Humans of Applied Intuition: Class of 2023

Who is Applied Intuition? Our Humans of Applied Intuition blog series aims to answer that question by diving deeper into what we do, what we like, and where we want to go. We want you to learn more about some of the most unique parts of our culture, the reasons we came to Applied Intuition, and the reasons we stay.

Every summer, dozens of new grads flood Applied Intuition's sunny offices for their first day of work (ever). Fresh out of college with a lot to prove, each of our new grad classes brings a wealth of opinions and experiences to the table. More than anything, they're ready to tackle vast technical challenges and address daily customer needs.

Applied Intuition recruits new grads with intentionality. They have already met a high bar when it comes to the skills and competence they bring, but along with that each cohort contributes their own balance, freshness, and humor to an inherently dynamic workplace. These new grads will soon lead customer meetings directly with senior leadership and round out the day by hitting the climbing gym together. As they craft a space for themselves on their new teams, they draw on the technical expertise of industry professionals, the camaraderie of past groups of new grads, and the resources of a profitable company. 

I sat down with a group of our Class of 2023 new grads to hear about their experiences since starting. Meet Richie Goulazian, Sonam Huang, and Jasmine Wu.

Who are you, what do you do at Applied Intuition, and how long have you been here?

Richie: I'm on the Applied Machine Learning team. We apply the latest artificial intelligence technologies into our tools to enhance the user experience, whether through new capabilities or just improving UX. I've been working here for a year and two months, and before I was on the ML team I worked on Data Explorer, focused on data visualization and search and triage from autonomous vehicles.

Sonam: I’m a technical recruiter at Applied Intuition and I’ve been here for a little over a year now. I started off recruiting generalist software engineers for our core tooling products and then moved into university recruiting. Now I mainly recruit specialized roles for our Stack teams. I've also helped with program management for recruiting events and conferences and I’m actively working on increasing our brand awareness externally.

Jasmine: I’m a software engineer working on the Stack Tools team, which provides tooling to help our Stack teams succeed, especially those working on our new strategic partnership with Isuzu. Before, I was on the API team, which served as a layer between customers and our platform, ensuring that any customizations and workflows are smooth. I've been here a little more than a year.

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‍Why did you join Applied Intuition?

Richie: Growth. I was choosing between a few companies of varying sizes, but I was so consistently impressed with the people here and what I’d learn from them. I’d be able to own projects, have a lot of impact, and not be held back by a culture of employees who aren’t invested in doing deep technical work.

Sonam: For me, it was because I'm interested in many different things. Typically, at other companies, roles are pretty defined. But here, I’ve found opportunities to work on design, marketing, branding, event planning, even some programming—all while learning how to be a great recruiter. That flexibility is pretty unique. I also wanted to work in-person at a place that felt more like a community than just a company. I believe you learn much better and quicker in person, especially when you need to be unblocked. My previous experiences were hybrid or remote, and I felt I didn't learn as much. But what made all the difference was the people I met throughout the interview process. I could look up to and learn from them. At other places I interviewed, I met solid potential teammates and managers, but I didn't quite click with them as much as I did with people here. They sounded more invested in what they were working on and about the team itself. When you see someone talking so passionately, you’re like, “I want to be a part of that, too.”

Jasmine: I was pretty lucky in finding Applied Intuition. I wasn’t thinking of joining the industry when I wrapped up my bachelor’s, but one of our recruiters reached out to me, and I was sold after speaking with people who worked here. It seemed really different from school and my previous internships—you have a lot of ownership and you’re healthily challenged by your peers while being held up by a great business model. I had been considering a one-year master’s, which felt like a natural continuation of what I was doing and imagining picking everything up and moving from Boston to California was a bit crazy. But right off the bat, something was telling me to do it. 

Does life at Applied Intuition align with your expectations before you joined?

Richie: During the first few weeks, you’ll definitely feel pushed, which I knew was going to happen. It’s about being able to manage the stress of starting something new and hitting the ground running. You really learn that early on here.

Sonam: The managers are pretty realistic with you about what the tough moments here look like. You have to ask yourself: knowing that these will be the challenges, do I still wholeheartedly want this? If the answer is yes, there will be opportunities for you to try everything that interests you here.

Jasmine: I spoke to a few engineers before I signed on, and it really stood out to me how cool and motivated they were. Applied Intuition seemed like a place where I could grow into someone like that. Honestly, I didn’t go into it with a lot of expectations. I definitely held myself to a high standard at the beginning because I was surrounded by so many intelligent people and I wanted to achieve that same level. But I think a really important lesson is learning to give yourself a bit of grace. Take in everything and learn from the more experienced people around you.

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‍How do you make daily decisions on what to work on?

Richie: We’re very bottom-up here. We tend to respect individual contributors as the domain experts. For my team, this means ICs (individual contributors) are usually the ones identifying new technology, suggesting how it can be applied, assessing its feasibility, and determining the benefit. We do get higher-level direction from leadership or PMs, but when it comes to daily decisions and execution, that's entirely on the ICs. There's always so much I could be doing, and I've found it useful to orient my daily work around what ultimately adds value to customers.

Sonam: Almost every decision I make about what to work on each day comes from me. I make the call based on the needs for the teams I’m hiring for and structure the flow of my workday around that. The direct line of communication between recruiters and hiring managers helps you understand how urgent or specific the teams’ needs are and how best you can adapt your work to suit that. You know through experience what can be done quicker and what needs more time, attention, or additional hands.

Jasmine: I can distinctly remember several times when I went to my manager and said, "Hey, I think we need to make this a higher priority," and he responded, "You don't need to tell me that. You can just set the priority and work on it." He emphasized that I have the most context and experience on the matter, so I have the authority to decide what's more important. 

When did you first realize that you had the authority to make big decisions?

Richie: All new hires get Hero Projects which typically take up the bulk of your work for the first few months you’re here, and it’s most new grads’ first real taste of responsibility. Maybe because I’d been interning for so long, I’d gotten used to the idea that there was always someone who knew more than I did about everything I was working on. But a few weeks into my Hero Project, I realized that I am actually our team’s expert on what I was doing. I knew the most about the scope of the project, the specific customer need, and the best way to iterate on customer feedback. It was a very sudden realization—there is so much autonomy here, and I get to be the authority on this.

Sonam: The first time I realized that my opinion mattered was also during my Hero Project. I had a rough draft of what I was working on and I presented it to team leadership and they had a list of things I should fix. But I didn’t agree with a lot of them. I felt like those changes wouldn’t achieve my desired outcome. In that meeting, I didn’t say anything, but afterward, my manager encouraged me to speak up for myself. It was a necessary reminder that leadership doesn’t always have the context nor the vision because they’re not the ones working on the project. They only see a small piece of it. During our next meeting with leadership, I explained my vision further, and they listened—the context helped justify my decisions. I learned that you have to speak up because people can’t read your mind.

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‍How do you manage relationships with internal and external stakeholders?

Sonam: One major thing I've learned about building relationships with candidates is to remember that we're both people. Finding a job is hard, and deciding where your career will go for the next few years is a tough decision. It's about understanding what makes sense for them and for us. That kind of genuineness and thoughtfulness is how you build and maintain good relationships. You put effort into your conversations because they're not just a candidate; they're a person, and you're working with them, not just trying to fill a headcount.

Jasmine: When I first started, I felt like I had to be the ultimate employee—knowing all our products and being able to sell our brand perfectly to customers or candidates. But over time, I’ve gotten comfortable with telling a customer or potential candidate that I don’t have the answer, but that I can connect them with someone who does. 

Richie: Talking to stakeholders and giving presentations is a muscle that you can build and grow over time. I was not very good at these things when I joined, but I’ve gotten better, and I’m constantly improving.

What’s a favorite memory from your time here so far?

Richie: Launching Applied Intuition Copilot! I was given full license to build out the first iteration of Copilot, and it was very exciting to watch the product begin as nothing more than an idea and end as a real thing in the hands of many excited users. It was challenging work but I learned a ton.

Sonam: Organizing the CVPR conference earlier this year! It was really encouraging to see how much trust I was given to help organize a business trip, and it was also a super fun time with my coworkers.

Jasmine: When I joined my new team, we had to sprint for a demo that was going to happen in two and a half weeks. After the success of that demo, seeing the work from those weeks pay off and witnessing the potential of the project was really rewarding.

What’s the best advice you’ve gotten from a mentor? 

Richie: Learning to be patient with yourself and remembering that you don’t have to constantly achieve some ideal version of yourself has been pretty helpful for me.

Sonam: There was a time when I was really stressed—everything felt urgent and it was tough to prioritize. I spoke to my designated onboarding buddy about this feeling, and he said something that really stuck with me: "In your job, there’s nothing that’s ever going to be life-threateningly urgent. You need to focus on taking time for yourself, because that’s how you can be the best version of yourself at work and outside of it." You get to choose how to balance between extremes; prioritizing work or life outside of work isn’t a binary choice. It’s always fluid and up to you.

What advice would you give new grads starting their job search right now?

Jasmine: Don’t stress too much! Whatever decision you make, you’ll learn and grow from it, and it’ll inform what you do in the future. Everything will work out.

Richie: Be tolerant to risk. Take the riskier option if you can and experiment, because if you don’t, you’ll always wonder what life would have been like if you had. Applied Intuition was the riskier option for me because it was unknown compared to the companies I had interned with. And I still took this because I thought, “I want to see where working at a startup will take me.”

Sonam: Applied Intuition functions as a launchpad for a lot of people—we’ve had people leave to found companies of their own. If you want to work fast, experience a lot of growth, and operate close to leadership, this is the place for that.

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