Employee Spotlight on Bernard Julve

Describe your journey at VerityStream

I grew up in San Diego but left home for college, and I was visiting my parents when I came back down here and applied to a small company called Healthline Systems, my first introduction to VerityStream. I interviewed and got the job, and it was my first job out of college, so I didn’t know what to expect. I started as a junior developer with Healthline Systems and started work with web development about 10 years ago. I’ve stayed ever since because the thing I liked most was as a developer, you always want to be sharpening your skills. I was always able to work on something new, try a new framework or sharpen my skills in multiple areas. I started as a junior developer, I became senior developer over the years, and for three years now I’ve been promoted to team lead and manager at VerityStream.

What is an accomplishment you are most proud of, work/nonwork related?

For something outside of work, my biggest accomplishment graduating and getting a degree. For work, there’s been a lot of growth. I was assigned to work on a web portal project that is provider facing and it was really small back then. I don’t even think many clients were using it; it was mostly experimental at the time. The product has now grown to be used by a lot of hospitals and there are hundreds of providers going through that product and using it today. I still manage the development of this product, and it’s interesting to see how it's evolved over the years.

What is important for a candidate to know about career development with VerityStream?

With VerityStream, it’s unique; it’s really in your hands in terms of how far you want to grow your career here. You have a lot of resources in terms of people with experience. You can always ask for help; there is a strong mentorship culture at VerityStream. There’s a lot of opportunity here, where if you want to grow into a bigger role, you take on more responsibility. We trust our developers so that if we give them a project, they can see it through from beginning to end. That sense of trust applies to all departments. If you decide to have an expanded role, people will trust you with more responsibility. The growth is there in this company where the opportunity is there if you want it. I would say don’t be constrained by thinking you shouldn't be doing anything outside of your dedicated role or scope. You can take on more responsibilities and find yourself in a more expanded role as I did.

I started with small work items like fixing bugs. That translated into being assigned projects here and there. Eventually I was getting assigned bigger projects, and once you can prove you’re up to the task, then you can expand your role. I was able to oversee pretty much every part of that portal project and all sorts of enhancements. Any features and new functionalities that people thought of, I was able to incorporate them. Initially, it was just me working on a project but eventually my team grew, and I became a Senior Software Developer to a few other junior developers. Now I am assigning and assisting with work items, and that’s how my role grew. In summary, your career is in your hands. If you have the dedication and initiative, you can take it as far as you want to go with VerityStream.

What is your favorite part of working at VerityStream?

The number one thing I enjoy is the role itself. We do full stack development. You work with so many types of technology. We work with databases, server site codes, and JavaScript, which has become more popular recently. There’s a lot of responsibility but a lot of reward at the same time. I can see a project from beginning to end and even add a little design to it on how I want to implement it. I appreciate being entrusted to find an implement a good solution.

I like my role in development, but especially before the COVID situation, the office culture is pretty open. You meet people from all departments. There will be get-togethers with colleagues after work and different events that are hosted at work. The culture is a big benefit to working at VerityStream. When I started, it was a really small company, and I felt a kind of family-type environment: everyone knows everybody, and if you need help, you can always ask for help. Even after being acquired by HealthStream and integrating with our parent company, the culture never got lost; that closeness is still there.

What gets you excited to go to work every morning?

My favorite part of this role has been that full stack development responsibility. That never changed even though I’m working remotely. I still have to plan projects, implement solutions and build features from scratch to a polished product. That hasn’t really changed for me even with the pandemic. You’re always kept on your toes; there may be a challenging bug or another problem that needs to be solved, and it’s always different for me. The variety of projects available has kept me engaged.

I’ve seen my impact; I’ve even heard my impact. Sometimes I get on meetings with clients and see what’s helpful and what’s not helpful with the products. You can see the feedback and impact of your work here. For example, when you work on a big development project with a lot of work and effort that went into it, and it comes out at the end and you see how people are using it you can really see, oh wow, it really helps people out. That’s a really satisfying part of the job, to see how impactful the work you do here really is.