What’s it like, working at Choozle? Being a part of a Top Workplaces award-winning company has its upsides, including all the hard work that comes along with it. As a company, our mission is to liberate our partners by empowering them with the tools they need to achieve positive business outcomes through solution-focused thinking, clear guidance, professional and enthusiastic support, and easy-to-use tools.
…but how? Our team, of course.
Working at Choozle
Choozle is made up of seven departments each with their own objectives, responsibilities, and challenges. With that said, we’re very proud and protective of our culture. We encourage all employees to break the barriers and engage with other coworkers outside of their departments, bring new ideas and ways of thinking to the table, learn from each other, collaborate, and most importantly, don’t be afraid to ask questions or share knowledge.
See a breakdown of each department at Choozle, and spend a day with our (super cool) team, below.
Marketing
The Marketing & Communications team takes on designing and executing creative strategies that differentiate Choozle through the lens of self-serve enablement that lead to positive outcomes. The Marketing & Communications team breaks up our work into three pillars: Brand, Content, and Demand. Each one of these pillars works together to drive results and brand recognition within the marketplace.
“For creative positions, it can’t always be assumed that 9–5 is when we do our best work. That’s not how a lot of our brains function, so being in a flexible environment is really helpful.”
–Erin Shimamoto,
Lead Web & Graphic Designer
What does a normal day typically look like for you?
When my alarm—let’s be real, multiple alarms—goes off in the morning I like to check the calendar, the weather, and the Waze app to determine how to get to work by 9:00am. Once I’m at work, the kitchen is my first stop after I’ve opened up my laptop at my desk. After grabbing a cup of coffee, I prioritize tasks for the day. Usually, I’ll write an old school to-do list. I love multitasking, so I’ll pick a big project, try to spend a couple of hours on it, then switch to a smaller task to give myself a little breathing room before switching back. After a few changes of scenery throughout the office and fun marketing team interactions on Slack, I’ll head home around 5:00pm. Sometimes inspiration hits at weird hours, so I might hop back on my laptop to work a bit while I watch Netflix, which I don’t mind.
What do you do here at Choozle?
I am the Lead Web and Graphic Designer.
What are your main responsibilities?
I’m on the Marketing team, so I primarily work on projects that help support those efforts, but I also support the Dev team on platform-related projects. There are a lot of things on my plate on a daily basis, like establishing and ensuring consistency with brand guidelines, quality control, managing visual identity, leading creative efforts & development of the website, debugging & troubleshooting, campaign designs, blog support, email design—you get the idea.
How do you typically start your day?
Get coffee, go over my to-do list, and catch up on Slack.
If you had to choose one part about your job you like the most, what would it be? Why?
There’s never one straightforward way to complete a design project, no matter how many outside suggestions may come flying. Ultimately, my decisions are what determine the outcome and success of a design.
What tools do you tend to open up as soon as you open your computer?
Slack, Gmail, Jira, CoSchedule, Dropbox, Photoshop, and Illustrator.
What do you do to take brain breaks throughout the day?
Eat snacks (i.e., sugar), chat with coworkers about random things and browse Pinterest, Behance, & Dribbble. If I happen to have my DSLR camera on me, I’ll also go take some random shots around the office to help build up our stock library.
What do you do when you’re not having the best day, but you have tons to get done?
I’ve found that working from home helps me a lot. For creative positions, it can’t always be assumed that 9–5 is when we do our best work. That’s not how a lot of our brains function, so being in a flexible environment is really helpful.
What’s the best work advice you’ve been given?
It’s actually less of a work-related thing and more of an overall life quote, “Resistance never sleeps,” from the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. In the book, Pressfield says that our inner “resistance” is the driving force that prevents you from getting things done or improving yourself. It’s the creative barrier for pretty much everything and, ultimately, you determine whether you let resistance control your actions or not.
Sales
The Sales team serves as the front line for the entire Choozle organization to our clients, our prospects, and to the industry as a whole. The goal is simple: to efficiently and effectively drive pipeline development and revenue producing client partnerships.
“I love getting to work with fellow Account Executives to come up with killer pitches that help win Choozle some new business.”
–Jake Ponce de Leon, Account Executive, Southeast
What does a normal day typically look like for you?
I start my day off like anyone else with a cup a coffee, breakfast, and news. Typically I’ll catch up on the latest in digital advertising, but I’ll occasionally tune into SportsCenter or the NYTimes. After the very short commute to my home office, I dedicate the rest of my morning to clerical work: updating Salesforce, entering new leads, emails, etc.
By noon all my fellow Choozlers in Denver and on the west coast are up and at it (I’m based in Atlanta), so from 11:00–1:00 I’m connecting with the Sales and Client Experience teams, then the afternoon is dedicated 100 percent to sales—demos, prospecting, working with current clients, anything to help reach our monthly revenue goal. At 4:30pm I take an hour break to hit the gym and re-energize. By the time I get home around 5:30pm, a lot of the support emails from Denver have been answered, so I usually spend about an hour tying up loose ends. After the workday, I’ll meet up with friends, attend networking events, binge-watch Netflix, and hop in bed by 11:00pm.
What do you do here at Choozle?
I am the Account Executive for the Southeast.
What are your main responsibilities?
Reach out to potential partners, grow current clients, work with the Client Experience team to support our current clients, and grow brand recognition in all of my markets.
How do you typically start your day?
By drinking some homemade cold brew, digesting new content, and prioritizing everything that needs to get done for the day.
If you had to choose one part about your job you like the most, what would it be and why?
I love getting work with fellow Account Executives to come up with killer pitches that help win Choozle some new business.
What tools do you tend to open up as soon as you open your computer?
Gmail, Google Calendar, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, SalesForce, and Outreach.io.
What do you do to take brain breaks throughout the day?
I like to get outside. Whether it’s a quick walk, hitting the gym, or even working outside helps keep me on track.
What do you do when you’re not having the best day, but you have tons to get done?
There are two things that really help me get things done: 1. Put on my headphones, play some pump up music, and just grind out the project, and 2. I incentivize myself with dinner or drinks after work so I have something to look forward to.
What’s the best work advice you’ve been given?
Break up your day into small goals with time caps, like “empty your inbox by 10:30am” or “finish Salesforce Admin work by 2:00pm.” It allows me to stay focused and get a lot more done. Additionally, I learned to respond to emails in batches—I only respond to emails three times a day.
Development & UI Design
The Development & UI Design teams create unique solutions for marketers. By working closely with Product, we make digital advertising easy by building a scalable and easy-to-use platform using the best technologies. The Development & UI Design teams are involved with designing, building, testing, releasing, and maintaining any part of the Choozle application.
“At the end of the day, the success or failure of this stuff is based on if it helps people. No idea is ever finished. Hypothesis. Iterate. Validate. Hypothesis. Iterate. Validate. You have to be ready to make new friends with the next set of challenges.”
–Justin Lawson, UI Engineer
What does a normal day typically look like for you?
I usually wake up whenever the first kid (I have two) punches me in the throat. I try to not dress in the exact same plaid shirt I did the day before, and negotiate putting shoes on my oldest daughter, which takes time… once it took 42 minutes.
I start the day at work by consolidating research, coding UI components and all that goes with it, and Slacking with colleagues (who are interesting and brilliant and I love sharing the small bits of time I have with them). I typically take some midday meetings and when lunch rolls around I drink more coffee, maybe scarf down lunch, and have more coffee. I typically end up sketching something for someone, and at some point I’ll just take a minute and stare at something—I really like the view from the office kitchen.
The end of the day is usually me looking up and thinking, “Oh shit, it is already that time.” Wrap things up, leave in time to make dinner or pick my kids up, then rest of the day is go go go until 8:00pm. To wind down, I hang out with my awesome wife.
What do you do here at Choozle?
I am a UI Engineer.
What are your main responsibilities?
I build things with code, work on design sprints, build UI components for our in-house design system in React, Typescript, etc., develop prototypes, conduct user testing, research things, and a bunch of other stuff. I make terrible coffee. Thankfully though, that is not a responsibility.
How do you typically start your day?
When I get to work and feel the joy one feels when you were little going to school. You know, that time when everybody in your class was a friend and school work was fun. Look at the calendar, get coffee, and get cracking with the keyboard.
If you had to choose one part about your job you like the most, what would it be and why?
I love ideation and research but in the context of team collaboration—no solution is successful if only in a vacuum. A big part of this is looking out for the people you’re building and designing these things for and earnestly busting your ass to help them, because they deserve that effort and respect.
What tools do you tend to open up as soon as you open your computer?
Slack, VSCode, Terminal, Gmail, and a shitload of Chrome tabs from the day before.
What do you do to take brain breaks throughout the day?
Talk with my deskmates about movies, books, science, and current events. I also try to read, and sometimes play board games in the afternoons.
What do you do when you’re not having the best day, but you have tons to get done?
Earplugs, post a list of to-dos in my direct field of vision, mute Slack except for certain channels. Close shades behind me to minimize glare and get to it. I can spend a day this way. It is delightful.
What’s the best work advice you’ve been given?
There are a few things I keep in mind daily, but “Tat tvam asi” lives inside every sketchbook I have ever had and is tattooed on my body somewhere.
Product
The Product Team’s primary responsibility is to manage the discovery and feasibility of additions and adjustments to the Choozle platform. With many channels of information and input, the Product Team strives to keep a holistic mindset in identifying and solving problems for Choozle.
“The decisions I make and the products I help create not only impact Choozle, but if I did my job right, they have the chance to affect all of our clients and their companies as well.”
–Mike Kohn, Product Manager
What does a normal day typically look like for you?
I always take the stairs up to the office in the morning (we’re on the fifth floor) to get the blood flowing. Once I’m in the office, I grab water and a coffee or tea and open my calendar.
Most days, I’ll join a meeting with the Development team. Depending on what comes out of those meetings, I’ll make sure Kristen, our director of Product Marketing, and Travis, the vice president of Product, are up-to-date with upcoming releases and strategy. The rest of my day is usually spent doing something around product discovery. This encompasses everything that’s done throughout the research and design phases of our product process. On any given day, I might talk to clients or internal stakeholders, research, and work with UX/UI on prototypes.
It’s also worth noting that I love “sad” desk lunches! I use that time to catch up on industry news, read product management blogs, watch webinars, etc. I go home shortly after 5:00pm to get in some serious snuggle time with my 3-year-old daughter, Nora, before she goes to bed.
What do you do here at Choozle?
I am a Product Manager.
What are your main responsibilities?
I collaborate across the company to figure out what we should be building and how we should build it. I’m also responsible for knowing what our clients need and figuring out how impactful potential projects would be for both them and us. I then represent those needs to our design and engineering teams so that together we can come up with the best possible solutions.
How do you typically start your day?
I like to see what meetings I have scheduled, then tailor my to-do list around them.
If you had to choose one part about your job you like the most, what would it be and why?
I love that I get to make big and meaningful impacts. The decisions I make and the products I help create not only impact Choozle, but if I do my job well they have the chance to affect all of our clients and their companies as well.
What tools do you tend to open up as soon as you open your computer?
I have Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive pinned to my browser. They’re the first things I check in the morning.
What do you do to take brain breaks throughout the day?
I use those opportunities to get a coffee refill. It’s kind of nice being far from the kitchen for that reason, it makes for a nice little break. Sometimes I’ll chit chat with my desk neighbors, too.
What do you do when you’re not having the best day, but you have tons to get done?
When that happens, I have to be ruthless with my to-do list. I’ll look for the most important shit that needs to get done, put in my headphones, say FILDI and get to work.
What’s the best work advice you’ve been given?
Andrew Fischer (Choozle CEO) actually taught me one of the most important things I’ve learned in my career, and that’s A. How important balance is, and B. How a job can be so much more than just a job. Having a life both inside and outside of work and enjoying what you do while you’re there are incredibly important for taking care of yourself.
Client Experience (CX)
The Client Experience (CX) team is responsible for the education and strategic advisement of our client base. CX is the bridge between the clients and internal teams and as such, help better shape the product road map, marketing/CX materials, and sales positioning with our clients’ best interest in mind.
“My goal is to keep my clients happy, learning, and always aware of new capabilities and product offerings—I want their experience with Choozle to be easy and rewarding.”
What does a normal day typically look like for you?
After I convince myself to get out of bed (I’m not a morning person) and walk my crazy corgi, Bodhi, I casually stroll down the street to the Choozle office—I live three blocks away. I pop into the office at or a little before 9:00am, greet my fellow Choozlers and get right to it.Prioritization is key. Once I’ve nailed down my goals & to-dos for the day, it’s a delicate balance of responding promptly to client emails, attending internal meetings, external client calls (or in-person client meetings if I’m in-market), putting together proposals, and analyzing, optimizing, troubleshooting, and managing campaigns in-platform. I break for lunch between 12 and 1:00pm, then I repeat the work grind after lunch. I head out of the office between 5:00–6:00pm and then do it all over the next day. It’s also worth noting that I get serious FOMO whenever I’m not in the office.
What do you do here at Choozle?
I’m an Account Strategist, primarily for the Northeast with a few Midwest states in the mix.
What are your main responsibilities?
Keeping my clients educated in the digital space while ensuring that their campaigns are exceeding both client and industry standards is first and foremost.
This means lots of informational emails, strategy & media planning, and being in-market as much as possible to establish transparent, effortless, and fun working relationships with clients. I work on both the self-serve and managed sides, and my goal is to keep my clients happy, learning, and always aware of new product offerings—I want their experience with Choozle to be easy and rewarding.
How do you typically start your day?
I make myself some decaf tea (because caffeine scares the shit out of me) and open up my laptop. I filter through emails, calendar, and Wunderlist task manager to see what needs to be prioritized for the day.
If you had to choose one part about your job you like the most, what would it be and why?
I love traveling and being in-market with my sales reps. As a Strategist, we travel quite a bit which allows me to have platform deep dives, QBRs, dinners & drinks and FaceTime in with my amazing clients. I love getting to know them on both a personal and professional level.
What tools do you tend to open up as soon as you open your computer?
Gmail, Salesforce (gotta see where I stack up against my fellow Strategists), a few too many Google docs, Slack, the Choozle platform, and Wunderlist.
What do you do to take brain breaks throughout the day?
The kitchen is always stocked with snacks and candy, two things that make for a good excuse to take a break. On the Client Experience team, we’re always laughing or chatting which creates a fun environment and helps us all to get the small brain breaks we need.
What do you do when you’re not having the best day, but you have tons to get done?
I love to sit and work on the couches by the windows that offer panoramic views of the mountains and the city—that alone usually puts me in a good headspace. If I’m having a rough day, sometimes I’ll take a walk with my friend and manager, Mel.
What’s the best work advice you’ve been given?
“We’re not saving lives here.” If I’m ever in a stressful or urgent situation, this thought helps me to not take myself so seriously!
Finance & Operations
The Finance & Operations team touches every aspect of the Choozle world, internally and externally. From enabling Choozle’s employees to work more efficiently, to the accurate and timely reporting of Choozle’s financial status, to ensuring Choozle’s customers experience a well-oiled billing and collection machine.
“Even though I have some repetitive tasks every month, I’m almost always doing something new, like finding solutions to new problems or bettering our current processes.”
What does a normal day typically look like for you?
I roll out of bed around 7:30am, spend some time with my Persian cat, Bub, and get ready for my day. When I get to the office, I have a bowl of Cheerios and a cup of tea. I check my email, address anything urgent, and then go about my day.I barely do the same thing every day. I manage Choozle’s day-to-day financial transactions, and it’s almost always something new! When my workday is over, I head home, make some dinner with my boys and binge home improvement shows like Love It or List It.
What do you do here at Choozle?
I’m the Staff Accountant. I account for things, financially.
What are your main responsibilities?
I’m all up in Choozle’s finances, daily transactions, and special projects, and I close our books at the beginning of every month.
How do you typically start your day?
Cheerios, English Breakfast tea, emails, and a true crime podcast.
If you had to choose one part about your job you like the most, what would it be and why?
I like that even though I have some repetitive tasks every month, I’m almost always doing something new, like finding solutions to new problems or bettering our current processes.
What tools do you tend to open up as soon as you open your computer?
Gmail, Slack, and I live in Excel.
What do you do to take brain breaks throughout the day?
I listen to true crime podcasts, and maybe do a little online shopping. It’s always fun to fill up a shopping cart, but sometimes a little dangerous to my bank account.
What do you do when you’re not having the best day, but you have tons to get done?
I put my headphones in, turn on my favorite Pandora station (I’m old school like that), and grind. Checking things off my to-do list always makes me feel better, and noise canceling headphones really help to tune out the world.
What’s the best work advice you’ve been given?
I think the best work advice I’ve been given is to “fail forward.” It’s okay to make mistakes, as long as you learn and grow from them. I’ve made mistakes at Choozle, big ones, and failing forward is what has helped me grow the most here.
Platform Operations (PlatOps)
The Platform Operations team’s core responsibilities are supporting both internal and external clients by troubleshooting and testing the platform, outside partners, and Supported Solutions. They troubleshoot and diagnose anything limiting external client campaigns from creative, tags, website issues, tactics or other technical problems that arise during the setup and running of campaigns in the platform.
“You miss 100% of shots you don’t take.If you don’t try something new or ask for that next responsibility, you will always miss your opportunity.”
–Kendra Rizzo, Director of Advertising Technology
What does a normal day typically look like for you?
I usually try and start my day with a workout—either biking or hockey. Once I get to the office around 8:00am, I enjoy an egg sandwich and a cup of coffee made by our coffee fairy (and my team member) Mike B.Depending on my day, I answer emails, catch up on Slack, and do any industry research in the morning. I enjoy bringing in leftovers from my latest cooking adventure for lunch, and on occasion, I like to explore the neighborhood and grab a bite out. The afternoon is usually packed with meetings with either internal team members or partners of ours. After finishing up any emails I missed during afternoon meetings, I head home to my husband Paul, and our dog, Sydney.
What do you do here at Choozle?
I’m the Director of Advertising Technology.
What are your main responsibilities?
My current responsibilities are to optimize Choozle’s unique position in the ad tech market by maximizing existing partnerships and identifying gaps for potential new partners.
How do you typically start your day?
Getting woken up by my dog so she can get her morning ear scratches in.
If you had to choose one part about your job you like the most, what would it be and why?
I love the constant change and opportunities to take on new challenges.
What tools do you tend to open up as soon as you open your computer?
Gmail, the Choozle platform, Google Calendar, Amazon Music, JIRA, and our partners’ websites.
What do you do to take brain breaks throughout the day?
I like to go for walks—either around the neighborhood or around the office. Our new digs have lots of space and multiple floors to wander around, which has been really nice!
What do you do when you’re not having the best day, but you have tons to get done?
I walk a few flights of stairs and then move to a stand up desk + blast music in my headphones.
What’s the best work advice you’ve been given?
You miss 100 percent of shots you don’t take. It’s a hockey quote but applies to everything for me. If you don’t try something new or ask for that next responsibility, you will always miss your opportunity.
