Employee Spotlight: Poornima Ravishankar
Affirmed Networks is a close-knit company where everyone feels welcome. Take Affirmed’s own Poornima Ravishankar for example. She started at Affirmed eight years ago as an intern and went on to get her Master’s in Information Systems, eventually coming back to Affirmed for a full-time position.
Poornima’s job description centers around writing code for products, but one of the benefits of Affirmed is that employees aren’t defined only by a job description. For Poornima, she can take a much more holistic approach to coding and see the product in its developmental stages all the way through until its deployment.
The Community
Working at Affirmed has given Poornima a kind of second family. It makes coming in to work a joy when you work with people are always warm and willing to help someone in need, no matter the situation. For Poornima, she enjoys coming in and seeing her second family every day. Another benefit of working at Affirmed is that the company hosts plenty of socials for everyone to meet and chat outside of a work setting. There is a monthly social, a big summer company outing, and a Christmas party, to name a few.
What Affirmed Does for You
When Poornima first started at Affirmed, her goal was to work on new technology and have a hand in rolling out the new solutions. In addition, one of the most important things for her is to not do the same tedious tasks every day. To this point, Affirmed has really helped her reach her goal and do the work she has always wanted to do. Although much of the technology is different from when she first started, she has learned all about each wave of technology that has been deployed. One of her favorite things about working with the technology is seeing how Affirmed is always one of the first companies to work on the newest material coming out. One of the biggest reasons Poornima continues to work here is that you really get to break the barriers of your job description and take on a new challenge every day.
Team Sticky Rice
As mentioned in our Sticky Rice Blog, some members of the Affirmed Team partook in the Boston Hunger Walk as a part of team Sticky Rice put together by Thuy Fernandes. It is a 20-mile walk and each team raises funds to donate to Project Bread, which gives money to local food pantries, soup kitchens, and child nutrition initiatives. Poornima was a part of team Sticky Rice this past May walking to end hunger in Massachusetts. She said that after walking 20 miles she was dead tired, but thought it was amazing to see the enthusiasm of all the people for such a great cause. It has even inspired her to do more fundraising and volunteering because of the impact it left on her. This event was extra special because it was something out of the norm that she was able to do with her second family and have a lot of fun with.
