Reflecting on five years at Intuit

In two weeks, I’ll have spent 5 years at Intuit.

In round numbers, it’s the longest I’ve ever spent in one place. First time in my life I haven’t become restless after 2-3 years! 

This isn’t a knock on any former employer. Each one played an important role in my career, and I learned a TON from every leader, project, peer, and partner along the way. So many great people! 

Fact is, every job has ceilings. Promotion ceilings, recognition ceilings, budget ceilings, training ceilings, curiosity ceilings, growth ceilings. Some higher, some lower. This is life.

I’m also just a bit ADD, but I don’t actually get bored easily. I’m fascinated by everything. “You are easily entertained” a girl once told me in 11th grade chemistry class, as I bounced an eraser on my desk in an interesting percussive pattern.

“Thanks!” I replied.

But part of that “fascinated by everything” thing is that some of those threads need to keep evolving. Forever. “Write this monthly newsletter” is fun the first 12 times. Fine the next 12 times. A drag the third 12 times. Then, mind-numbing, in the absence of real breaking news or changes worth mentioning.

Insatiable curiosity is a double-edged sword; it can be a powerful driving force, but it can also mean you find and hit barriers at warp speed, and without adequate patience, or assistance in dismantling those barriers, it can result in a welling of frustrated energy that pushes you to look elsewhere for growth. You can’t stop it; you can only redirect it. Leave and grow is always preferred to quit and stay.

Due to the complexity of our customers' problems to solve, and the organizational structure and talent development strategy at Intuit, I'm yet to encounter a ceiling. This shows up in three ways:

1. A constant investment in employee growth (over 400 promotions announced this week!)
2. A bias for self-disruption
3. Regular strategic pivots and re-orgs to match

This isn’t to say there aren’t typical frustrations; all jobs have them. I don't love change, but I've grown to appreciate its effects, and now I try to drive as many changes as possible. Intuit has done a great job in creating an environment where people and processes don’t ever really get comfortable enough to become barriers. 

And that’s all ceilings are, right? Artificial barriers, usually articulated along the lines of “Well we’ve never done that before…” or “This is how we run our business, and it’s worked for this long…” or my favorite, “That doesn’t work with our process.”

Like a river that is dammed so heavily it stagnates or dries up entirely, businesses need regular disruptions to keep everything flowing. Intuit does that remarkably well, and at the same time we're able to acquire the soft and hard skills required to thrive in this environment through training and coaching programs.

Now, lots of employers provide access to training, but too many stop at the point of recognition and compensation. I don't want a piece of paper congratulating me on passing a course, and the peace of mind that I'm not getting stale is about as useful as an unpaid internship.

Critically, Intuit invests in employees to match their development. You can’t expect an employee to commit to you if you don’t show that you’re committed to them. In my time here, I’ve seen roughly 2,000 promotions, I’ve seen people continue to grow their careers outside of people management (a sore spot at smaller companies), I've seen internal mobility moves to accommodate career pivots, and over that time, Intuit has increased their investment in total compensation for everyone, including those who are growing in their existing roles (while battling inflation).

Employment is a value exchange, and if you're increasing the value you deliver to your employer, that should be recognized. Intuit does this well. Many employers do not.

Of course, working at a big company is not for everyone. Simple tasks sometimes take longer than you'd expect, big decisions involve more people than you might want, navigating legal barriers is always more complicated than you'd think, and you may find yourself working in a more specialized role than you'd like. But for those who seek a long growth trajectory, endless challenges to attack, and hundreds of customer problems to solve, Intuit has been a great place for me to grow, and with a bit of luck I'll be revisiting this topic in another five years.