Working for Metova right out of college was the best opportunity I could have ever dreamed of being offered. After graduation, I was fully prepared for your stereotypical workplace with cubicles and water coolers, but was surprised to find out that that nothing about Metova is what I expected. Just recently, our CEO, Josh Smith, was named one to Arkansas’ Tech Titans—leading Metova into the future of Arkansas Tech (yay!). I usually catch Josh—easily one of the kindest people at Metova—in between meetings making a cup of coffee in the kitchen. He never fails to ask me how I’m doing or if I’m learning all that I would like to be learning from the Fellowship Experience. He exudes a mixture of friendliness and respect for those around him; it’s hard not to be in awe of Josh.

In 2019, Metova was also awarded the iOT Breakthrough award for iOT Partner Enablement Company of the Year. This award is given to innovators and leaders within the many areas of iOT. With Metova’s full range of iOT knowledge and services, we’re able to pursue ideas with clients that to some (raises hand) may seem impossible.

Our focus on customer care astounds me every day. When I first heard about Metova before the Fellowship interview process, I thought it was merely a small company that focused on mobile solutions for clients—a “pick from this list of predetermined solutions” kind of company. After some research (didn’t want to get caught asking silly questions I could have already known the answer to), I remember thinking to myself, How have I not heard of them before? Working with big name clients in lawn care, connected car, radio, and many other industries, Metova has experience working on all sorts of technology. 

I was even more surprised by how devoted my coworkers are to their projects and to the quality of their work. Again, I had a vision of the stereotypical “everyone hates their job” type of workplace. Since then, I’ve learned so much about developing. While the work we do at Metova can be stressful at times (we have Reese's Cups on hand for the really stressful days), it’s hard to hate your job when you’ve got a team of developers like ours.

At Metova, we try and make work a little less stressful by hosting monthly lunches or competitions to connect the different offices. With branches in Fayetteville, AR; Franklin, TN; Irving, TX; and Guadalajara, MX, we encourage friendly competition to get the teams more comfortable with each other as well as to build upon relationships that already exist. When I first joined in June, they had started a companywide water challenge where everyone would use the same Metova water bottle and log every drop they drank. We even had a contest for most creative pictures taken with the bottles out in “the wild.”

Another way we keep the offices connected is our “Developer Spotlights” in which a member of the Metova team gets interviewed about a skill or hobby outside of work that they are particularly proud of. This is a great way to showcase all the amazing aspects of our developers. I think that the best part about working for Metova is the encouragement to learn. We have multiple developers undergoing AWS certification as well as some developers experimenting with new languages and the design process of projects. Without the support and vision of people like Josh, Metova wouldn’t be the thriving workplace that it is now.