For the last couple of years, I have conducted many interviews and had the privilege of building the PandaDoc team. In all the conversations I’ve had with prospective candidates, three questions always pop-up.
- What is the culture at PandaDoc?
- What is my favorite thing about PandaDoc?
- What makes a Panda?
Although simple, the answers can be crucial to a hire’s success. Let me try to clarify in a few words!
Culture at PandaDoc
Culture can be expressed in many fancy terms, but let’s do it the Panda way! Making an impact, continuous learning, lots of fun, and extreme love for PandaDoc sums up our culture. PandaDoc functions with the foundational belief that each employee is filling a role that they are best suited for. Everyone is empowered to a make a positive impact, and they do!
PandaDoc invests in passion and loves to build people’s career. We started an apprenticeship program, with Praxis, solely based one’s passion and commitment to grow and learn. Many of them are full-time Pandas now, some even skipped the traditional growth path and straight away took roles that usually require 2-3 years of experience. We also provide advisors to any PandaDoc employee that needs guidance in their career. We want Pandas to focus on more than just what they do every day and achieve their long-term goals.
We do all the hard work while having lots of fun! More than just reaching the destination of hitting new milestones, PandaDoc wants to enjoy the journey of getting there. Partying to celebrate successes at fantastic venues, going on “workations” as a team to boost productivity, go-karting to keep our competitive spirit on, or just having a simple lunch in the sun. PandaDoc recognizes the ROI that fun times can bring in.
We are passionate about our teams, our customers, our careers and above all, PandaDoc. And that true sense reflects on everything we do and makes our culture.
Favorite thing about PandaDoc
It’s “THE PEOPLE!” It is our team that takes us from good to great. Sometimes, I wake up in the morning, and my first thought is about PandaDoc, in a good way! This team is made of light-hearted individuals who are focused on making an impact. Juggling multiple time zones, countless demos, extreme empathy for clients, and coding for endless hours to continually improve our product. These are familiar sights at PandaDoc, and our team happily goes that extra mile. They own their share of impact, and we are connected to our collective success!
What does it take to make a great Panda?
Courage – PandaDoc is not for faint-hearted because it’s not going to be easy. It wasn’t easy for Mikita and Serge, our founders to come all the way from Minsk to build PandaDoc in Silicon Valley. It took a lot of trying, failing and trying again to take PandaDoc from an idea to a Series B funded Company.
Forgiveness
Pandas are also forgiving because mistakes are bound to happen when you are trying something unconventional. And there is no better way than how Mikita puts it, “It is okay to fail what is not okay is not to TRY.”
Humility and collaboration
All the Pandas are extremely intelligent, and it is amazing how down to earth they are. They care about the well-being of one another and PandaDoc. This fosters collaboration within teams and across the company.
Curious
Pandas are naturally curious and love to solve problems. Our best sales reps are not ruthless; they genuinely try to learn and resolve the pain points for their customers.
Fun loving
There is never a dull moment at PandaDoc because we take fun very seriously!
T-shaped
Pandas are T-shaped i.e., we strive to be both generalists (highly skilled at a broad set of valuable things – the top of the T) and also experts (the best in the field within a narrow discipline – the vertical leg of the T). And this indeed is the secret sauce of becoming a Panda!
It has been an amazing journey so far! If you want to be a part of it, reach out to me on LinkedIn or apply on our Careers Page.