As a fast-growing tech company, we’re always on the look out for the best and brightest talent the South has to offer. From our award winning customer service team to our agile team of developers, there isn’t a stone we won’t turn to find the next SUPPLY.com rock star.

Over the past 6 months, we’ve developed a pretty awesome relationship with Atlanta’s biggest technology, business, and design community. General Assembly transforms thinkers into creators with a unique learning-by-doing approach to business, coding, data, design, digital marketing, product management, and with startups and careers. With a 99% placement rate and 1,000 graduates per month from 15 campuses across the globe, General Assembly has become an awesome community for us to partner with.

“SUPPLY.com has been an active partner in our expanding community of thinkers and creators by hiring our immersive program grads, helping their employees stay sharp through our workshops, and being thought leaders by participating on our panel discussions.”

– Jarrett Coger, Program Manager

One of the reasons we like working with the General Assembly community and their students is that we tend to hire people with “T-shaped” skill sets. T-shaped people are a great asset because they have both depth and breadth in their skills. Most students from General Assembly that we come across have had previous careers and are interested in a variety of things, but want to master or refine their skill in one particular industry – UX, Design, Digital Marketing, etc.

Earlier this year at a General Assembly UX Meet-N-Hire, we met Alina Bikineyeva, a recent UX grad. Alina’s personality, career goals and epic rock climbing skills were a natural culture fit, but our UX Director, Matt Hobbs and Senior Designer, Justin Jackson were more impressed with her T-shaped skill set and analytic approach to design. The rest, as they say, is history.

Alina (L) meeting members of the SUPPLY.com team at GA’s Meet & Hire

Alina reflected on her time at General Assembly and how their UX program rocketed her career in a new direction:

To start, why UX? What about it resonated with you?

I was a financial analyst for 4 years and I really enjoyed the analytical thinking that went with the job. I loved solving problems through math and logic. However, I also enjoy tinkering with things and am a pretty creative person. I felt that I did not have enough time dedicated to the use of the left brain. 

UX solves very real-usability problems through research and analysis in a visually stimulating way. Essentially it’s the best of both worlds.

Why go through the program at General Assembly?

When I finally decided to commit to a career switch, I did research on which programs were the best. GA had a lot of positive reviews online and I heard a lot of good things from friends. I also took a few workshops on campus to check out the space and the talent. Clearly I thought GA was the right place for me.

How did your experience at General Assembly help/prep you to work at SUPPLY.com?

GA gave me insight into the way all of the stages in the UX process fit together. It was valuable to be able to practice what I learned in real time. I am able to carry those same skills over to real projects at work.

What’s an average day like as a UX Architect for SUPPLY.com?

I hate to sound like a cliché, but there’s really not a typical day. This past quarter I spent a significant amount of time conducting research on a potential new market for SUPPLY.com. I drew up a project plan, conducted in-person interviews, organized my research and created a presentation deck. All of this effort will culminate in a presentation to the company that will highlight my findings and that hopefully will facilitate a discussion on the next steps. It’s a pretty empowering feeling to be able to run with an idea and have the company support it. Working at SUPPLY, you’re not silo’d – you can jump into a variety of projects and you learn to work with all the departments. Personally, I interact with the marketing, creative, development teams on a daily basis and that’s pretty rad.

Why do you think UX is so important at SUPPLY.com?

Consumers expect products to work properly. The majority of companies have a product that functions. What makes a company stand out, is the ability to ‘delight’ the user and to create an interaction that will want them to use your product again and again. That’s the question that UX answers – how do we facilitate a pleasant experience? That’s why UX is important. It’s what separates us from the schmucks.

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When we hired Alina, we knew we needed to spend some more time around the talented folks at General Assembly. We’ve developed a great relationship with them and have participated in workshops, joined panels, attended classes, sponsored a week long digital marketing bootcamp, and managed to make it to a few happy hours! 

SUPPLY.com sponsored a week long Digital Marketing Bootcamp where we were able to talk about digital marketing out in the wild and how we leverage it everyday.

Our Creative Producer, Tim Adkins, joined an Ask Me Anything, Digital Marketing in Atlanta panel. 

Daniel Flores, aka Delta Tango Mike, the artist who helped spruce up our office, also teaches a few design classes over at General Assembly. Fate or coincidence? We’ll let you decide.

Senior Designer, Justin Jackson, sat in on a panel for a discussion on The Next Chapter for Creatives with a few of Atlanta’s leading UX personalities.

Our PPC Analyst, Tarak Talpade and Pricing Manager, Martin Davis are now Google Analytics Certified thanks to the 1 day class lead by Kevin Sandlin.

Justin Jackson and UX Director, Matt Hobbs joined the UXDi4 Class to talk about the realities of a career in UX and some of the day-to-day adventures that make it a fun and exciting career path.

Whether it’s our favorite businesses in the ATL community or our BBFs (Best Brand Friends) in the plumbing industry, the relationships we build are what help us build something great. Check out more partnerships here to learn about how we team up with some of the best organizations in Atlanta and beyond!