When someone asks you what you do for a living, what do you tell them? The team at Parse.ly had a hunch that if we asked our parents and other family members to answer that question for us, they’d have a unique response.

Their replies encapsulated in a nutshell what’s  great about Parse.ly: we have an awesome, talented team who love what they do.  Not to mention, a team that’s  lucky to have such wonderful support systems.

So, here’s what we do, according to our families.

Emmett Butler, Software Engineer

What Emmett does, according to his mom:

“Here’s what I think you do. You are working for a company that writes software in support of publishers who want to analyze their online content so they can respond in both real time and for the long term. I think you write code and manage projects that have to do with this analyzing of online content. You’re on-call at times in case too much analyzing is happening at once and therefore the system crashes or gets a glitch that has it stumbling along or not doing its functions.

You seem to spend every day writing microscopic lines of unintelligible code that you then build into larger sets of code that you then test and eventually launch for people to use. You do the ‘back end’ so users don’t actually see your work, but it is in support of folks who write the ‘front end.’ Apparently.

You also teach yourself new languages or special schemes of languages you already know so you can then write newer, cooler, more functional programs. You are invited by Parse.ly to learn stuff and share it and get better all the time. You work for very cool people who appreciate you and your abilities and encourage you to grow professionally and probably personally too. You love your job. So do I.”

Accuracy rating: Right on the money!

Mike Sukmanowsky, VP, Product

What Mike does, according to his mom:

“I believe Parse.ly creates programs to provide a base for its clients, which will analyze the clients’ business attributes in order to provide its clients with higher exposure/business.

I think Mike designs programs to analyze what information needs to be pulled for individual clients, in order to analyze their business and pull the information the client requires to increase sales/business as well as occasionally gets involved in selling Parse.ly to clients.

I know that he loves what he does and the company. Am I anywhere near close Mike?”

Accuracy rating: A for effort!

Mackenzie Meyer, Business Development Representative

What Mackenzie does, according to her dad, Derek:

“You do something with computers, to convince others who have computers, to use your company to help them generate more income with their computers.”

Accuracy rating: Exactly.

John Levitt, General Manager

What John does, according to his mom:

“What does Parse.ly do? Provides data to premier web news sources that identifies how readers are responding to content, measures the effectiveness for building and maintaining visitor loyalty which then increases the client’s ability to sell advertising.

What do you do? Evaluate a potential client, develop a working relationship over time, identify their specific needs, study their company, maintain intelligent contact with patience and timing, persistently update what you are able to provide for them, make presentations, never give up, chip away at their thinking and make a deal they can’t refuse.

That is what I think you do. Not really sure what your title is. Is this right?”

What John does, according to his dad:

“You work with digital publishers to analyze their audience response to content. We know you are the General Manager, you work with all departments and you help to secure large clients and maintain good customer relationships.”

Accuracy rating: Yes!

Clare Carr, VP of Marketing

What Clare does, according to her dad, Thomas Ondrey (Photographer, Cleveland Plain Dealer):

“I tell people my daughter is Vice President for Marketing for Parse.ly, a company that measures metrics for media websites, including all the Advance properties, which includes my employer, the Plain Dealer and its online counterpart, Advance Ohio.

By measuring the web site’s metrics, I say Parse.ly counts in real time how many people are viewing the website, for how long, and other useful real time information meant to guide editors’ decisions on what people are interested in reading about. I say my daughter doesn’t do the actual counting; her job is to bring attention to Parse.ly’s services to the wider media markets and businesses that might need its expertise.”

Accuracy rating: 100%!

Benjamin Friedman, Chief Financial Officer

What Benjamin does, according to his daughter, Emily (age 6):

“You’re the boss, is that correct? You work. When I’m there, you play with me. You eat breakfast and you eat lunch.”

What Benjamin does, according to his daughter, Leah (age 10):

“You handle finances. That’s all I know.” And when it comes to what Parse.ly does: “Doesn’t it help other companies to do stuff. To recruit more people? To help with the finances?”

Accuracy rating: $$$

Megan Radogna, Marketing Associate

What Megan does, according to her mom:

“When asked what my daughter does at her new job I tell them that she is at a start up software company called Parse.ly like the herb. I tell them that she is doing social media and marketing for them and loves it.”

Accuracy rating: Two thumbs up!

Lindsay Orr, Business Development Representative

What Lindsay does, according to her mom:

“I think you schedule appts. with potential customers so sales reps can demo software that tracks the traffic and use of online publishers’ websites.”

What Lindsay does, according to her dad:

“As I understand it you search for potential clients in need of data mining software for the digital publishing industry. After making a connection with a decision maker you arrange for a demonstration of your product.”

Accuracy rating: Nailed it.

Sal Gionfriddo, User Experience

What Sal does, according to his baby daughter, Ada. According to Sal, “I couldn’t get a constructive answer out of her.” Full transcript below.

Me: Ada, que hace papá en su trabajo?

Ada: papapapapapapapapa!

Me: Ada, no soy una papa. Soy tu papá.

Ada: manananababapapanama?! (traduccion: una broma del papá, realmente?)

Me: Lo siento. Pero en serio, como describirias mi trabajo?

Ada: mamamamamamamama.

Me:

Accuracy rating: 🙂

---

Interested in being a part of the Parse.ly team? We’re hiring! Learn more about open positions here.