At the heart of Meltwater Engineering are the employees who find ways to collaborate around the world. In our Spotlight series we will introduce you to new hires as well as veterans from across the organization, and give you insights into their day to day from North Carolina to Hong Kong.
Today in the spotlight, we are happy to introduce Sophie Gatshal from our Toronto office.
Would you like to introduce yourself?
My name is Sophie Gotshal and I’m a Product Manager here at Meltwater for our Application Framework teams. I’m based in Toronto.
What has your journey at Meltwater been like?
I came to Meltwater in 2017 through the Infomart acquisition, and was given the opportunity to head-up the migration of our clients over to the Meltwater system. It was an exciting time and a great way to meet a ton of people, especially on the product and product marketing team. It was fun, but a lot of pressure! Very glad that I did it for exposure to different parts of the company, which eventually led to new career opportunities at Meltwater.
I then went on maternity leave and when I came back I proposed the idea of working as part of the Meltwater product team and there was an opening! I interviewed with various PO’s, PM’s, and engineering managers. The challenge was that the available position was for more technical teams, where I come from a less technical background, but I was given the chance to try it out. A year in now, and I’m so thankful I had the chance to try and I think it’s going really well.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Morning
I usually drop the kids off at 8AM and my first standup is 9:15. The time before standup and after drop-off is the best part of my day. I get to drink my coffee while I check Slack and Productboard (our roadmap tool). This solid hour really gives me time to prepare myself and the silence is fantastic :)
Afternoon
I work with 3 teams - every Monday we have planning or grooming sessions for all of them. Something I find value in is separating out technical meetings and spending time later during the week product planning. Having quick shifts can be challenging, so I like to have parts of my days devoted to certain tasks.
Evening
At the end of the day I often have meetings with my manager, product stakeholders, and the engineering manager for the teams I work with - we review the upcoming sprints and work that needs to be done. I also love some of the fun slack channels, especially the book club channel and of course just wrapping-up ongoing stuff. I then go and pick the kids up, alternating with the husband.
Name one thing at Meltwater which you are really proud about?
I’m definitely proud to work for a company where I’ve always felt supported when it comes to my career development. It’s been quite a ride - six years, four job titles, two mat leaves, one acquisition, and no matter what was going on, I always knew that someone had my back. Making the move to Product was an especially big jump into the unknown, but the guidance and mentorship I received, along with the support of three amazing teams made the whole transition seamless - and so much fun!
If you are interested in learning more about working at Meltwater - check out our open positions.