Meet the Team: Keenan

How did you get to where you are?

It’s quite the long and convoluted story, but to give the Spark Notes: I studied Chemistry in college, wasn’t quite ready to pursue a PhD and was able to hustle my way into several data analysis-related positions (all volunteer might I add, just to gain experience), after about a 1 ½ years of working for free, I was accepted into Recurse Center which led to my first real engineering job on a data science team. I then switched to a few different teams doing data pipeline work, followed by a short stint on a backend API team. I was ready for a change of environment and that is when I found Sparrow and I couldn’t be happier to be here!

What is a fun fact about you?

Kind of a two-for-one, but I was a collegiate pole vaulter as well as a modern dancer in college.

Why did you join Sparrow?

There are too many reasons to list them all here but I am going to give the important ones.

• The people. Every single person I met during the interview process was so helpful, kind, open-minded, no-ego, and very happy. It was almost uncanny. Everyone just made me feel very comfortable and good, and that is still the case everyday that I “come to work”.

• The mentality of the engineers/CTO. I have done my fair share of interviews, some have been good, and others I withdrew myself because it was so terrible. Often you get hints of what working day-to-day would be like with someone based on how they approach interviews. That is the case here at Sparrow but in the best way. It isn’t often that you find the type of engineering culture that is very open to any ideas, accepting if someone is incorrect, cares more about the product than their opinion, and happy to help others.

• The work. In my eyes, SO many companies don’t really need to exist, or if they do, they have a lot of negative side effects. Sparrow was so refreshing because all we are doing is helping people. We create a product that makes everyone’s lives easier, people pay for that product, and that’s it. We aren’t listening to your conversations so we can give you targeted advertisements, we aren’t polluting the environment with dilapidated e-scooters, we are just helping people, and I love that.

• So many more reasons…

What are you most excited about for your role in the next 6 months?

Building a product that will massively improve the lives of others at the company, and help with their workflows. I am super excited to be able to talk with other teams and hear how they like the product, what could be improved, and then actually make those requests a reality for them.

What do you know now about working at Sparrow that you wish you knew on your first day?

How connected I would feel to everyone despite the remote work-life. A lot of times it can be easy to work remotely and feel like you are alone in a shell, but that is not the case here. Aside from regular meetings which turn into casual fun chats, there are great ways to meet other people like our weekly “Team times”, chats with the group you go through onboarding with, or conversations sparked through our internal chat.

What are you most proud of in the last year?

Getting this job at Sparrow! By far the best thing that has happened to me in the last few years (you know, aside from getting engaged).

What’s the last show you binge-watched?

TED LASSO!!! I could watch that show over and over and over again. It’s so good oh my gosh.

What’s the farthest you’ve ever been from home?

Paris, once, and a super budget trip with a group organized in my high school. I think I need to go back now that I am an adult and can do the things I wish I could’ve done before.

Want to join our team? Check out our careers page and apply!