To share the stories of the CareerBuilder employees who are hard at work #BuildingForYou, we continue our employee feature series, from celebrating individuality and lending personal experience to their insight on industry trends and everything in between.
Meet Jay Smith, a Senior Product Manager in our Atlanta office. Jay joined CareerBuilder in 2005 and spent well over a decade with the company before taking a brief break. Ultimately, his passion for data science - and his former colleagues - brought him back to the team. This makes Jay a member of one of our favorite groups at CareerBuilder - the boomerangs! Jay has worked across many different CareerBuilder groups, from starting as a customer service representative to now enabling its digital footprint, and is a perfect example of how a collaborative culture is essential for any company.
Keep reading to learn more about Jay and why his latest read has prepared him well if he ever finds himself hitchhiking through space!
What do you enjoy most about working at CareerBuilder?
It has always been about the people and company culture at CareerBuilder. Starting with my first stint, I made lifelong friends here, and that's beginning to seem like a rare commodity in the era of job-hopping and gig work.
What is the coolest thing you are currently working on?
I've always been a data nerd and focused on data-based development, so working within that field has been the best. I've collaborated with our data and engineering teams to support the expansion and global reach of CareerBuilder's job postings via search engines. I picked up valuable skills in this capacity and learned the ins-and-outs of several search engines' to become technically sound enough to be dangerous.
Why did you return to CareerBuilder?
When I left CareerBuilder, I had been with the company for over a decade; I was ready for a change. During the time away, I worked with a couple of former CareerBuilder team members on various startup projects and realized what made my time at CareerBuilder so valuable was the people I worked with. So, because of those people, who also talked me into returning, I came back. I truly missed being here, and it was great to come back during such a positive time in the company's development.
What was your first job, and what were your biggest takeaways from the experience?
I got my first job at an advertising agency as a web developer back when websites were just "a pretty neat idea." The agency thought the internet might eventually be a big deal and took a gamble by pivoting away from print media. This pivot proved successful because it is now one of the top interactive marketing firms in the country. Lessons learned: you can accomplish amazing things with an agile, closely-knit team, and, sometimes, taking risks on unproven technology pays off!
What is the last book you read?
“Mostly Harmless" by Douglas Adams
