Our team is composed of many different people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skills. Each person brings new elements to the table that are essential in creating a well-rounded company. In this series of blog posts, we hope to let our readers get to know our team as well as we do. From what they do both inside and outside of the office to their tastes in TV and music, these posts are a chance to learn about about what makes our team members tick.
Meet Khaliq: Head of Development - Norway, music lover, and data collector.
Born in Chicago and raised in Atlanta by way of Los Angeles, Khaliq started working for Vector in 2013. In December 2016 he moved from the New York City home office to Oslo, Norway to build a client base and as Head of Development there. I talked with Khaliq about perseverence, music, and what he loves about working at Vector.
Q: Where did you go to school and what did you study?
A: I went to school at Cornell University (GO BIG RED), where I studied Communications and Business and played on the varsity basketball team until I was pretty seriously injured my sophomore year - I was paralyzed from the neck down for 6+ months.
Q: What did you do before you started working here?
A: My first job out of school was in the Management Development Program at E&J Gallo Winery. I received some certifications and one of my favorite party tricks was to smell someone’s wine and tell them what type of varietal it was. The person usually didn’t know anyway so it almost always impressed.
Q: How and when did you start working for Vector?
A: I started working for Vector in February of 2013. I had just finished co-founding a failed startup called Social Blendr and was looking for a little more stable job after the roller coaster that often is a tech startup.
Q: How has your role developed or changed since you started working here?
A: When I first started off I was a full stack developer, working on backend and front end builds. I then transitioned to a lead developer which entailed providing technical leadership across projects.
Q: What is your favorite thing about working at Vector?
A: The freedom and personal growth opportunities. The leadership at Vector have really created an autonomous environment. If you see something that you would like to do more of or transition to, generally that can be accommodated. If there is a conference or something you want to learn more about Vector is extremely open to support you in those type of endeavors.
Q: What are some things you have noticed as you have watched and been part of Vector growing as a company?
A: The dynamic of the company has changed a good bit over the years. As we’ve expanded it has been interesting to see how different people have helped shaped the culture. I think the growth has been pretty seamless and definitely fun to see.
Q: If you were put in charge of the office playlist, what would it include?
A: I am a HUGE music fan, I generally listen to about 110 songs per day, and so I have a pretty eclectic and opionated tastes. I also have a ton of playlists. I make a playlist every week called KDW Fire, and so the office playlist would contain those songs.
Q: What is your favorite spot in New York?
A: My favorite spot is Central Park. I used to live on the Upper East Side and have some really good memories of going to the park for picnics, workouts, and for working on my (already stellar) tan.
Q: What are some interesting facts about yourself?
A: I taught myself to play keyboard and have made quite a few songs. I wrote lyrics to some songs and those now sit in my undiscovered hits music collection. I also (some might say) obsessively track data about myself, from checking into places, to my sleep, to the music I listen to. I made a mini dashboard on my website which displays some of that data.
Khaliq with his wife, his mother, two of his nephews and his father.
