By Ocient Staff
Ocient is comprised of hardworking individuals that lead the charge of hyperscale innovation. In our employee spotlights, we like to showcase a selection from our unique talent pool. This week, we spoke with Greg Dalton, a member of the Customer Operations and Product Support team, about his passions both inside and outside of life at Ocient.
The Customer Operations and Product Support team looks after our clients in the post-sales cycle of the product. Greg handles a range of tasks, such as monitoring our hosted customers environments, dealing with questions and issues that arise from our clients, and even helping where possible on prospective engagements. Let’s learn more about Greg’s background and how he fits into his role here at Ocient.
Where are you based and how do you take advantage of our remote first policy?
I’m based out of Dallas, Texas. I’ve spent much of my career being remote, so this style of working isn’t new to me, but it’s definitely new working in an environment where so many employees are enabled to be fully remote in the way that Ocient has embraced.
What are some things you like to do in your free time?
My family (wife, and daughter, aged 12) keep me very busy, but when I can, I like to cook outdoors, subjecting family and friends to youtube and internet recipes that invariably look a lot better online than what I’m capable of dishing up. I also enjoy reading, walking our dogs, and trying to keep up with our favorite shows on TV. Really enjoying the latest season of Westworld at the moment.
What is the next place you would like to check off on your travel bucket list?
I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights, so I’d like to drag my family off to experience that, preferably somewhere with a very different cultural footprint, like Iceland or Norway. We actually had a trip to Europe planned a couple of years ago that we wound up cutting short where we’d planned to try and see them, but it didn’t pan out with timing.
Ocient has 6 core values: Leadership, Customer-Focused, Inclusive & Collaborative, Efficiently Effective, Craft-Driven, Trustworthy & Ethical. Which core value do you resonate the most with in your daily working life?
So much of my work centers around or is driven by working with customers so it’s hard not to reply with Customer-Focused. But I think to be effective in a support role, you have to really embrace a lot of those core values. As a support team, we have to be very Inclusive & Collaborative to share knowledge, and work to grow everyone’s technical understanding so that the whole team is buoyed by new knowledge and understanding. Trustworthy & Ethical working is key to any sort of customer engagement or interaction in a world where trust can be so hard to gain and so easy to lose.
What do you find unique about your job?
For me, it’s the variety of tasks and opportunities that come up in my day to day job that keeps things constantly interesting and different. From the range of customer questions that come up that serve as opportunities to learn more about the Ocient Hyperscale Data Warehouse, to the range of tools and stacks we use internally, there’s no shortage of things to learn about or get exposed to. Having the opportunity to develop skills in so many areas while working with numerous talented members of the Ocient team is something that really sets my role here apart from other roles I’ve had.
What advice would you give to someone entering the tech industry?
When I was graduating college and getting ready to start my career in tech, it seemed like being “a developer” was the singular goal everyone had. We obviously need developers, and that role, and being effective at that role is the foundation upon which everything we do at a company like Ocient is built. But there are so many other amazing opportunities that are equally technical out there. So my advice would be for everyone to keep their eyes wide open; get to know what all the other teams are doing and what skills those roles require. I’ve bounced around a number of different roles since I graduated, and I never would have guessed upon entering tech that I’d find my passions in the areas I have. Plus, there are still plenty of opportunities to write some code.
Come Join the Team.
Ocient is a remote-first company looking for craft-driven contributors. We are passionate about delivering the very best in hyperscale data solutions to our customers. If this is something that piques your interest, check out our open jobs or explore our partnership opportunities.