Welcome to our Meet the 50 Team series, where we give you the lowdown on how the people at 50onRed get stuff done. This time we’re sitting down with Business Analyst Steve Jones!
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your typical workday?
As a Business Analyst at 50onRed, I don’t have a typical workday. My duties and the research I do vary so much that one morning I might find myself assisting our engineers with QA, and after lunch hits I might be doing competitive research for a few hours. Then I might round off my day assisting our Sales Team.
How did you find yourself here at 50onRed?
That’s actually a funny story. My co-worker, Dave Leek, who was a member of the student Advertising Agency I ran at Rowan University, missed his train to work one morning. He came into the Wawa I was working at to kill some time, and while we were catching up asked if I was interested in the position. I interviewed for the job and got it! It probably didn’t hurt that I graduated from Rowan and have the name “Steve”–two things I have in common with our CEO. We have a lot of Steves here…
Do you have any mentors here? If so, what have they taught you?
I don’t have any one mentor. I’m lucky to work for a company like 50onRed because it’s filled with so many intelligent people. Everyone here knows something I don’t and is willing to share that knowledge with me. I’ve learned things from how to use Excel more efficiently to better UX practices, and I’ve gotten my feet wet with some programming languages, too.
What must-have tools do you use to get the job done?
With Google Drive, Google Sheets, and Evernote, I can complete around 75% of my responsibilities from anywhere with internet access. Having all my notes, information, and my oh-so-many spreadsheets accessible from anywhere is invaluable.
What are your favorite perks working at 50onRed?
The free food! As someone who isn’t a morning person, being able to crawl out of bed and just get to work knowing that there will be food and caffeine waiting for there me is amazing. In previous positions, I’d go through the first half of my work day without energy, but here I’m at my peak all the time because breakfast is always waiting for me.
What advice would you give people looking to work here?
Have a passion for what you do, and be able to show that in an interview. Before I started at 50onRed, I only had experience in research positions. But they recognized my passion and that I’d apply that passion to any work I touched.
You’re in the midst of buying a place in New Jersey (Congrats!). What excites you most about this transition? How do you plan to get to the office?
Having a garage all to myself to work on my motorcycle and other projects is probably the thing I’m excited the most about. Getting to the office won’t be much different. I’ll still be taking the PATCO into Philly, then the El to 30th street station. The good part is the move will take 20 minutes off my drive to the train station in the morning.
What kind of motorcycle do you ride? Any tips for those looking to buy their first bike?
I ride a 2012 Honda Rebel 250. Having just bought my first bike, I’d say buy whatever you’re comfortable handling. A year into riding, a 250cc now feels to slow, but as a smaller guy that was new to riding, I’d have gotten myself into way too much trouble those first couple months of riding with a larger bike. That said, I’ve got my sights set on the new Ducati Scrambler.
You enjoy archery as a hobby. What got you interested in that?
Books. I’m a big fantasy nerd, and I always thought archers were the coolest. After trying my hand at it, I realized it’s nothing like it seems in writing, but I kept at it.
As an avid Redditor, inquiring minds want to know: What are your favorite subreddits, and what does it take for OP to earn your upvote?
As an avid Redditor, I don’t think I have any favorite subreddits. The comments are where things really come to life. The real meat of Reddit is the hidden gems of insight, comedy, and stories that come out in the comments sections. Pre-2012, /r/Atheism was probably my favorite subreddit, but now I just subscribe to any that catch a slight interest and hunt through the comments for the gold.
OP is a curious concept. On a site where the entire goal is to gain fake internet points that are worth nothing, OP has a lot of responsibility. To gain my upvotes, first OP needs to post either funny, unique, or important content that’s relevant to the subreddit. That said, something needs to be said about reposts. Reddiquette section “Please Don’t”, subsection “In Regards to Comments”, Paragraph 5, states to not complain about reposts because not everyone has seen the content before. Newer or less experienced Redditors need to remember that there is the post OP, and comment OPs. If they are not careful they will become OP.
You’re also a huge gamer. What do you think it takes for a video game to be successful? What game are you obsessed with right now, and did you have any favorites growing up?
For a game to be successful, it needs to be a combination of good marketing and fun gameplay.
I’m not obsessed with anything right now, but I currently spend most of my video game time duo-queueing bot lane in League of Legends with one of my good friends. When I’m not playing LoL, I’m replaying old classics that I never beat as a child.
Growing up, my favorites were Zelda, Crash Bandicoot, and NeverWinter Nights. Sadly, nothing will ever compare to my first playthrough of Ocarina of Time, and the sheer amount of immersion into games that you can get as a kid is something you lose as an adult.
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