Back in 2000, Edisson Suarez’ girlfriend—now his wife—worked at Accurate. His first exposure to the company was through her work there and, he recalls, he really liked the interactions he had back then with her and her coworkers. The company was quite a bit smaller then, he says, but its culture was already being formed.

“I think she was employee number four with the company,” he says. While she’s since moved on to other opportunities, she’s the one who encouraged him to apply. That early career move has worked out very well for him.

Unexpected Opportunities

Fresh out of school, Edisson says he wasn’t sure he had the experience to take on a role in IT, his area of study. “Usually when you’re first starting, you have to start in a different field before you can get to work in what you want,” he says. But he interviewed with Accurate’s owner and his wife and he got the job.

“I was lucky enough that I was able to start working on the things that I was studying so that’s the main reason I took the job,” he says. “I’ve been with Accurate ever since.” Today Edisson is a systems engineer with Accurate. Over the past 22 years, though, he’s had multiple titles all in the IT area.

Experiencing Growth Firsthand

To say that the field of IT has changed since 2000 would be a significant understatement. As Edisson recalls: “When I started with the company, I think we had five physical services—now we have more than 3000 virtual instances that we manage.”

That’s amazing growth. And it is exactly what has kept Edisson with the company for so long.

“One of the things that I’ve seen with Accurate is that we’re always trying to stay ahead of the game and always bringing in new technology to keep improving and enhancing the company. We always look for the next big thing,” he says. “I’m constantly learning which makes the job interesting.” And it keeps him highly motivated.

Edisson recalls that “back in the day” vendors would send over physical devices that would need to be delivered and installed in person. Today “we just go run a command,” he says. This offers significant flexibility both when adding resources and when removing resources that are no longer needed, he says.

Staying Curious

Accurate’s culture is built on four core values pillars that unify the company with a common purpose, define where they’re headed, indicate what they’ll do to get there, what they believe in, and how they will behave with each other and their customers. They are:

• Take ownership: be accountable for your actions, your team, and the company.
• Be open: be open to new ideas.
• Stay curious: stay curious even as you move forward.
• Work as one: work together to create the best customer and workplace experience.

Not surprisingly, the pillar that resonates most with Edisson is stay curious. “To me stay curious has to do with new opportunities for learning and growing with the company.”

During his time with Accurate as he’s watched its growth, Edisson says the culture has definitely changed, but in a good way. “The company keeps growing so we get to grow with it as well.”

Looking to the Future

Edisson says he’d definitely recommend Accurate as a great place to work for a variety of reasons. For one, he says, even during difficult times—like the recession back in 2008, or the past couple of years with COVID—Accurate “was always finding ways to keep its employees and to keep the company moving forward.” That stability, he says, has been something he’s definitely appreciated.

He also appreciates that “there’s just always something to do, or to learn.”

In his case, he says, there’s always new technology to learn about or train on. “That keeps it interesting for me. I don’t want to work for a company where I’m just going to be doing the same things every single day,” he says.

Looking ahead, Edisson sees his place remaining in the IT area. But, he says, he’s interested in getting more into the DevOps side of the company on AWS in the cloud. “That’s my goal. There will be a lot of new opportunities that will open up because I can manage the cloud infrastructure or manage the security on the cloud infrastructure. So, there are a lot of opportunities.

Keeping it Social

One of the things that Edisson has enjoyed over the years have been opportunities to socialize with his colleagues, and their families. Early on, when his wife worked there, it was in small groups for lunch. Later, after he joined the company, it was at barbecues and company picnics. “It was a way for us to get to know different team members which was a lot of fun,” he says.

He especially enjoyed the opportunity to play on Accurate’s soccer team—and he still has his soccer uniform. It was a chance to enjoy a hobby he particularly liked with his colleagues with Accurate’s support.

There are many things that Edisson is thankful for as he looks back over his more than two decades with Accurate. But he’s especially thankful for having had the opportunity to join the company so many years ago as a young man with no experience. “I was just a guy coming pout of school and they gave me an opportunity. I feel proud of where the company is because I know that I was part of that.”