What’s it really like to work at Chicago startups and tech companies? Blue Sky’s Inside Job lets people on the ground tell us in their own words.
Megan Curth, 28, Customer Success Manager at ActiveCampaign
When I was 13, maybe 14, I watched “What Women Want.” I loved what Helen Hunt’s job was. She was a director at a marketing agency. And when I watched it, I was like, “This is what I want to do.”
ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform. We’re growing like crazy. We have 83 people right now. When I got hired last March, I think it was like 30. We’ve expanded (our space) almost three times since I’ve been here. We’re going to be moving soon, too.
I went to Illinois State and studied integrated marketing communications, which then led me to my first marketing gig out of college with Automated Business Designs. They make all sorts of staffing software. And my job was solely social media because that’s when social media was really just starting out.
From there, I had the opportunity to work at a really large technology company, Salesforce. The entire team at Salesforce was larger than the entire company I worked for before. I was kind of in culture shock at first, but it was awesome because it’s a really well-established company and an innovative leader. I’m using a lot of the things they taught me about discovery and seeing the big picture and breaking it down.
I thought tech was definitely something that was more my style, and I saw ActiveCampaign was marketing technology, and it was everything I was interested in. When I interviewed here, it didn’t feel like an interview. It felt really authentic, like I was hanging out with my friends, and we were just having a really laid-back conversation.
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Career development is also huge for me. I always want to be able to think of the next step. I knew there was a lot of room for growth and for me to learn new skill sets. We have Active Shadow here, where you sign up and shadow someone for two to three hours, like a day in the life of whatever they’re doing. I’ve shadowed someone in the education department, so it was writing and content and strategy.
It’s very, very open. We’re still small enough so it feels like a family. I can know everyone by name. A lot of people are into improv and acting, and there’s ton of musicians. It’s a lot of artistic people that are really, really smart. We have different catered lunches every day. Because we’ve gotten a little bit bigger, we do have two separate lunch slots. We eat together in the big kitchens. It’s my favorite time of the day.
I live on the Gold Coast. I take the Red Line to Monroe, and then I walk. ActiveCampaign pays for all your CTA.
The most stressful thing is, as a customer success manager, you’re the point person when things go wrong. So you need to be able to delegate fast and be able to temper the expectations and help clients understand you’re working on things. You have to make sure it gets addressed as fast as it can.
At its core, I like helping customers. I love helping people. Empathy is my No. 1 strength. At the end of the day, you know whatever you did for the day, you helped someone and made their lives easier.
As told to freelance reporter Erin Chan Ding. Stories are edited for length and clarity.
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