Building community and solving complex problems: My first year at Pariveda

Finding community by giving back to others 

I was sitting in my hometown of San Mateo, California when I signed my offer letter from Pariveda to work as a consultant at the Dallas, Texas office. Prior to my first day, I’d never been within 200 miles of Dallas. I wondered what finding community in my new home would be like. Less than two weeks in town, I found myself standing on a baseball diamond at a local park, wearing the Dallas office’s kickball team uniform. 

Soon after, another team member invited me to join him as a volunteer for an event hosted by the nearby city of Carrollton’s Adaptive Athletics program, which supports sports clinics accessible to children with disabilities. Spending time with the families the program served was the first time I felt like a resident of Dallas rather than just a visitor. I started telling my friends at Pariveda about this opportunity to serve, and by the end of the year, Pariveda employees contributed the majority of volunteer hours benefiting Carrollton Adaptive Athletics. The money the organization was previously forced to spend staffing its events could now be put towards improving the variety and quality of equipment for participants. My willingness to make a connection has never been left hanging at Pariveda, and I strive to ensure that others have the same experience.    

Solving complex problems for our clients 

The value that Pariveda offers its clients encompasses many industries and takes many forms. My opportunities to grow as a consultant do not stop at the implementation challenges that software engineers and developers face. They also involve shaping the strategic and logistical considerations necessary to provide a client with a holistic, personalized solution.  

The last few months, I have worked with a client in need of assessing the value of its cloud computing resources. Across its departments, this client manages a multi-million-dollar annual cloud infrastructure budget. However, the lack of available tools to comprehensively track patterns in the cost and utilization of these resources made it difficult for our client to identify cost-saving opportunities. As a result, it was complex and laborious for our client to improve the operational efficiency of their cloud resources. 

Our team collected and centralized these raw cost and utilization metrics. We used these records to identify guidelines for resource management that could be communicated downstream to the people managing these tools. 

When we presented our work to the client stakeholders, they were delighted at the greater convenience and actionability our solution offered them and extended our assignment to apply the same analysis to other aspects of their business. It was very gratifying to see my team’s work received with such enthusiasm!   

Pariveda’s commitment to growth and development 

Before working at Pariveda, my professional development was an entirely reactive process. I would adapt to my assignments – growing in the ways necessary to complete them. I thought the responsibility of a manager was to help me succeed at what was in front of me. Instead, I was surprised by the lengths my managers went to demonstrate how the technologies and strategy we were employing could be of use to me in the future. It was clear that my career development, not just the task at hand, was something my Manager considered when deciding our team’s game plan. As a result, I have received coaching and mentorship at Pariveda that has enabled me to grow faster than the situation I’m in requires me to. 

At Pariveda, I’m evaluated based on my personal growth, not my standing relative to my peers. I have the support and guidance of a Mentor who helps me navigate my project and place myself in a position to take on responsibilities that align most with the skills I want to develop. As I have been trusted with greater responsibilities, there have been times that I doubted whether I could do my part. However, I started to gain the confidence and wherewithal to evolve my perspective and voice from that of a direction-follower to one of a leader and architect. I have been placed many times in situations that pushed the limits of my abilities and technical knowledge, but not once in a position to fail. Situations I previously found baffling have quickly become ones I can handle intuitively.  

I’m excited to see what my next adventures at Pariveda hold for me and hope that I can pass on even a fraction of the coaching and mentorship that I am so grateful to have been given!