Hi there! My name is Suky Kuye, and I'm a Senior Software Engineer (SSE) at HubSpot within the CRM Import Export team. I'll be sharing a sneak peek into a Day in the Life of an SSE at HubSpot.

Before we get into that, here is some context on who I am. I've been at HubSpot for 1 year and 8 months. I came from a Computer Engineering background and chose to go toward the high-level software development route after doing a co-op in a lower-level computer engineering position. I was intrigued to join HubSpot after a recruiter contacted me via LinkedIn to apply for a co-op, and I never looked back!

Let’s get into it…

On being a Senior Software Engineer

As cliche as it sounds, a typical day in my role varies by the week! The most exciting part of my job is developing features that help our customers. In college, I thought I would get to work on building these features all day. Still, a few other categories of work keep me busy: meetings, investigating issues, helping other engineers, building out system designs, or debugging code.

My days usually start anytime between 8 and 9 am. If I go to the office, I start my day the same way every day, grabbing a smoothie at HubSpot's Cambridge office. Then, when I return to my desk, one of the first things I do is review Slack and emails. If there's anything actionable to be done, I try to do it immediately; otherwise, I'll add the task to my to-do list and take note of what else I need to get done that day. Next, I'll get a few code reviews in. Reviewing each other's changes is important, as it helps team members progress in their work, so I like to make sure nobody is blocked!

At this point in the mid-morning, my brain should be awake enough to start progressing through my to-do list. I have one project-related goal I get done per week, so I'll start by addressing that. After that, other tasks come up, such as reaching out to other teams about feature requests, investigating how the implementation for a new feature could work, investigating whether something is working as intended, and much more. My time is not split evenly between all of those tasks, the goal is to dedicate the most time to my project, but it only sometimes works out that way. As long as I finish my main goal for the week, how I spend my time during the day doesn't matter as long as it's productive.

On prioritization and flexibility

My work is broken up mainly by meetings that are sprinkled throughout the day. These meetings could be stand-up, check-ins with leadership, planning, reliability, product/company-wide presentations, or casual 1-on-1 conversations with other co-workers. Other times, my work day can be broken up by personal errands I have to run or taking encouraged breaks to limit burnout. I appreciate the flexibility HubSpot offers their employees, as they know everyone cannot dedicate themselves to work for 8 hours straight.

Some people have families to care for, things to do, or, most importantly, they just need a break. The break I look forward to most in the day: lunch! I'm an in-office employee, so I spend most of my week working from the office in Cambridge. I love the opportunity lunch provides me to interact with co-workers and socialize! After lunch, I grab a snack and then go back to work.

Every three weeks or so, I'm on call. That means I'm responsible for handling any alerts that may pop up about the systems my team owns, addressing any customer tickets that may outline flaws in our systems, answering any immediate questions from internal teams, and more. Adding all of these new responsibilities means I stray from my regular schedule and won't have enough time to work on my project or other non-urgent tasks if reliability issues need addressing, but that's expected during weeks like this! I do everything I listed above before 5 pm! Some days end earlier, some days later; it truly depends. I'm happy I don't have to do the same thing daily, as it keeps the job exciting!

On what makes HubSpot unique?

Many facets make HubSpot a unique and amazing company. On the employee side of things, there is a reason HubSpot is continuously ranked as one of the best companies to work for in the US. The culture here is unmatched. The company genuinely believes in a work-life balance for all their employees and continuously takes action to ensure they are happy, not burnt out, and have the opportunity to take as much time off as needed. One way that is done is management actively encourages their teams to take advantage of the unlimited PTO. 

HubSpot employs the same forward and proactive thinking with its customers. From leadership to every last individual contributor, they are building for the customer first, as their needs are always at the top of everyone's minds. 

On life outside of HubSpot.

I have too many hobbies to list! I'm a big sports fan, so a good amount of my time is spent playing or watching. My favorite sport is soccer and I tend to play for hours until my legs give out. When I'm not playing, I'm watching my favorite team Chelsea play or whatever other big game is on. I also enjoy playing and watching basketball. I hopped on the Boston Celtics bandwagon shamelessly and have been trying to follow their games. 

A hobby that formed during COVID was photography/drone photography. I try to get out in Boston/surrounding areas and take photos. I really enjoy the editing process and changing how the photo looks depending on my latest editing style. 

If you’d like to stay informed of all things Product & Engineering at HubSpot, check out our Product blog here. And if you’d like to join us in building products that you’re proud of, we’re hiring!