Andrew Click-Horn is our versatile software engineer, whose philosophy on flexibility extends beyond the realm of coding and into his personal life. Andrew is a full stack engineer who focuses on frontend architecture here at runZero, AKA a lot of the stuff that the user won’t see but it will directly affect their experience. When Andrew isn’t coding and collaborating with coworkers he’s hanging out at home with his family and two cats! He likes to play video games and has a big backlog of original 2002 Xbox games. He’s chipping away at the list and of course, adding more games along the way. He also enjoys going on nature walks with his son and photography.
Read on to learn more about Andrew’s experience at runZero and his secret to success!
Q&A #
â–ş What do you love most about your job?
I love being able to improve the user experience and it’s important to me that the user has a good time with the product. I try to understand a user’s “why”, what outcomes they’re trying to achieve, and how their life can be made easier by improving that. It’s pleasing to hear when people not only use your product but also enjoy using it!
On that same subject, sometimes you get negative feedback, and that’s nice too because it starts a feedback loop. You listen to the user’s issues, work to improve them, and then hopefully you get more feedback saying, “Wow, that’s great! Thanks for actually listening.” It’s really easy to enjoy this process when collaboration is explicitly encouraged by management. In our discussions, we bring up different decision points and chat about the pros and cons. It’s a healthy dialogue and everybody is really good at providing positive or negative feedback when necessary. We assume good intentions and it’s a super positive environment.
â–ş What makes runZero different from other organizations that you've worked at?
I’ve worked at places where management was extremely toxic or I was kind of siloed, just working on my own thing. Whereas at runZero, I feel that management at every level is super mindful of the employees. Whether that be our needs as employees, understanding the importance of employer retention, making sure we feel like the work we do is appreciated, or just generally driving innovation forward and encouraging collaboration, they take care of our crew. Going back to the C word there. Collaboration.
Honestly, the remote aspect can be a little challenging at times but I feel like our meetings here are more productive because folks are mindful to be detail-oriented and take feedback in stride. That’s necessary. When you’re in an in-person environment, I feel like it’s a lot easier to hold things back or not bring them up ever because “you’ll figure it out eventually”. A lot of our collaboration comes down to Zoom meetings or Slack messages and it works out well. In an office, it was really easy to get carried away with talking to multiple people about whatever is in the news or what have you and take up tons of time talking. Whereas with the kind of asynchronous communication that we have or even over Zoom, it’s a lot easier to pare it down and be really intentional about what you’re saying and doing.
â–ş What do you think is the most important skill that a successful professional needs to have?
Hands down, it’s being flexible. Every successful person that I’ve met, or known, has been able to roll with punches, learn new skills, and take feedback in stride. I can’t think of any reason why somebody should not strive to be flexible. If you’re able to learn a new and necessary skill for work or you’re able to shift into a position that you might not like - you grow as a person. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone may feel uncomfortable at first, but with time, maybe you’ll learn to like it. I feel when someone’s inflexible, unwilling to learn, or unwilling to improve, they will miss opportunities to grow and won’t be successful.
â–ş What was the last show you watched?
It’s hard to remember exactly which show I watched last since I have a two-year-old. It was probably either Blues Clues, Cars on the Road, or Miss Rachel.
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