What’s It Like Working at Centerfield?

Get the inside scoop on the perks, benefits, and details on what it’s like to work at Centerfield Media!

In honor of being voted as one of Built in LA’s Top 100 Best Places to Work in LA, we sat down with our Talent Strategy and Recruiting Manager, Kevin O’Shea, to give you the inside scoop!

Tell me a little about yourself and your role at Centerfield.

My background is in technical recruiting, where I worked with Robert Half, one of the world’s largest staffing agencies, and my clients were some of the biggest entertainment corporations in the LA area, such as Lion Gate, Sony, Landmark, and Activision.

A few years ago, I decided to transition into a high growth and fast pace environment through BCG Digital Ventures, the innovation and incubation arm of Boston Consulting Group, where we built new startups from scratch and launched them into the marketplace. My role was primarily focused on organizational design, which ranged from executing against headcount plans, implementing systems, and finding CEO/C-Levels to fill as team leaders.

I have been at Centerfield for over six months now as our Talent Strategy and Recruiting Manager. Being a Centerfielder allows me to continue to work in an equally exciting, high-growth environment, while still growing personally with challenging new opportunities, such as building out a global talent acquisition strategy.

As Manager of Talent and Recruiting, l lead the Talent Acquisition function as Centerfield continues to go through high growth cycles. I am tasked with building a global Talent Acquisition, Diversity & Inclusion, Branding and People strategy/team to meet our growth objectives and business needs. In tandem, I continuously work on attracting, assessing, and selecting high-quality, diverse talent while building an extraordinary candidate experience that scales.

What are some of the best parts of working at Centerfield?

The culture is really, really, special— and it’s the reason I came over.

One of the best parts about working at Centerfield is being surrounded by highly intelligent, helpful, and strong teams that drive and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit.

There is support when you need it, but also room and opportunity for personal growth. Centerfield encourages you to take chances in terms of what you want to do and what you want to challenge yourself with, while also providing support from others around you. It is inspiring and exciting to be able to continually expand your skill sets and try things you haven’t before.

Not only is Centerfield flexible in giving opportunities to employees, but the importance of culture also translates to the entire business.

What Centerfield does that is uncommon with other companies, is our leadership is very employee-facing. There is an open-door policy here that allows leadership to be intimate with their teams and products. Employees can then do their jobs while having a robust understanding of how their daily tasks affect high-level changes that drive impact on the marketplace.

What kind of people are we looking to hire?

We are hiring across the board in the marketing and technology space!

We are looking for anything from talented software engineers, QA professionals, and DevOps specialists on the technical side, to media buyers and Ad Operation specialists, digital marketers, and content specialists on our creative teams. Feel free to check out our career page for more details.

The inside scoop – we are doing a big push for 2020, and we are looking to hire within security and DevOps!

Here at Centerfield — Everyone gets to have a seat at the table.

Centerfield is the perfect place for individuals who possess an entrepreneurial spirit and are looking for opportunities to learn and grow. We are on the lookout for people who are digging into new technologies and are innovative with their thought process. Here at Centerfield— everyone gets to have a seat at the table.

Wanted: Individuals looking to make an impact, work hard, and contribute to building the culture.

We are also known for our diversity and inclusion efforts, as we don’t stick to a “culture-fit” methodology. What Centerfield promotes instead is a “Culture-Add“— where we look for people who can add to our culture with experiences and backgrounds different from what we already have.

As a very cross-collaborative organization, we look for team-players who know how to step up to the plate and take a swing for the team. For example, as a member of our Media Buying team, you will be working with our sales operations, engineering, data, and design teams. We encourage and provide everyone with opportunities to work with other departments and other spaces.

How does Centerfield promote employee growth and development?

As an employee and growth-focused organization, we offer different avenues of growth, depending on the individual. Unlike other companies, we often look to promote within for leadership positions and offer flexibility for individuals looking for cross-functional growth.

We have had Media Buyers switch to an SEO and Content Marketing roles, and UI designers who transitioned into software engineering roles.

Not only do we provide cross-functional growth, but we also like to promote within for leadership positions.

Centerfield also offers the opportunity for individuals to work in different environments or those who are looking to relocate.

In addition to our LA corporate headquarters, we have our Business Services Sales team in Boston, our Growth and Business Development team in New York, and our sales operations and quality assurance team in Florida.

What we do at Centerfield is well rounded – we’re working with advanced strategies and technologies that are new to the marketplace.

What makes working at Centerfield unique/challenging/fun?

There are two things consistent throughout the entire organization: Culture and Contribution.

On Culture:

The culture team here is terrific at getting the people together and creating that team environment. We have a culture event once or twice a month, and each office has its own thing; this helps break up the monotony of the day. Currently, there is a Paint and Sip event coming up that I’m excited about, even though I’m terrible at painting.

On Contribution:

One of our core values is to give back to the community. In general, we have one or two charity events every couple of months. We also have reoccurring volunteering events, such as the  Lennox LEAP program we partnered with last year.

Our commitment to Culture and Contribution makes Centerfield a unique place.

Combined, it makes each office at Centerfield hold consistent values but also has its own unique vibe. Whether you’re in Boston with the Business Service team or in our LA Headquarters, you won’t feel like you’re at an office only to work.

One last but important thing I would like to mention that is unique to Centerfield, is our employee-focused model. This model allows us to provide competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits programs and perks.

Centerfield is unique by building this employee-focused model that is constantly improving! The fantastic culture, catered lunches, and great compensation makes you want to be at your job even more.

Currently, we have over 1,300 Centerfielders globally, and we are looking for more to join us!