Each day at Shopify I was so energized to come to work each day and inspired by our team of intelligent and unique individuals. Even though I was 300 kilometres from the closest Shopify employee, I could feel the culture and knew immediately that I was part of something bigger than each of us. Every time I met with my lead or a fellow guru, you could hear the passion in their voices, their high standards and immense pride in what we do each day was infectious and I wanted to surround myself with it.
In the spring of 2015 I was invited to attend Retail Tour in New York City as a Guru. At this point I had worked with Shopify for six months and this would be the first time I would meet the team. The instant connection between myself and the other Gurus was fantastic and the bonds we felt even though we had never met was something special. The fact that even as remotes, we could feel the Shopify culture so deeply is something that never ceases to amaze me. Shopify's increasing number of remote hires only serves to prove how amazing and fluid our culture is.
In the summer of 2015 I happily joined the Squad Lead team and was mostly excited for the chance to be able to focus more on the part of Shopify that I love so much, I embraced every opportunity to pass Shopify culture onto the Guru team. During BFCM I helped to create Guruland emails complete with cartoon Guru characters, pump up/relax Spotify playlists and wellness tips. I also worked on a hackdays project called Merchant Stories designed to inspire and remind our Gurus why our work is so important and who we are helping everyday. My most recent project is to help the transition of new Gurus from training into their sqauds, we've built a training program with five days of sessions to increase confidence and help new Gurus understand the expectations and operations of Guruland.
Shopify culture keeps inspiring me at every turn and the opportunity to help see it grow and involve more and more people is something that gets me incredibly excited.