Meet your manager, Mike Rowling who is the VP of engineering at Bucketlist Rewards! 

Can you give us some background on yourself?

I am a technology executive and a software developer at heart. What I have figured out over the years is that by leading teams, I can scale that development by working with great people. I live in Victoria, BC and love to garden and cook what I grow.

I started working remotely many years ago which has prepared me well for the workplace environment of today. The distributed workforce yet connected culture at Bucketlist suits my lifestyle very well. 

Can you describe your current role at Bucketlist Rewards?

I am the VP of Engineering which is recently a new role for Bucketlist. This is quite a challenging role as I split my time between Development building product and the executive team building the company. This means my brain is constantly jumping between the big picture and the small details. This can be challenging at times, but overall it personally makes me happy. I am lucky that I can learn from others, share my experiences and mentor some of the people around me as we grow together.

Can you tell us how the Development team is structured and how it typically operates?

Our Development team is a highly dedicated customer-centric group. We are geographically dispersed yet the team feels cohesive because we support each other to get the job done. Bucketlist's rapid growth plan means we are going through transition and adding more specialized roles and more skilled people. We operate with an agile approach, working closely with product management, sales and customer success to support our customers throughout their journey with us. Nothing makes us happier than getting feedback about a customer’s employee recognizing a peer using our platform.

How would you describe the culture at Bucketlist Rewards?

Culture is always tricky to describe. There is a certain ‘feel’ at Bucketlist that makes me happy to come to work each day. 

• • Friendly - everyone has been so welcoming. I see myself making many friends here over the coming years.
• • Enabling - the environment is empowering for individuals and teams
• • Diverse - I was pleasantly surprised when I joined Bucketlist and saw the diversity across the team. Having people digitally connected but located around the world is a bonus to my day as I get exposed to different cultures and ways of doing things.
• • Growth oriented - people are open to new things and are eager to learn and grow with the pace of the expansion of the company
• • Open - rotating daily standups with peers across the company and a weekly all-hands huddle help us understand each other’s worlds. This leads to transparency across the business that is not so common in my experience with other companies
• • Rewarding - we are building something special. It would not be Bucketlist if we were not using our own software to recognize and reward each other!

What sort of person do you think would fit in well with the Bucketlist Rewards Development team?

My ideal teammate is someone who is willing to challenge themselves and others, open to change, and highly motivated to set and succeed in our goals. I have always been drawn to continuous learners that can teach me new things and allow me to grow faster than if I had to learn it all myself. In that way, I like it when my teammates lift each other up in everything we do.

What’s your favorite thing about your job?

My biggest reward at work is growing teams of developers and watching them flourish technically, creatively and personally. I also love to see my team deploy new features that delight our customers!

What’s on your Bucketlist?

I have a number of items I would like to accomplish before I get too old…

• • grow a 100+lb pumpkin in my garden
• • tour the East coast of Canada
• • visit a raptor center where I can interact with the birds
• • ride a steam train with my father
• • walk the Camino de Santiago
• • build a tiny home for guests on the back of our property