Meet Jake – the first team member to be featured on our new SocialLadder “Meet the Team” series! We got the chance to sit down with him, ask him some questions about work & life, and find out what makes him tick!
WORKING AT SOCIALLADDER
“The thing I like most about working at SocialLadder is the excitement! There’s an awesome sense of motivation that I get from feeling like there’s always something big around the corner – the excitement that I get from our roadmap and the energy of the team around me keeps me motivated!”
WORKDAY ROUTINE
“I take the train into work, so I get oriented with some sort of audio – music, podcasts, poetry – that gets me into the zone to work (along with some coffee). From there, I wear a lot of hats here – managing the office, helping oversee account delivery, recruitment, etc. That keeps things varied from day to day! The constant is usually taking a little time off in the middle of the day to grab a delicious lunch special in Chinatown.”
FUN FACT!
“It’s not all that interesting to me, but most people are interested to know that I love to make music! Whether I’m playing with a band or making music on my computer, I’m constantly thinking about writing music. It’s definitely fun to be able to play a sax solo!”
CHALLENGES
“I’m very lucky to have been given all the opportunities I have had in my life; the biggest challenge I’ve faced has definitely just been making it through all of my schooling, though. I had a tough time in high school being motivated to do any work at all – even in college, I was just way too off-the-wall to sit still in a lecture. So I’m very proud that I was able to reel myself in and become a more organized and hardworking person!”
ATHLETICS
“I used to play lacrosse, which I was pretty good at, but I really soured on it because of the sort of hardcore team-sports hierarchy. So I played more golf, which I soured on because I started caddying, and the last thing I wanted to do was go back out on the course! I like to play pick-up basketball, but my real favorite sport is probably football – I’m a fanatic, and I love to stay up-to-date on all things NFL when the season is in swing. Go Eagles!”
MUSIC
“I really listen to everything – my grandpa gave me a love of jazz like Louis Jordan, my dad gave me a love of classic rock like Santana & Grateful Dead, and I personally love to make hip-hop and experimental electronic music. But right now, my favorite stuff is anything disco-related – French house, nu-disco, and even just the straight-up old school stuff. It’s the best dancing music!”
FAVORITE FOODS
“I have a couple favorite foods to eat, and most of them are seasonal, but almost all of them are soup! I like spicy gazpacho in the summer, and something hearty with noodles like pho or laksa when it’s cold out. I also really like pasta – ravioli stuffed with seafood or some gnocchi are personal favorite eats. My favorite dish to cook is tonkatsu – Japanese fried pork. I have a soft spot for anything fried! My girlfriend & her family taught me to make fried Vietnamese spring rolls, which are super-delicious!”
FAVORITE CONCERT
“The best concert I’ve ever attended was Flying Lotus – I’ve seen him twice, and I think he’s just on a completely different level than anyone else in the world when it comes to creating mind-blowing music with a computer. He’s also linked up with crazy graphics artists, so the whole concert experience with him is just insane. If you can ever catch him on tour, I highly recommend it!”
IF HOLLYWOOD MADE A MOVIE ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE CAST AS YOU?
“If there was a movie about my life, the only person I could trust to make me interesting on the screen would be Christian Bale! I’d probably end up seeming like a psychopath, but that’s okay. He’s absolutely my favorite actor! Close second would go to Tom Hardy, but he’s a couple sizes too buff to play me!”
IF YOU COULD INTERVIEW ONE PERSON (DEAD OR ALIVE) WHO WOULD IT BE?
“I would love to interview Wallace Stevens – I love poetry, his especially. He was also just a fascinating person – on the way to becoming a legendary modern poet, he lived and worked at an insurance company for his whole life! Similarly, William Carlos Williams, who worked as a physician. Both would have a lot to say about the sort of abstract philosophical world of poetry colliding with “normal” everyday life, I think.”