Five Reasons I Love Working at BizStream: A Developer’s Perspective

One of the ways we’ve always attempted to attract talent was with our outstanding company culture, and I’d love to share my top 5 reasons why I love working at BizStream.

By Ben Buurstra

February 9, 2022
Advice

Ahhh, 2022, the year the world will finally get back to normal… or is it? If you’re a developer at this point in time, you know how crazy the job market has been recently. After the economic shock COVID-19 brought in March 2020, the developer market has gotten absolutely crazy. Money’s cheap due to low-interest rates, so companies are willing to pay through the nose to get talented developers working for them, causing developers to jump ship left and right trying to pick up sign-on bonuses and marginally higher salaries.

At BizStream, we know this isn’t sustainable and are doing everything we can (within reason) to try and stay as competitive as possible without overextending ourselves. One of the ways we’ve always attempted to attract talent was with our outstanding company culture, and I’d love to share my top 5 reasons why I love working at BizStream.

Variety of Work
One of the best things about working at BizStream as a developer is the variety of work. This is a very subjective reason, but I know many developers out there are looking for this. In any given week, I will touch 3-5 projects, each with its own unique differences. My favorite projects are the ones where we get to start with a clean slate and build everything to our very high standards, and thankfully we get this opportunity quite a bit. This isn’t to say I don’t enjoy taking on existing projects, because those projects also give us developers a great opportunity to see how other developers solve problems, and adjust our own approaches to continuously improve our own standards and processes.
High Accountability
The level of accountability at BizStream is very high, and I think it’s part of the reason we’ve been able to position ourselves as industry leaders when it comes to Kentico and .NET development in general. I believe this is true for almost any small business, but due to our size and our drive to be the best in the industry, there’s no place to hide here. You either perform to the best of your abilities, or you’ll get swallowed up. This might sound scary to some, but BizStream is very quick to reward those who put in the effort and give it their all day after day. So if you’re a results-driven developer, this is the place for you! Also, don’t take that last point and assume we all burn ourselves out working 50-60 hour weeks. BizStream has a very strict policy where if you’re consistently working 45+ hours a week, your manager, and possibly the owners, will sit down with you and talk about how they can lighten your workload. Although we like to promote an environment of working hard, it’s equally important to us to take time to enjoy life. It’s the core foundation of our “Work Hard, Play Hard” core value.
Amazing Flexibility
As someone who’s been at BizStream for a little over four years at the time of writing this, I can definitively say BizStream is one of the most flexible companies you can work for. I’ve never had a single PTO request denied, even some that were very short notice. BizStream is very aware and accommodating of the fact that “life happens”, and it’s very hard to put into words how comforting it is to know that if something comes up, BizStream will not stand in your way or push back (to the best of their abilities). This is in large part due to the fact that our project management and planning are centered around not having a single point of failure. Meaning if I have an emergency and need to take a day, a week, or potentially even more time away, there are people at BizStream that can fill the gaps. We do this by taking the time to cross-train multiple developers across all our projects, so we alleviate the situation where work can’t be done for a client due to someone’s absence.
You’re an “Owner”
One of my favorite phrases talked about by our actual owners, Mark and Brian, is that “we’re all owners”. I, as a developer, can have as much impact on the company as our owners do. It is up to me to make sure we keep our clients happy by delivering high-quality work, and it’s also up to me to suggest improvements for our internal processes and standards and potentially be the one implementing the change for our company. This point very nicely coincides with my High Accountability reasoning due to the fact that if I just go through the motions and get all my work done and do nothing more, great. But, if I have the drive and passion for wanting to push the company forward, I have the freedom to do so and will be rewarded for the impact I’ve had. BizStream is very welcoming of new ideas and perspectives on how we can all work together to make it one of the best places to be.
Extreme Transparency
One of the most surprising things I wasn’t expecting before I started working at BizStream was the level of transparency they have around most aspects of the business. I remember going into my first company-wide meeting on my first day and thinking, “Wait, they’re really sharing exactly how much our current backlog is worth, and how much we’ve made YTD as a company? They have dashboards that show exactly how many hours each person worked last week and the distribution of their time?” At first, I was shocked this information wasn’t shrouded and only viewed by those on the leadership team, but as time went on, I started to realize how genius it is to be this transparent. When you have 30+ people looking at the details of how the company is doing and how our future looks, it makes it really easy for someone to speak up and propose solutions to issues they’re seeing. If only the owners or only the leadership team were looking at all this data, leadership would be missing out on the perspectives and ideas of so many people, which ties directly back to the point of “we’re all owners”. It’s all of our jobs to speak up when we feel something is off and to suggest improvements. All of which wouldn’t be possible without the level of transparency BizStream provides.

If this blog post has left you excited to join our team, check out our careers page!

About the Author

Ben Buurstra

Ben has always loved technology and computers but was a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to coding. He wrote his first line of code during his freshman year of college, afterward, he became completely hooked. After just one semester, Ben was working as a programming tutor for his college and doing tons of web development projects. When Ben isn’t working on a side project you’ll find him spending time with his wife and their dog, or playing video games with friends.

Five Reasons I Love Working at BizStream: A Developer’s Perspective

About the Author

Ben Buurstra

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