Why I Love Working for Dimagi

Since starting my career as a software engineer, I’ve worked at a variety of companies. I’ve written code in offices ranging from three person startups to multinational corporations.  None of it was at all similar to the unique culture and team I found here at Dimagi. I guess it’s not surprising that we’re a little different, considering that we have engineers on three continents and projects in over 40 countries.

Making an Impact: Perhaps the biggest thing that drew me to Dimagi was knowing that my code would be helping people live better, healthier lives. At Dimagi, we build software that supports global development across numerous sectors, from health to agriculture to humanitarian assistance. So when we say that our software is “making an impact,” we don’t mean helping people get half priced sushi. It’s used to report on medicine stocks in rural Tanzania over SMS where people have no internet access but can send text messages. It’s used to track and support pregnancies in rural India, and help health workers facilitate safe deliveries.

Code that Counts: When it comes to the actual code development, we get to use tools we love to build open source software. The fact that all of our code is open source lets us give back to the community and makes our Github profiles look pretty interesting. We all have a say in tech choices and end up on the cutting edge of the tools we use (which can be both good and bad). It’s new to me to know I can poke the CTO on the shoulder for help whenever I get stuck on a problem. Even better, I get to see my code in action. For us, the “opportunity to travel” doesn’t mean going to local conferences or career fairs an hour away for me anymore. It means four weeks spent traveling in East Africa, visiting project sites where I can see end users using our software in rural villages and health facilities.

Working with Great People: And last, but definitely not least, I love the people I work with. Our team at Dimagi  is really close. We all eat lunch together every day and even cook together on Wednesdays, and we communicate regularly  with other engineers and field staffs based all over the world. I’ve heard “flexible work environment” before, but it usually just meant being able to start an hour late if you had an appointment or working from home during a snow storm. Here it means people starting their days at 8am or at 1pm. The ability to work remotely means that I’ve submitted pull requests from Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Kenya, and Tanzania in the last six months. It also allows the entire Cambridge office to uproot and  spend February in Guatemala…because winters in Massachusetts are cold.