Name: Cory Wilkins
Job Title: Testing Analyst
Staff Superlative: Most likely to be found stuffing his face at a brand-new restaurant.
If I could do anything for a day, I would: I would likely travel to another city and figure out the best way to eat as much of their local cuisine as possible in that day. I feel like the food often embodies the culture of a city, so a great way to get a good gauge of what a city is about is through their food. It's really surprising to find out how and why cities developed certain styles of cooking and the foods that they eat. It's also a great way to strike up conversations with locals as everyone loves talking about food and their favorite places to go (and avoid)!
What do you enjoy most about your job? I enjoy the new challenges that every new project brings. As one of the testers for the site, it is important to learn many aspects of our product so every new project is a great learning experience. Many of our projects are completely different than the last, so every day is something new for us and it's great to see the end results as we help bring new features to our users! The site is much more complex and powerful than I ever imagined, so there are always plenty of new things to learn and test out.
How have you seen SUG organizers change the world? It's quite incredible to see how many people use our site for all sorts of things. Many times, when communities need help or a disaster strikes, SignUpGenius is used to help organize and allow people to focus on what is important in that situation. One thought that comes to mind is how people were able to organize and help with hurricane Harvey relief and volunteers. They were able to easily organize using our site leading to more time to actually help people! It's a really great feeling know that we are able to help people in their times of need.
Of our six core values, which one stands out the most to you? How do you see people in the company embodying it? The core value that stands out the most to me is to "Treat people better than we'd expect to be treated." This is such a great value that we embody internally and externally for our users. We are always looking for great ways to serve others and you can tell everyone here really enjoys doing that. We also make sure to take into consideration our users when building out new features to ensure that we are improving their day to day use of the site.
What's a funny story or favorite memory you have from working at SUG? My favorite story is that of when our newly appointed CFO at the time got the surprise of a lifetime from a pink gorilla dancing for him at his desk. Imagine being new at a job and working away quietly at your desk, only to be viciously danced on by a pink gorilla. I'm sure so many questions were running through his head at that moment. It turns out the dancer was sent by his previous employer as a birthday gift, which made it even better. I'm so happy that the incident was caught on video as we all still get a great laugh from that day every time it is played.
What was your favorite day while working at SUG? My favorite day working at SUG had to be the launch of the new wizard. It was one of the biggest and most rewarding projects since I've been here, and one of the most impactful for our users. That project really represented all of our core values well from striving for simplicity to embracing change to tackle challenges that lead to improvement. It was definitely an all-hands-on-deck project as every department was able to give feedback and help ensure we released an amazing, modern product that our users would love. After everyone's hard work, it was great to see it live and to hear all of the great feedback from people enjoying the update!
We love Cory (and his top-notch food blog)! Want to learn more about our genius team? Check out the About Us page.
