Mirador LLC Organizational Culture
I started work this week at a small FinTech firm in my hometown of Darien, CT called Mirador. As an LLC, the company is grounded in Wall Street and enabled by technology, customizing financial reporting services for investment portfolios. Mirador clearly broadcasts its value of teamwork and interpersonal relationships in its LinkedIn bio, which reads, “through partnerships with leading technology platforms, Mirador’s service offering creates insightful, consolidated, real-time views of all assets and liabilities – what they are, who holds them, how ownership is divided, how they’re invested, and how they’re performing – strategically constructed to identify opportunities and expose financial risks.”
Starting from my first day, I was given a desk, email address, and set up with Mirador’s main organizational platform, Okta. Margo Findlay, the woman in HR who took me through the onboarding process, also showed me around the office and introduced me to everyone before I got started on any projects. Also on the first day, a client advocate named Jenn Chang took me to lunch at a local restaurant, where we got to known each other and ask questions. Between my time with her and the overall feeling I had in the office environment, it is clear how Mirador equally and respectfully values its team members, from the managing partners to the interns. Jenn was very interested in what I was studying, as well as one other woman who I got to know just in small talk between projects.
Many of the people who work at Mirador are middle-aged parents, and their overall sentiment is that college is so different now than it was when they were kids. The adults at Mirador make me feel like they have just as much to learn from me as I have to learn from them. I feel that the people I am shadowing have high expectations for the work I am to complete, but their encouraging, curious attitudes provide me with confidence and motivation to complete each task with efficiency and accuracy.
Since most of the people who work here are parents, with college students of their own, the tone of conversation is always easy-going and relatively blunt. While I am sure to remain professional and mature, I feel that my conversations here are natural and energizing. Mistakes are encouraged and accepted as a means of learning, and I feel that by the end of my internship I will have learned a lot about how to work/act in a professional environment. It is also nice that I get to finally apply my knowledge of computer science in a professional environment.
People interact through the Zoom chat feature throughout the day, which is convenient and informal, sort of like texting. Since the office is small, if the communication is urgent/more formal, employees constantly bop around between desks or work together in the main conference room, called the “Oasis.” Such a name emphasizes Mirador’s values of teamwork and learning, as the ideas flowing in the “Oasis” are normally very intellectual and constructive.
As a FinTech company, there are many online platforms I have had to familiarize myself with, which is also beneficial for me in applying my knowledge of computer science. Conversely, since the people here are well-versed with technology, and cover industries from marketing, to finance, to consulting and communications, leadership is more passive. Mirador’s managing partners sit in an office on the top floor together, in the same room, which I find interesting because they definitely have the space to sit separately. However, being in the same room means that when you go to see one, you will always have the other, so the two of them are truly acting as partners (again, emphasizing the importance of teamwork). Since the office is in a small, modest building, everyone’s work space looks the same and everyone communicates and acts as equal, team players. I love it.
Leadership is most attentive during the weekly staff meetings, where the managing partners lead the conversation and ask questions on what everyone is working on; but again, it resembles an environment like that of a teacher and students. Everyone is always wanting to learn and take in as much information as possible, with CNBC playing on all TVs throughout the day, and constant questions/discussions and social gatherings for lunch/after work.
Since Mirador is a small company, with performance-reporting experts drawn from family businesses and wealth management firms, “it creates true, ongoing partnerships with clients to ensure data integrity, cull new insights from the data, answer questions, and resolve inconsistencies” (LinkedIn). I enjoy the authenticity and genuineness in a small office, whereas reporting for large multi-offering firms is an ancillary service, or a consulting service that configures systems and leaves. I feel that Mirador’s more informal and fluid leadership style is beneficial in enhancing the company’s overall growth and success, as the more traditional, hierarchical leadership structure is more necessary when there are more employees. While I am still new here, I feel that Mirador is led effectively and efficiently, as the company has become very successful in recent years, and everyone who works here clearly enjoys their job and their bosses.