This next Employee Spotlight is a very special one, in that we have the pleasure of introducing the voice behind the previous spotlight articles — Laurin Maurer.
Laurin is a recent high school graduate and at just 18 years of age, has been an incredibly impactful employee here at 64 Audio. She has worked here for about a year and a half now and got her start at the company through a previous job at a popular fast food chain.
Before 64 Audio moved to Vancouver, WA, we were located in North Portland, OR, directly across from the fast food restaurant that Laurin was working at at the time. At our 10am break time, like clockwork, a group of guys from 64 Audio (then 1964 Ears) would walk across the street to her work for a morning pick-me-up.
She explains it like this, “There’d be these groups of 3, 4, 5 guys and they’d all come in at once, obviously together and possibly related…I was like, who are these people, where are they coming from? Now the mystery is solved!”
One of the guys that would come through her restaurant was our CEO Bogdan Belonozkho (COO at that time). He noticed that she worked there quite often, and her work ethic stood out, so one day he handed her a business card over the counter, asking her to call if she was interested in a new job.
She recalls, “It was great, I jumped at the chance… When Bogdan gave me his number on that card, I called him that day and set up an interview that week and was hired.”
While Laurin’s official title is Office Assistant, she wears many hats around the 64 Audio office and lab. She admitted, “I kind of do what needs to be done.”
What started with processing mail and adding orders to the production floor has evolved into many different things over the year and a half she’s been with us. She has helped with archiving paperwork, invoicing, scanning impressions, performing quality checks, and answering emails in a few different departments. Lately, Laurin has been utilized for her excellence in writing and handles 64 Audio blog posts and press releases.
Because she has experience in many different areas, we felt inclined to ask what she liked doing the most. “I think the writing is my favorite because that’s something I’m good at. In school I was always good at writing papers and teachers always complimented me on that so it’s nice to use that skill… It feels more like an accomplishment, I guess, because at the end, I have a finished piece of work that goes on the website.”
The greatest changes that Laurin has witnessed as she has grown with 64 Audio are shifts in efficiency and communication.
“Things have gotten more efficient in general. We have more processes to take care of things instead of constantly having to talk to an individual about a certain situation.”
“In the beginning… 4 years ago, that was fine because, for example, it was only Alex who did customer service… so he didn’t really need to make notes because it was him and he remembered that conversation. But now, there are too many orders; to hold that information in your head is no longer realistic… We have to have processes and notes so that growing departments can communicate with one another.”
On top of being an all-star employee, Laurin will be attending college in the fall. Her declared major is Business Administration and she hopes to graduate as quickly and affordably as possible.
Her experience working at 64 Audio combined with a business degree will set her up to do incredible things. Laurin definitely prefers to work in a growing tech company over a fast food restaurant. “This is way more applicable to what I want to do with my life. Just being in a company like this is helpful to know how businesses work, how departments communicate, how sales works, how customer service works.” Her continually growing knowledge and experience will take her far.
In a large company, it can be very difficult to meet with the founder or CEO. Because 64 Audio is still on the up-and-up, this direct access is much more attainable. Upper management knows nearly everyone, and Laurin appreciates that she can easily set up a meeting with Vitaliy (founder) or Bogdan (CEO) and wouldn’t have to run it through many people or wait for weeks. She also enjoys the flexibility of her part-time hours, and requesting time off is easy and painless.
We can tell that Laurin is thankful for her position here at 64 Audio. She says, “I feel like I’m way ahead of a lot of people my age in where I get to work, the people I get to work with, and the work that I do. I don’t flip burgers, which is nice because I hated flipping burgers. I don’t dread coming to work anymore… Since I started working here, I’ve never been like ‘I should just call in sick because I don’t want to go.’ It has never been like that. Not here.”
Although she doesn’t have her own set of IEMs yet, if she were to buy a pair she would choose the A2. With nothing specific to use them for except enjoying music, she “doesn’t need anything fancy.”
Outside of work, Laurin is quite the adventurous type. When asked what she likes to spend her free time on, her reply was “so much.” She has a second job at a horse barn where she works two days a week, teaching adults and children how to ride horses as well as taking care of the horses and facilities. At 14 years of age, she decided to take lessons at the barn once a week. After a while, her instructor talked to her parents and said she would be a really good rider if she was able to ride twice a week. She was then offered a working student position, meaning she would pay for a second lesson each week with work instead of actual money.
She says, “At first the work was pretty grueling… at that point there were over 20 horses there so feeding and watering all of them basically took me all day.” Laurin, however, was always thrilled to be around the horses – “even the scary ones were exciting to me.”
On top of all that, she also trains in a martial art twice a week (as if she doesn’t already have enough going on)! She mentioned that she played the cello for a bit, but had to give that up due to her already overloaded schedule.
It has truly been an honor and a pleasure presenting Laurin to you all this month. We hope you love our Jack-of-all-trades as much as we do!