Saturday, March 15, 2014

Birthday Wishes to Jennifer Kendrick & Joining the Comit Developers Team!

Jennifer Kendrick, do you really want to mess with her?
Are you talking to me?
So I've been contracting now at Comit Developers (and it's sister e-commerce company Ameda Direct / ACA Ventures) for almost a year, but I've recently decided to join the team as a full time employee.

I'm excited about the vision of our leadership team over at Comit Developers and I've been honored to have the opportunity to be a part of such an AMAZING group of individuals in the design, development, engineering, and internet marketing / SEO divisions within this keiretsu (i've always wanted to work that term into a blog post...).

One of the main reasons I decided to join the team at Comit Developers and Ameda Direct is their genuinely open culture and their commitment to assembling the best team possible from a diverse mix of people.  

It's that diversity and the distinct personalities and perspectives of all the members of our organization that allows us to attack problems from many different angles simultaneously and that same diversity helps us to develop truly innovative solutions to the challenges our customers face every day.

One of the other factors the influenced me greatly is their commitment to building a business with / on Open Source Technologies like MagentoWordpressLAMP, and others and using Open Technologies to address their Customer's needs.  Too often I've seen businesses attempt to lock customers into a proprietary technology stack with no real reason besides an attempt to lock in the most profits possible for themselves.  In my mind, that's not the way to build a truly mutually beneficial relationship with a customer and that mentality all too often infects even the interpersonal relationships within a company.

I've worked at a few big (and some giant) companies before, and they all seemed to have a corporate objective of at least professing to be as inclusive as possible. Sadly, I've noticed that delivering on that promise is not all that common at most of the technology-focused businesses I've encountered.

At Comit, we really strive to create an environment where everyone can participate in helping grow the business and we do everything possible to make sure that every team member knows that they're a valued member of the organization.

This post is dedicated to one of those amazing members of our organization - Jennifer Kendrick.

Jennifer Elizabeth Kendrick, gamergrll, l33t haxor, and all around bomb.com teammate
Jennifer Kendrick - a teammate to die for (in game, of course)!
Today is her birthday and I thought this would be a nice way to show how much we appreciate everything she does for our team.

Time and time again Jennifer's proven herself to be a creative, innovative, and incredibly generous member of the Comit Developers team.

Jennifer is a ULL alumni (and also a former NOLA resident like me). After recently breaking her foot in a martial arts incident, she decided to learn how to play the violin and has been actively supporting the Acadian Symphony Orchestra and Conservatory of Music in her spare time.  That's in addition to her time spent in the gaming community (she was rocking some Elder Scrolls as I pinged her for bio details the night before her birthday - Go get 'em GamerGrrl!!!!!).  She's obviously got a lot of things going on, but she always manages to develop great software for us and our customers while consistently helping our team to improve our processes and expand our knowledge.

Day in and day out she displays a dedication to perfecting her craft and broadening her perspective while engaging her teammates and having a bit of fun at the same time.  It's inspiring.  You can read more about what she's up to on her blog, and also her github, bitbucket, linkedin, google+, reddit and twitter profiles.

Jennifer Elizabeth Kendrick displaying her exquisite sense of humor and serious gamer cred via moustach + starcraft II tee shirt
No, I'm being SERIOUS!
She's helping us build an organization that attracts world-class talent to one of the best places in the world to live, my home town of Lafayette, LA

Jennifer also spends a good bit of her "free" time working with other members of our local tech community to share her knowledge and considerable experience to help develop some of the most innovative technology systems in the world.

As you can tell, I'm a fan.  Jennifer is one of many people working at Comit Developers that make me excited to be a part of this team.

Since this talented group of professionals has provided me with such an incredible opportunity over this last year, I've decided to make this sort of post a bit of a tradition while I'm working here....

I'm excited to learn more about everyone in our organization and when each of your birthdays comes around, I'll do a little write up here on the innovez blog about you and the specific awesomeness you bring to our team.

It's the least I can do for all of you who make working at Comit such an amazing experience. To Jennifer and everyone else on the Comit team - keep up the amazing work!

If you also happen to be Smart and Gets Things Done and are interested in joining this incredible organization, contact us.

As a special treat for all of you who have read all the way down to here, here's a video which, in my opinion, is AWESOME SAUCE and embodies all that I love about Jennifer and the rest of the Comit Developers Team (while not taking ourselves too seriously) : Felicia Day & The Guild in I'm the one that's cool


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