A Plant-tastic Software Engineer
Meg Gravatt radiates positivity and warmth. Her sunny disposition and bright laugh are felt across the room, making IntelliTect a place of joy and warmth even on Spokane’s snowiest winter days.
“I’ve recently become interested in being a plant mom,” Meg said. “I’ve killed two of my plants, so that’s not going so well.”
Meg Gravatt with a selection of her house plants. She’s successfully grown an umbrella plant, spider plant, snake plant, and peace lily.
“I got a snake plant because I decided that my plants were not happy with how I was treating them,” Meg said. “Now I have four plants. They’re all very easy, basic plants that you have to remember once in a while to water. So, this is where I’m at now.”
While a green thumb award is years away, Meg deserves recognition for being a quick learner and analytical decision-maker.
Planting the Seed
Meg’s first exposure to programming came through building custom computers with her dad and learning how to swap out parts to create master machines.
“My dad is a pilot, but he had hobbies in computers on the side and would build computers pretty often,” Meg said. “So, from a young age, I would always be assisting and building computers with him.”
Working with her dad acted as the springboard for Meg’s programming work, creating a curiosity for coding that led her to write plugins for the popular video game Minecraft and work as a freelance web designer using WordPress and HTML.
Treading New Soil
Meg’s proficiency in drawing and background in computers left her with too many options when selecting a college major.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for college, and I figured ‘well I can draw stick figures pretty well, so I guess I’ll go do graphic design,'” Meg said. “After my first year, somebody convinced me that I should really go into something that wasn’t graphic design because I have better skills than that. So, I thought, ‘well, maybe I want to go to college for something I don’t know how to do.'”
Meg Gravatt brings the sun from her graduation day to the IntelliTect office every day.
After choosing to pursue computer science instead of graphic design and delving into the world of DevOps, Meg became an agile software developer in only three years. Her time at ASU in Tempe, Arizona, consisted of working on coding projects every night and a full computer science course schedule. This programming-dense college experience gave Meg the necessary skills and knowledge to feel confident applying to IntelliTect.
Growing Roots in Spokane
Similar to when she chose a college discipline, Meg jumped at the opportunity to explore the unfamiliar and decided to leave Arizona and move 1,350 miles away to Spokane, Washington, after graduation.
“Moving to a new state was a big deal,” Meg said. “If I were staying in Arizona, I probably would have waited like a normal person until my last semester to start applying. But, I was really nervous about moving out of state because I didn’t know anything up in Spokane. I didn’t even know if there were software jobs up here.”
Then Meg discovered IntelliTect. “I found Stephanie on LinkedIn and thought, ‘I want to talk to the office manager.’ I messaged her and said, ‘I’m from ASU. I’m graduating in about two years, and I wanted to know what steps I have to take to get hired here.”
After that, IntelliTect was always, to some degree, a part of Meg’s plan for her life post-graduation. She ended up taking two online C# classes from IntelliTect CEO, Mark Michaelis, and she fell in love with the culture of the company.
“Meg Gravatt is the most remarkably proactive candidate we have ever interviewed,” Mark said. “She contacted us six months before her availability and asked us what she would need to do to be qualified. Upon hearing our desired qualifications, she attended training and was one of the best students in the class.”
Blooming at IntelliTect
When Meg first flew out to visit IntelliTect, the company was actively renovating their new building.
“The office was a mess, and I think I had to step over construction material for my interview,” Meg said. “There were no desks, and there was plywood on the floor.”
Meg’s unconventional interview consisted of walking around the neighborhood with Mark and auditing his class offered at Eastern Washington University. After passing the interview process, Meg began working at IntelliTect.
As an employee, Meg continues to be exceptional. She learns extremely fast, is easy to work with, and steps up to exceed all expectations. It is an absolute honor to have her on the IntelliTect team and a pleasure to work with her. Mark Michaelis, IntelliTect CEO
Meg quickly integrated herself into the company culture and new projects such as IntelliWiki, a wiki app for Microsoft Teams. Meg programmed many of the user interface features into the app using TypeScript.
“IntelliWiki is definitely my favorite project,” Meg said. “I did a lot of new features and bug fixing. Specifically, I was the one that did the comments, copying and pasting links, and a lot of other small front-end feature additions.”
(Photo)Synthesizing with IntelliTect’s Culture
“The culture at IntelliTect and the want to make everyone feel included stands out the most to me,” Meg said. “When everyone gets together for lunches, I think that’s really cool.”
(From left to right) Kenny White, Stephanie Perko, Meg Gravatt, and Clayton Gravatt enjoy waffles during a team lunch.
“The attempt at dedicating time to spend together as coworkers instead of coming to work and just sitting down and working stands out. Our office is definitely one of the nicer work environments, and it works really well.”
Undeniably, Meg Gravatt excels at anything she puts her mind to. The team at IntelliTect appreciates Meg’s continual effort to extend a branch and push herself and others to grow.
Want to Learn about Other IntelliTect Team Members?
Check out previous Employee Spotlights on:
- Kevin Bost, A Biker with an Affinity for Mentoring
- Mike Curn, An Enterprising SDET with a Passion for Improving
- Grant Erickson, A Puzzler Who Uses Software to Maximize Relationships
- Andrew Scott, An Analytical Thinker Who Crafts Innovative Solutions
- Kelly Adams, An Engineer with a Fanatical Devotion to Quality
- Brian Jones, an employee who’s been with IntelliTect long enough to accidentally call it “IntelliTechture”
- Written by Nicole Glidden.
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