As a Frontend Software Engineer, Kaitlyn’s impact at Recharge is probably one you’ve encountered as a user. If you aren’t familiar with this line of work, Kaitlyn has helped code some of the product features you see in Recharge’s frontend experience.
Beyond her impressive work in software development, she’s also one of the leaders of Women @ Recharge Employee Resource Group (ERG). We sat down with Kaitlyn to chat about her experience here at Recharge and her thoughts on being a part of this ERG.
Tell me about yourself and your experience at Recharge.
I joined in August ‘22 and it’s been kind of a wild ride so far. There’s been a lot of change but it’s been pretty fun. I’ve also been in jobs before where nothing changes and it’s nice to have some variety, see some growth, and be able to be along for that ride. It’s been cool to be a part of launching the products and plans and see the fruits of our labor go out to our merchants.
I also love being able to chat about merchant feedback. It really feels like that full circle moment when something I’ve worked on launches and people are happy with it.
What’s something you’re working on right now?
Something I’m working on at Recharge is a feature so people can have dynamically priced subscriptions. So say they want to have a free trial or have something 50 percent off for the first two orders, and then go back to the regular subscription discount, for example. That’s been really fun to kind of tweak the way that things work and add a little extra feature set for people that need more flexibility.
What’s your favorite part about working at Recharge?
I think I touched on it a little bit already, but just how you never get bored. There’s always something fresh coming in, and I think the collaboration is really good, too. I really enjoy my team, I love getting to brainstorm with them and talk code–especially in a remote work environment.
What sort of advice would you give to somebody new to the company or industry?
Probably get comfortable being uncomfortable, because things are going to keep changing and moving and growing really quickly. You’re not always going to have all the answers and you have to kind of be okay with that, and be willing to turn into the fly on the wall and be able to find those answers.
Can you tell me about why you joined the Women @ Recharge ERG and what your experience has been like?
I saw that there was an opening for a lead and I thought it would be, number one, a really cool way to meet people across more teams in the company, because I’m pretty siloed to the engineering team. We don’t always get much of a chance to interact with other people and see what’s going on in other parts of the company and just get to know people on different teams. Secondly, I thought it would be really cool to as a woman in engineering, bring some perspective and make us a little more visible.
There’s not a ton of us who are actually doing the coding work on the team, so to be able to be an advocate for the women in engineering was a cool opportunity.
So far, everybody’s been great to work with. It’s been really nice to flex my project planning muscles that I haven’t used in a while, because I used to volunteer a lot. I haven’t been able to do it as much recently, so it’s really nice to be able to chat about something else that’s a little different from the day to day and shine a light on some of these things that need to be addressed.
How do you want to see this ERG grow?
I think ERGs right now are maybe a little underutilized. I think, especially on our teams, everybody’s just so heads down. I would love to increase visibility and uplevel participation in both our events and our Slack community asynchronously because it is such an important resource. We’d love to be a little bit more top of mind for people and be able to provide that support a little more regularly.
Learn more about working at Recharge
Our employee resource groups (ERGs) are critical to fostering an inclusive and supportive workplace. These groups provide employees from diverse backgrounds and communities the opportunity to come together, share stories/experiences, and amplify their voices at Recharge. You can learn more about working at Recharge on our Careers page.
