to see myself as an ambassador of happiness.

A lot is happening at Movio and I’m very excited to be part of this journey working with such talented people. I have been lucky enough to be part of Movio during this exciting growth phase and on-boarding a number of new starters including; Testers, Business Development Managers, Data Scientists and Front End / Back End Developers. Just like me, they all have their own story to tell, so we look forward to sharing these with you in the next Meet Movio.