Dcoding HR: The Dcode Difference
Tags: Employee Engagement, Virtual Internship, Company Culture, Internships, Work From Hom

By Sean Tran, Talent Operations Intern

It’s an understatement for me to say that I felt like the luckiest person in the world when I found an opportunity at Dcode as a Talent Operations intern. While there are a lot of internships in the HR/recruiting space, Dcode has a unique combination of factors that really sets it apart and has allowed me to gain valuable experience as I continue to explore my career path:

The Dcode Team

As a small, fast-growing, and collaborative company, it’s not hard to get to know everyone and welcome new Dcoders, even virtually. We meet as a company multiple times a week to share cross-cutting priorities because the nature of our work usually intersects several teams at once. This ensures that everyone understands what’s happening at Dcode and who’s tackling what task.

I’ve found this to be incredibly valuable for three reasons: (1) I have an opportunity to become familiar with everyone, even if they’re not on my direct team, (2) I know who to talk to if I have any questions about a particular area of Dcode expertise, and (3) I have developed an understanding of the “big picture” of working at Dcode, and I understand how all of our teams work together. Having such a collaborative team to work with has been helpful for me to think about the importance of teamwork and the interplay of government and technology experience as it relates to talent at Dcode.

Weekly meetings, whether they’re Daily Stand Ups or Weekly Kickstarters, are always something to smile about with fellow Dcoders!

Of course, the success of the whole team can be attributed to the effort put in by every single Dcoder. What’s truly stood out to me during my internship is how genuinely excited everyone is to work and engage with each other, whether in a team activity or 1-on-1 video calls. I have only met the kindest, most open people at Dcode who are truly interested in who I am as a person and what I hope to achieve with the company — this has only made me more motivated to help Dcode continue to grow. It’s rare to find a company where everyone truly cares about their work AND the people they work with. I believe that’s what makes Dcode strong; that’s what makes Dcode a team.

Dcode Culture

The word “culture” is thrown around a lot and as an early career professional, I’ve learned how much work is put into shaping and growing an organization’s culture, and as a result how much that plays into working at Dcode and overall work satisfaction. Dcode’s leadership develops and sponsors the importance of organizational culture daily, so the company’s values are deeply ingrained into all aspects of working at Dcode. An example of a deeply-ingrained value at Dcode? Being a resilient hustler — meaning you don’t give up, that you will do whatever it takes to succeed even in situations where everything seems to be against you.

While we all take work very seriously, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.. Everyone loves to have fun and joke around, and I found it incredible that we play music and vibe with our CEO, Meagan, while reflecting on the work week. In a remote environment, it’s so easy for people to be disengaged, but it’s been incredible for me to see how enthusiastic Dcoders are about being active in all of the different activities we’ve held, both fun and educational. Since I started my internship two months ago, we’ve held a diversity discussion focused on intersectionality, a socially distanced Halloween meet-up, lunch and learns taught by fellow Dcoders, and most recently, a Thanksgiving celebration I was able to organize with my fellow interns.

This is the beautiful team-wide board I helped create for our Thanksgiving #culturesquad celebration!

I also love that Dcoders frequently shout each other out and celebrate our successes (scrolling through the #peoplewhodunkhard Slack channel is my method of choice to brighten up the work day). It highlights how much effort and care we put into our work and support one another — this motivating work environment is what has made coming to work so exciting for me beyond the internship role itself.

Working at Dcode has been unlike any experience I’ve had because of our bold mission, which motivates everyone to constantly challenge the status quo and innovate. Dcoders (no matter which team they’re on) are motivated to drive commercial innovation in the federal market and contribute to a greater cause, which is what drew me to the company. If you want to work in a mission-driven and collaborative environment with the brightest people in government and technology, check out Dcode’s career page and reach out to info@dcode.co to learn more!

The factors that contribute to the perfect job — Dcode hits all three!

Sean is a Fall 2020 intern for the Talent team at Dcode. He supports talent acquisition, learning and development, and employee experience initiatives. When he isn’t thinking about people ops and DEI policies, Sean can be found freestyling choreography or playing with his dog.