In honor of IXL’s 10th anniversary, we caught up with a few of the employees who have been part of the IXL family since the beginning. Find out what they had to say about their time at IXL, what advice they’d give their past selves, and even their secret superpowers!

Jessica Blatnik, Strategic Marketing Manager

• What advice would you give to your past self on your first day?
  I think I’d tell my past self that I was still going to be here in 2017! This was my first job out of college and I didn’t know what to expect. I wish I knew on that first day that I was going to find a home here.
• Why do you love working at IXL?
  When I interviewed back in 2006, the company was so small that the CEO, Paul, interviewed everybody. I asked him what I would find at IXL that I would never find somewhere else. He told me, “We will never do something just because it is profitable. We will only do things here if they improve education for teachers and students.” At that moment, I was in. And it sounds cheesy, but I am still here because this place has lived up to that promise over and over again.

Kate Mattison, Senior Director of Curriculum

• How big was the company when you started? How has that changed?
  The company was about 30 people when I started and my team was just me and two others. This year, my team reached 100 people!
• You’ve seen IXL change a lot over the years. What new feature are you most excited about?
  The Diagnostic is near and dear to my heart. It’s been a big challenge but really fun to work on. Knowing that it’s really going to help our users is pretty cool, and hearing all the positive feedback has been great so far.
• Why do you love working at IXL?
  IXL is used by so many students—I really feel like I’m teaching millions of students every day and I don’t think I could get that anywhere else. The people who work here are really fun to hang out with and so talented. They’re also really dedicated to our mission of improving education and that makes it easy to get things done and get things done well. And I’m still learning new things every day. I’m not bored yet!

James Lam, IT Director

• Why do you love working at IXL?
  When I started, I thought maybe I’d be in this job a couple years and then move on to something else. But I realized I was really doing what I love, working with the IT side of the company. At other companies my role would have been really rigid, with specific tasks. IXL gave me the ability to spread my wings and learn, particularly when we were really small and I was the lone IT person. I also have a great mentor, our current Chief Technology Officer, who has always been there for me. And of course, I really believe in the product and what we do.
• If your team had a superpower, what would it be?
  Actually, a lot of people at the company think we have a super power. Employees will send us a message about technology questions or computer issues and sometimes all we do is reply or visit their cube, and for whatever reason it just gets fixed. We’ll just walk up to a computer and people will say “It was happening two minutes ago, but it’s not anymore!”

Karen Bettucchi, Director of Customer Success

• Why do you love working at IXL?
  I love what the company does, and I love our mission. A lot of people think that educational technology is replacing the teacher, but that’s not it at all. All these other industries have some kind of technology to help them do a better job: banking, construction, even at the grocery store! So that really excites me, to give teachers a technological tool so they can be better teachers and reach more students.
• If your team had a superpower, what would it be?
  I think we do have a superpower! When your job is to help people with a problem they’re having, and they’re stressed out when they’re calling, you have to be naturally calm and empathetic and happy to help them. That has to be what makes you tick. I can’t teach that. I can enhance it, but it’s got to be there. When I’m hiring people for my team, that’s the superpower I look for.

 

Interested in joining the IXL team? Check out our available positions on our jobs page.