

Katie Gonzalez is a Recruiter from our Washington DC office who started at Uber as a Recruiting Coordinator and Gianni Sesto is a Sourcing Lead from our San Francisco office who started at Uber as a Tech Sourcer. They are now both on short term assignment building one of Uber’s largest offices worldwide located in Dallas, Texas. Creating something new is never easy but bringing Uber to Dallas has proven to be a challenge worth taking on for Gianni and Katie.
Q: What led you to help open the Dallas office?
Katie: “I’ve been super fortunate to see a lot of personal and professional growth here at Uber, starting as a recruiting coordinator and eventually growing into a recruiter role. When the opportunity to help open the Dallas office arrived, it seemed like a once in a lifetime chance to stretch myself while also helping the company in its next phase of growth.”
Q: What are some of the challenges you’ve experienced in setting up a new office?
Gianni: “One of the main challenges is building everything from the ground up. We need to ensure we have headcount approval, short and long term hiring growth plans, organizational design within the office, and proper systems in place for candidate onboarding and career development. It’s important we lay the proper foundation from the beginning and scale our efforts smoothly.”
Q: What is something you’ve learned that you didn’t expect?
Katie: “Since being here, I’ve quickly learned how excited and hands-on everyone in this office is about building a great work culture. It’s so important to cultivate a fun and collaborative environment in every office, and with Dallas, we’re starting from scratch. Despite recently joining the company, I’ve seen how committed our new hires are in planning events so everyone can get to know each other – we’re currently most excited about our first annual office Friendsgiving! ”
Gianni: “It has been exciting to see the immediate positivity and support from the Metroplex with our announcement to move to Dallas. I’ve learned that the city is truly excited about the arrival of our office here. Individuals have personally reached out to me expressing their excitement about what Uber can offer to the workforce here. I can only imagine what this feeling will be like in the future”
Q: What is Uber bringing to Dallas that not a lot of people know?
Gianni: “Uber is bringing the future to Dallas. The city has welcomed our self-driving vehicles to their roadways for manual data collection. This will be vital for testing purposes as we continue to mature our self-driving systems. In addition, Dallas has been a rich city for aviation, so it’s exciting that Dallas will be our first launch city for our Uber Elevate program. By utilizing VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft, we can begin to help move people and goods through the skies.”
Q: What is the most exciting thing about Uber Dallas?
Katie: “For me, the most exciting part about Uber Dallas is getting to see an office grow right before my eyes. When Gianni and I arrived in Dallas about a month ago, there were only 15 employees in the office. Since that time, we’ve quadrupled the existing hires in the office. There’s a real energy here and the opportunity to see an office grow so rapidly before your eyes is a unique experience that I’m really grateful for.”
Q: What challenges are employees in the Dallas office going to be solving?
Gianni: “There are a variety of challenges employees will be working to solve in our new location from complex engineering problems including urbanized air travel and self-driving to building robust systems. In addition to creating new technologies, we also have the challenge of increasing the size of our office over the next couple of years. Overall, there will be endless exciting challenges for our Dallas office employees to embrace!”
Q: What advice would you have for someone interviewing for a role in the new office?
Gianni: “It is important to be true to yourself and interview us as much as we interview you. Uber is a company comprised of thousands of individuals with diverse backgrounds. Our interview process highlights your work experience and how you handle certain workplace situations. At the end of the day, we want to make sure you are a fit for Uber, but also that Uber is a fit for you too.”
Katie: “I always recommend coming prepared with questions to ask your interviewers. As Gianni said, every interview is an opportunity to determine if this role is the right fit for you. In addition, our interview panels are often comprised of employees from different backgrounds, locations, cross-functional teams, and reasons for joining Uber, so there is a lot to learn and take away from the interview. At Uber, we’re always looking to improve and innovate, and asking questions can often help hiring managers to understand what projects you might be passionate about working on and how you’ll add value on their team.”
Posted by Sarah Page
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