Uhray
Address: 1220 Washington St, Ste 200, Kansas City, Missouri 64105
Homepage: https://www.uhray.com/
Phone: 913.314.1389
Contact: Troy Reinertsen (troy@uhray.com)
Company Information
Uhray is a US-based company that is locally headquartered out of Kansas City, Missouri. The computer software company was founded in 2014 and consists of a team of 35 members working from offices in Kansas City and Boston. They provide software development solutions for aspiring entrepreneurs that lack the technical know-how to implement a software-based solution. Uhray employs the following technologies to create a product to fit a customer’s diversified software needs: Node.js with express.js MongoDB with Mongoose, REST API, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PhoneGap, CordovaGit, and GitHub. This company has recently developed software solutions for CDL Life, Loom Gift Notes, Leasiest, and NextHire (Uhray, 2022).
Why I’m Interested
I am interested in Uhray due to its small team size and founding in my local area. They seem to do a great job of helping other local entrepreneurs and other small businesses by developing and maintaining a high-quality software solution to meet such businesses’ needs. Along with this their core values of providing meaningful and humanistic approaches for software solutions align exceptionally well with my personal beliefs and goals for creating software products. Seeing as the company is headquartered out of KCMO relocation would not be a worry for me. In addition to this Kansas City is pretty well known for the pride that Kansas Citians take in their community, so it would be excellent to work for a company that prides itself in building up other local businesses and entrepreneurs. I feel their designs and implementation of software solutions provide user experiences that are informative, interactive, and most importantly implement a rapid and responsive UX. Couple this with Uhray having some of their digital products gaining recognition by being featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch I would be excited to work for such a passionate and local team.
Employer Questions
- Seeing that your teams are in Kansas City and Boston, how well do your teams communicate and collaborate to deliver a quality software solution for your customers?
- As someone that is somewhat new to programming, what training systems do you have in place for new hires? Furthermore, what does this process look like seeing as some interactions would be with team members in a remote setting?
- What are your policies regarding tuition reimbursement or reimbursement for industry certifications?
- How do you effectively navigate meeting with clients when your design and development teams are located in different geographical locations?
Netsmart
Address: 11100 Nall Ave Overland Park, KS 66211
Homepage: https://www.ntst.com/
Phone: 800.842.1973
Contact: Kelli Gutscher (kgutscher@ntst.com)
Company Information
Netsmart is a software company with a central focus on providing software solutions for a myriad of healthcare services. They are a US-based company that is headquartered out of Overland Park, Kansas, and was founded in 1992. Netsmart makes use of Java, .NET Framework (C#, VB), AWS, JavaScript, SQL, Angular, and Python to create software solutions for their healthcare-related clients (Netsmart, 2022). The company is somewhat larger with around 2,200 employees currently. Their technology solutions are used by companies and institutions such as the Missouri Behavioral Health Council, Ohioans Home Healthcare, and Circle of Life hospice care.
Why I’m Interested
I originally began my college pursuits as a biological sciences major with a pre-medicine focus. My intent was to work my way through medical school and then specialize in either radiation oncology or clinical psychiatry. During the junior year of my original undergraduate pursuits, I took a basic Java programming course to fulfill a science elective credit for non-major related fields. It was here that I discovered I had a greater desire to pursue a career in software development and that I had a knack for the critical thinking required for programming. I feel my background interests in biology would mesh very well with working in an IT company that is healthcare-related. This would allow me to feel as if the implementation and maintenance of my code for healthcare-related software solutions could possibly improve or make easier the lives of those patients interacting with such services. In a way, I would be able to help others while also pursuing my passion for programming. Netsmart has a stellar backlog of happy clients and has the support of several major healthcare providers. Along with this as someone who struggles with my mental health, I feel working for a software solution company that often focuses and collaborates with behavioral healthcare providers would serve as a very fulfilling career choice.
Employer Questions
- What training services do you offer for those that have more IT experience than professional experience in the healthcare sector? Furthermore, how different are common coding practices for software solutions focused upon assisting healthcare providers?
- Do you offer tuition reimbursement or reimbursement for industry certifications?
- Seeing as your company is spread out at several offices throughout the country, how are team meetings and cohesion managed for remote team members?
- Does the ever-changing nature of innovation and expansion of healthcare services create an overly large amount of maintenance and revision time for your teams?
Advantage Tech
Address: 4400 W 107th Street, Overland Park, KS 66207
Homepage: https://advantagetech.net/
Phone: 913.888.5050
Contact: Erin McPherson (erin@advantagetech.net)
Company Information
Advantage Tech is a technical staffing company. They try to match IT-related professionals to lasting and impactful careers in IT or other related technological fields. They are a US-based company and are headquartered out of Overland Park, Kansas. They leverage their connections to other corporations to try and place prospective employees with an employer that will serve as a mutually beneficial experience for employees and employers (Advantage Tech, 2022). Their company employs around 200 employees located throughout several national offices and they were founded in 1997.
Why I’m Interested
The main drawing point for this company for me is the location being local to my area. In addition, they offer entry-level software developer positions and are open to those with less experience in the professional sector of software development. As an upcoming graduate, this is always a huge bonus when I am considering companies to apply for in my area. This would allow me to have an easier transition into programming following graduation and allow me to build those important couple of years of experience. In addition, knowing that the software solutions I would be implementing would continue to further help those that were in similar situations such as myself could prove to be fulfilling. Another positive for the in-house software developer positions is the possibility to work in a remote setting from home, while also attending the occasional in-office meeting. This flexibility of working from home would be fantastic seeing as I would save gas money and they even offer flexible hours to work around your schedule. As someone that will be buying a slightly more fixer-upper style house in the coming year, this is a huge benefit. Being able to have more say in balancing my work and personal schedules is a huge positive. Along with this, the nature of working with third-party systems would prove to be interesting due to varying scenarios and software solutions such parties would provide. This could prove to be a rewarding job that also challenges you by exposing you to a myriad of different software solutions.
Employer Questions
- Are there any common third-party programs or software practices that are routinely used when interacting with different clients?
- Seeing as you serve a wide breadth of clients from many different fields, what does your training program cover as related to making use of clients’ systems and programs?
- Regarding employee placement, what is the average employment time for those employees matched to various employers? Specifically, I am concerned with how effective the in-house software solutions are with matching candidates and employers.
- Do you offer any sort of tuition or certification reimbursement for in-house software developers?
Clear Capital
Address: 300 E 2nd St Ste 1405 Reno, NV 89501
Homepage: https://www.clearcapital.com/
Phone: 530-550-2500
Contact: Alex Garner (alex.garner@clearcapital.com)
Company Information
In 2000 REO Network was founded by the CEO Duane Andrews to help the real estate community. They have provided technology to help real estate professionals connect. Since then, it has grown into Clear Capital to help impact the mortgage industry. Clear Capital is providing platforms to speed up loan processing and analytics that give a better insight into the real estate market. It provides expertise on the quality, condition, and value of commercial and residential properties (Clear Capital, 2022). Clear Capital has a team of professionals all over the United States that know their local markets to make the experience more efficient for users.
Why I’m Interested
I am interested in working with Clear Capital because they are hiring for a Java Software Engineer. The degree I am pursuing is in software development with a focus on mobile and web development. Much of my front-end programming experience is centered around programming with Java or Kotlin. One prospect of this company that particularly interested me is its commitment to mentoring and collaboration between new hires and their more established developers (Clear Capital, 2022). This would be great to have in a new professional environment since the mentors could get you up to speed with the company’s coding style and common practices more quickly than if you were completely on your own. Along with this their company is centered more around back-end or full-stack development. These are areas I feel I need to continue to improve within myself and their mentor program could prove useful to hone these skills while receiving feedback more quickly about my programming. Finally, another main draw is this is once again a local company. This would allow me to not worry about relocating and the costs associated with that. Being able to jump into a career at a local company that is major-related would absolutely be a positive experience. Couple this with a guided mentorship through said company and it seems like a match made in heaven.
Employer Questions
- With so many of the positions for this company being remote from anywhere in the United States, how do you get coworkers to work together to complete projects in an organized and timely fashion?
- In the about section of the company, it states more than one coding language is used for your system. Will I just be working with Java, or will I have to use these other languages as well?
- Seeing as your software solutions center around the banking industry, is it important that a potential candidate has experience in the banking industry. Furthermore, would a passion for programming and a willingness to learn be enough despite possessing minimal prior knowledge of the banking industry?
- What are your policies regarding tuition or certification reimbursement?
References
Advantage Tech. (n.d.). Advantage Tech – IT Staffing & Recruiting Services. https://advantagetech.net/
Clear Capital. (n.d.). Clear Capital Real Estate Valuation Technology Solutions. https://www.clearcapital.com/
Netsmart. (n.d.). Delivering Value Based Care Through Technology Netsmart. https://www.ntst.com/
Uhray. (n.d.). Uhray – Empowering Entrepreneurs. https://www.uhray.com/
Great post. Good to see you are looking at actively open positions. Not a bad idea if you are graduating soon. I already am working full-time, but might start looking at some other positions when I graduate in December.
Good day Cody. Excellent post Sir. I read several posts and you’ve had a great deal of feedback as to why you would consider working for these potential employers in the future. You put a great deal of thought into the questions you have for these employers. Excellent job at listing a contact follow up person. I had a tough time finding that piece of information and had to result in human resources email contacts for my potential employers. Fantastic job!
Hi Cody! Your post was really interesting! I read your research about Netsmart. Now, I understand why this employer piqued your interest. Normally, I wouldn’t see a connection between medicine and programming, but since you initially studied pre-medicine & then discovered that you enjoyed programming – this company combines both of those worlds. Sounds like a great match and it’s local! Advantage Tech seems like a great place to start an IT-related career as well.
Hey Cody.what a great post ! The fact asking if employers offer tuition reimbursement Especially if you don’t have a degree, going to college part-time and having your employer pay for it is a FANTASTIC way to get a degree without racking up debt. If you already have a bachelor’s degree and they will pay for a Master’s degree then that’s also great. It will likely lead to increased salary for the rest of your working life.