Jeff Gates has been with Capital IQ for just over six years: three years in the New York office and the rest of the time in the office just outside of Denver, Colorado. As one of the panelists on the Thursday May 24 S&P Capital IQ Live Chat, Jeff will provide insight about the business of S&P Capital IQ as well as discuss what it takes to be a Business Analyst at the company. Join us (at the link above) to get the inside scoop from Jeff, Eric, and Nitin on life at S&P Capital IQ.
With the chat upcoming, I thought it would be great to get a little more background from Jeff, and he graciously agreed to answer a few questions.
What does a Business Analyst do? What part of the CapIQ platform are you focused on?
The Business Analyst (BA) role at S&P Capital IQ is a combination of traditional BA responsibilities along with extensive user interface design of the client-facing web-based Platform and our other software applications. Currently I am a team lead for the Platform Business Analysts focused on Charting, Screening, Reports, and Alerts functionality.
Jeff Gates, Business Analyst extraordinaire and panelist in the May 24 Live Chat
What do you enjoy most about your work?
Collaborating with my team to solve complex user interface design problems to display massive amounts of data in an intuitive, user-friendly manner within the constraints of our design standards all while bending the rules to incorporate new design trends is the most exciting part of my job. However, mentoring and training others to be valuable members of the organization is the most rewarding part of my career.
Tell us a little bit about prior experience or background and how it prepared you for what you are doing now.
Before joining S&P Capital IQ, I was at a national athletic club company where part of my job focused on redesigning an in-house developed membership sales and member retention software application. Working with the developers and stakeholders to iterative on the design was a lot of fun. That experience helped focus my career aspirations towards software development.
Why did you want to work at S&P Capital IQ, and how did you hear about us?
At the time that we were wrapping up the software project with the athletic club company, I was living in Denver but wanted to move toNew York City. I started searching the various career websites and came across the Business Analyst job posting for Capital IQ. The listing described an exciting collaborative environment and startup culture. This really appealed to me and I quickly applied. During my interviews, I had the chance to speak directly with other BAs to get a first-hand account of the work environment and my excitement about Capital IQ grew.
What kind of training did you get once you were on board?
The training consisted of a lot of product demos and a pairing up with an experienced BA as my mentor. Today we continue to pair new hires with mentors, but our training program is a lot more structured covering things like expectations and best practices. In fact, I am leading the training sessions for our incoming interns and class of college hires that will be starting this summer.
The views aren't bad in Colorado.
What is it like to work at S&P Capital IQ; what is the work culture like at the Colorado office?
I am lucky to have worked for three years in the New York office and another three years in Denver, with frequent trips back toNew York. In New York, the culture is very fast-paced as you would expect for a software company in the world’s financial capitol. Additionally, many people on the Technology Team graduated within the past few years and a new class comes in every summer, so that keeps things fresh and energetic. In Denver, there is a bit more of a laid-back vibe but the work we are doing is just as important. Additionally, some wings of our building have undergone recent renovations to create a more collaborative environment.
How has the experience been so far, and what are you looking forward to in the future?
Capital IQ has grown rapidly since the time that I joined in 2006 in terms of sales, acquisitions, and hiring. Now as S&P Capital IQ under McGraw-Hill Financial, we are entering a new phase in our company’s life. We are no longer a startup, but we still have a lot of the same passion and values that drove us in the early days. We have gone through a lot of changes recently, which has created many new career opportunities and room for advancement.
What advice do you have for people who are looking to do what you do?
The most important things that we look for is related experience, both in terms of the core BA skills and strong user interface design abilities. For people who are still in college, seek out an internship at a software firm. Hopefully you will have the chance to work on an interesting project and this will really be appealing on your résumé. Having experience in the financial industry is also definitely a plus.
What are some of the things you do outside of the office, with or without co-workers?
A lot of my friends in New York are current and former Capital IQ coworkers. There always seems to be something going on that someone the New York office has organized, from game night in the office to sports clubs. I am looking forward to playing in the annual company golf tournament this summer in Denver. I devote a lot of my free time to fitness—I am in the gym 2+ hours six days a week. I also enjoy taking advantage of the Rocky Mountain West through mountain biking, hiking, camping, and skiing.
Jeff’s Bio: I have been with Capital IQ for just over six years: three years in the New York office and the rest of the time in the office just outside of Denver,Colorado. The majority of projects have been applications on the Capital IQ Platform, such as Charting, Reports, News, Key Documents, and user interface design projects. I also was the BA for over a year on the next generation of the Xpressfeed Loader, the software that our data feeds clients use to ingest our feeds into their databases. Now I lead a team of Business Analysts for the Capital IQ Platform’s Charting, Screening, Reports, and Alerts functionalities. Additionally, I am leading the onboarding and training efforts for new hires and have been influential in shaping our team through lots of mentoring over the years.
