Ten years of Making. Shift. Happen.
We all have friends who celebrate their birthdays a little too long, but please indulge us. All year long, we will be sharing content around the theme of ten, as we promised you in our Anniversary Blog post. If you read our post (which, duh, of course, you did), you know that the Shift team loves both our work and our clients. Each of our clients is unique, but one common thread is that we love collaborating with them on work that matters to them and that motivates us, challenges us, and fills us with that “look at what we made” sense of accomplishment.
There are other things we LOVE about working at Shift. In fact, together, in the true collaborative nature of Shift, we found TEN of them (there’s that theme again).
Pretend company disclaimer—length of response is not equal to love of the job and is not being used in employee evaluations of any sort.
So, on this Valentine’s Day, while love is in the air, we’d like to share a little bit about our team and learn a little bit more about our company. We present (in alphabetical order by first name, after the partners — we are not only detail-oriented but fair)…
Cynthia and Sarah say,
“At Shift, each person is invited to contribute and have a part in the creative process regardless of their role. And wonderfully, everyone on the team does contribute, jumps in, and builds on the concepts and plans that we develop. The results are so much more than any of us might complete on our own. We love what we’re able to create together.”
Ali says,
“There are innumerable things I love about my job…of course, I love keeping projects on track, and I love helping clients turn deliverables into marketing dreams. But, being someone who loves behind-the-scenes details, I’ll say one specific thing I love about working at Shift is the company culture and our Friday morning games. We take a few extra minutes after our daily check-in (“on-deck” if you want to get technical about it) to play a group game on Fridays. Sometimes it’s Geoguesser (I’m horrible at this), sometimes it’s The Box Office Game (I’m a fan), sometimes it’s skribblio.io (I love to hate it), but it’s always a good time (even when my hands are sweating from the competition). Cultivating positive company culture is something Shift excels at, and why I feel so much love for my job!”
Anthony says,
“When I was a kid, I loved to take apart toys and tools, and I loved to watch those Mister Rogers videos showing how stuff is made. Our work at Shift is like all of that, but we tinker with an endless selection of systems in very challenging contexts. There’s the obvious, like how websites are made, or rather how websites can be made into a solution for a very specific problem. But there is also how clients provide services or make their internal decisions. Many of my favorite toys to dissect and repurpose are elements in a much bigger system: how people interpret words and visual cues. We use these to shape how websites and campaigns frame the relationships between people and options, and motivations. For an “overthinker” like me, Shift never reaches the bottom of the toy chest. There will always be new parts to unravel and inspire me.”
Camden says,
“I love having the opportunity to keep my left brain active. Shift allows me to explore and discover. Since joining the team, I’ve had so many opportunities to learn new things and sharpen my tools as an illustrator and designer. I’ve also got some amazing coworkers, but maybe that’s two things.”
Gabe says,
“Throughout my six months working at Shift, I’ve loved the opportunity and openness to learn and grow, personally and with the entire team. There is a definite emphasis on taking the time to learn the best way to complete your day-to-day and to share that knowledge with the team. Not every agency does that.”
Kelly says,
“Though it was a necessary change initially due to the pandemic, I appreciate the ability to continue to work remotely and flex our days if something like a doctor’s appointment comes up. Flexibility and trust are key at Shift. We have tools like Slack in place to streamline and encourage communication in our remote environment. It’s also nice to know that we maintain our physical office space for in-person meetings as needed or for those of us that would like a change of scenery or a handful of office snacks!”
Larissa says,
“Something I love about working at Shift is guiding our clients towards their goals. Whether we’re working on a web project or offering ongoing marketing support, the actions we take and the recommendations we make are always meant to help our clients move from where they are to where they want to be. Seeing them make that progress is exciting and rewarding.”
Meg says,
“One of the things I love about working at Shift is the trust and confidence we have in each other as a team. Working with so many creative people doing so many different things, we trust that our colleagues will bring great work to the project. And that confidence in each other means that I can count on them for collaboration, brainstorming, and support when I’m stuck, but without fear of being micromanaged or second-guessed.”
Michael says,
“The sense of community. At Shift, my peers haven’t succumbed to the corporate grindstone, and our agency environment allows everyone to be human. Often I’ve seen people fall under the bottom line — at Shift, we rise with it.”
Ruby says,
“When I think of what I love about working at Shift, our clients are the first thing that comes to mind. Starting a project and putting new inspiration into play is always exciting, but I also love the variety of people that we get to work with, building relationships with them, and sending them out the door in a better place than when they first came in. What I deeply appreciate about Shift as a company, though, is its willingness to learn and grow from past mistakes. We never feel exactly like the agency we were just the year before, but rather, one that has evolved and becomes stronger.”
Will You Be our Valentine (or Our Anytime)?
You can see that Shift is a pretty special place to work. And that specialness shines through in all we do. If you are interested in chatting about how we can help you with your website, design, branding, campaign, or marketing projects (in Pittsburgh or beyond), contact us here. xoxo.
