Employee Spotlight: Who’s Ross Campbell?

Who’s Ross Campbell? Ross is one of our Junior Developers.

One of Ross’ favourite things to do outside of work is playing with his brothers Tatsuo, Heath and Landon. Ross looks to Adam Savage, the creative host of Mythbusters, as his biggest inspiration. Ross loves to bake goodies to share and satisfy the sweet tooth of those around him. At home, he has an energetic pitbull named Willow.

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This is a podcast series highlighting the Dovico team members for employee spotlight interviews. Today’s host is co-worker Maranda Buote.

Maranda:
Hello, and welcome to our Dovico podcast. I am your host today, Maranda, and today we are highlighting Ross Campbell for our employees. Spotlight. How are you today? Ross? I’m doing good. So we’re just going to dive right into it and really excited because of course with the pandemic, none of us really got to know you super well. So it’ll be nice for the fellow Doviconians as well to get to know you better.

Ross:
Absolutely. I’m excited to share. Yeah.

Maranda:
I know you’re not from Moncton. Where did you grow up?

Ross:
Grew up in a town called Hampton. It’s about 20 minutes outside. Saint John for those who know a really small town, like a really small population, not much going on there. So it’s interesting to come into a city to see where like there’s a lot of, you know, things happening, but, uh, places to go and things to see. Right.

Maranda:
Right. So you’re a small-town boy. Were you really close to your family a lot?

Ross:
Oh yeah. Well, I was always very introverted as a kid, so I was always around family, right? Yes. So there are people I’m very close with. Yeah. Okay.

Maranda:
Tell me more about them. Do you have siblings?

Ross:
Yeah, I actually have three younger brothers, uh, two full brothers. One’s a half brother. My two full brothers are, um, they’re just in high school and I have actually, it’s quite interesting because they’re like oil and water. The two of them they’re always fighting, but like, as they’re getting older, you can notice that they’re trying, they’re getting along more. And for the first time, there’ll be in the same school for two years now. Cause they’re both in high school now. Okay. So they’re fairly young. Oh yeah. Fairly young. Yeah. Okay. And you know, I’ve been really close with them really. And my other brother, he’s my half brother, but a full brother who cares, you know, his name is Tatsuo. Okay. Yeah. He’s named after his great-grandfather was Japanese and he’s of Japanese descent. He’s only four. You should see him. He can do math and things like that.

Maranda:
That’s adorable. So you’re, you’re pretty close with your family. They don’t live around here?

Ross:
Actually, most of my family is from Hampton. Obviously. That’s where I’m from my stepmother I’m really close with. I think a bit closer to post to my life is from Moncton actually. And all of her family’s up here, which I’m close with them as well. So I moved right up and fit right in here. Yeah. So you moved here for school? Yes. I mostly for school in 2019, when I started at Olin college, it was a one-year program, but I was only here for a few months before a COVID happened. So I got sent back to, to Hampton. Right. Okay. Interesting.

Maranda:
Tell me a little bit more about you as a kid, as a 10-year-old. Tell us about little Ross.

Ross:
Back in my childhood, in a small town. Right. Okay. Uh, when I was young, I was very introverted, as I mentioned earlier. Um, I never really had many friends. Uh, well had a, you know, I had a pretty steady friend group until like high school. Right. I remember one day I spoke to my, stepmother when I was young and she told me, she keeps reminding me about this all the time, where one day I was playing with these free kids. And I said, you know, I might play with you today. I’m not gonna play with you tomorrow. Like I was very, just independent and didn’t want to, you know, I was anti-social independent at the same time. It was a very, very weird mix. Yeah.

Maranda:
That’s so funny though. I might play with you today, but I’m not going to play with you tomorrow.

Ross:
I feel that. Yeah,

Maranda:
No, I definitely, you know, when you started working here, I would say I could definitely tell you are more of an introverted person for sure. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But it’s nice though. Like, you know, I feel like you fit right in and especially there’s a few of us that come into the office and you’re obviously one of those people. And as you know, I could tell you were very introverted, but I feel like we get along well. And so it was really nice. The introverted, it gives like a bit of a mysterious or a, you know, it’s so true.

Ross:
Like no one knows anything about me. What’s one of the benefits of it. It’s so true. Yeah. Very mysterious.

Maranda:
When you first started here, you were very, you’re introverted, but you’re also very, you’re a very helpful person. You’re very, you know, you want to be that, that person on the office, that’s like you, you started our little recycling program and things like that. You’re very, um, helpful when it comes to those types of things. Yeah.

So what kind of inspired you, to do extra things for Dovico?

Ross:
When I started working here is how of a tightly close-knit community we are, or if, well, you guys were at the time. Cause I wasn’t part of it. And I just, I really wanted to like take part in that, you know, despite working from home and with COVID and everything I really wanted to like, be an active part of this community. I remember the first week I was here, I volunteered to clean the kitchen and I like sterilizing that kitchen. And then, I brought in lemon squares and other little treats and things like that. I started a recycling program. Cause I noticed that, you know, for such a forward-thinking company, it was a bit weird. They didn’t have a recycling program. I just got the blue bins and the compost bin and everything. And you know, I just, I just wanted to like make sure that it was known that I was here to help.

Maranda:
Yeah. And that was definitely known. And we, we really appreciate you for that for sure. Thank you. Yeah, definitely. Um, so kind of back to your childhood, did you have a favourite toy?

Ross:
As a kid? Did you always love Lego? Yeah. Classic. Yeah, but never like the weird leg Lego kits. I always loved the little bricks, you know, like houses and stuff. Yeah. Oh yeah. Got to love Lego love stepping on it too. Oh, that’s no fun. My grandparents always had this huge tub of Lego of the old, old bricks that weren’t like, you know, they were, it was just so much fun to play with them. Right. Yeah. Very cool.

Maranda:
Was there any sort of career that you wanted to, like something that you wanted to do when you were a kid? Wow. What’d you want to grow up to do?

Ross:
Well, I was tying back to the Lego topic. I always slept building these little houses and finding unique ways to make, you know, different shaped houses and different ways to make them, which translated to me liking architecture and liking designing buildings. They used to draw. Yeah. When I was in middle school, I remember my art teacher taught us about drawing with perspective, right. Everything going to the dot and most people use it to build like landscapes and things, but I always drew these buildings with it. You know, I always try to make the most realistic buildings I could, I, you know, play with Lego and it just all kind of came together. I really liked architecture, but it never really panned out. It wasn’t really my thing when I got older. Right. But it was still something that I’d be interested in looking into more when I get older.

Maranda:
Even now it’s something that you’re still interested in. What is it like that you, you know, that you like about architecture?

Ross:
I think it’s the idea of creating something, you know, I’ve always liked the idea of me making something pretty my name on it. Right.

Maranda:
Yeah. Would you say you’re a really creative person?

Ross:
I was not overly creative, but creative to an extent we’ll say.

Maranda:
Very cool. Is there anything that you would say that you’re really proud of?

Ross:
Something I’m really proud of? Um, probably where I am today, you know? Oh really? Yeah. Like not many people I know, like knew what they wanted to do at a high school. They would start a course drop out two years later, you know, like, but I had something that we like, which was development I’ve been doing since I was, you know, fifth grade. Well, not to this extent obviously, but learning about it from when I first got my first computer and I just, I stuck with it and you know, I’m, I’m really happy with where I am.

Maranda:
Oh, that’s awesome. I love that. Thank you. So was there anything else that you’re really proud of?

Ross:
That is I’m pretty young, you know, I’m only 19, so I haven’t had a lot of time to like, you know, build something or do something I’m really proud of. But, I’m really excited to see, you know, where my life takes me in the journeys I can go on and things that can actually be proud of.

Maranda:
Yeah. Cause I mean, you know where you’re at now as a 19-year-old, that is something to be really proud of, you know, most people at your age. I mean, I know when I was your age, I was definitely not where you’re at right now. So that is definitely something to be really proud of.

Career-wise what is the most interesting job that you’ve had or what are some past jobs that you’ve just had in general?

Ross:
I never had a really interesting job, you know? Uh, I’ve always been in computers. Well, since I was 15, I started working at BNI, which is Brunswick news, Inc. Okay. And I was working in it there. So I was, you know, the little a runner I’d run into the basement, get the supplies and bring it back up. I learned so much while doing it, but it was never, it wasn’t really like overly interesting. And then after that, I worked for a company called, aspire. I was working as a tier-one technician. So basically you call in, I would want to answer the phone, tell you that I can’t fix it. And okay.

Ross:
You know, force you onto like the tier two or three and, or fix your problem there. It was, it was, you know, it could be interesting at times. It wasn’t that interesting, but the really interesting job was when I was like 14. I know, right. I was mowing lawns for a school way out in brown slab, outside St. John. And it wasn’t particularly interesting at all. It was just that one day we arrived and there were these moose legs on the ground. But the thing is, is around there, there are not many police officers, not many Rangers and things like that. So poaching is really common right. In the middle of nowhere. And so our theory is that someone came poached this animal and then left that there. Cause it’s, you know, not good meat…

Maranda:
Left the legs for you guys to deal with. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh!

Ross:
How bizarre? I know. Right. How bizarre. So you guys just went, mowed the lawn around it. We had to move them. Yeah. And you had to move them specifically. I wasn’t me. No. Yeah.

Maranda:
That is too funny. How did you actually hear about Dovico?

Ross:
Well, I’ve heard if you like off and on. Well, not you, but Dovico often. I first heard of you guys when I was in college, I think it was like the second or third week. We had a scavenger hunt that we did and we went to different places around downtown Moncton. Like we went all over. It was like a 20-kilometre walk. We’d go to a place. They give us a hint. And then we go to the next place. Cause every program had its partner links. We had, I think a few mechanical ones, things like that. And Dovico was a software company. So being in a web development course, we came here and only one of us had to go up and we went up to this floor, we got a little hint and came back down. That was the first experience. And everyone was very lovely then. And then certainly later if we got an email about a job position here, I do believe I applied for it, but that was, I think weeks before COVID happened. So I think the application got kind of buried. And then after I was done working at aspire, I applied again. And then I got a call back really excitingly. Yeah. And now I’m here.

Maranda:
So yeah, you started not long after COVID

Ross:
It’s interesting to think I’ve been working at Dovico for most of the pandemic

Maranda:
You didn’t get to really experience, um, a lot of the things that Dovico’s all about in a way, like, you know, just it’s kind of, of course, we managed to have like company things online. But it’s still, it’s still different for sure.

Ross:
Like, one thing I’ve noticed around the office is that you guys have different things in the wall. So there’s a map somewhere that shows people were, we COVID happen. And it was so interesting to see that like it was so spread out, like everyone was going everywhere. Then in the kitchen, there’s a little calendar that tells people we’re making food and there were yoga classes and it just makes me like, you know, so jealous. I couldn’t be there when all this was happening. For sure.

Maranda:
Although we’re definitely gonna, we’re definitely gonna get that going again. You’ll definitely experience the Dovico vibes for sure. Absolutely.

Maranda:
Was that tough coming in here? You know, especially cause we all kind of knew each other and it’s, it’s hard to get to know people over.

Ross:
Oh, incredibly.

Maranda:
Whereas you’re someone who’s a lot more introverted.

Ross:
For the first few months, the other people I knew were, Owen and Mike, because of the people who I had to speak to every day, otherwise, I never had to speak to you or anyone else like in the creative team or sales or support, never got to speak to any of them. But slowly over time, people came back to the office and I came back as well. I got to talk to, it really was Owen and Mike, because of people who interviewed me and they were, you know, like supervisors and stuff like, so I had to like report to them like once a day. But otherwise, I didn’t need to talk to anyone like sales support, or creative or otherwise, I was just kind of stuck in my little bubble but slowly over time with different meetings and things like that, people came back to the office, I got to meet them in person. Not very well, but it was better than nothing because it’s really hard when you don’t know anybody to company and I’ll get you to stare at a picture on a screen. Like it doesn’t, it doesn’t mean anything.

Maranda:
Yeah. It’s hard to get to know someone like, cause I’m the same too. I’m a little bit more introverted and yeah, we all communicate daily, but unless you’re actually in person with someone it’s kind of hard, to get to know them.

Ross:
Yeah. Cause someone’s online attitude would be different than their in-person attitude, you know? Cause I know I’m very like bubbly and stuff on messenger and things like that. I try to be very, you know, positive, but in person, I’m just, you know, pretty mellow. Yeah.

Maranda:
Very true. Yeah. I’ve noticed that for sure. What is your role at Dovico? Could you tell us a little bit about that?

Ross:
Absolutely. So I came in November as a junior web developer. I came in through the, I call it the Disney program, but it’s the DS4Y grant. So it’s called digital skills for youth. And it was a program by the provincial government to get people more involved in different technical roles and stuff like that, creating digital literacy. Basically, I applied. I got to come here for six months under that. The whole idea was I got to learn new skills, work, different projects and different things like that. And I got to do exactly that. When I first started here, I immediately started off in a project. We call Zapier to connect our program Timesheet, to other programs like Quickbook, Excel, you know, zero… things like that.

Ross:
That’s coming along quite nicely. But since I’ve been here, worked in a lot of things, you know, I finished other people’s projects like the timesheet calculator, which is something they use to calculate wages over time, very creative name. I know. And I also got to work on what I’m working on now is that we are rebranding all the websites for Dovico, the parent website, all our three products and have to go touch eventually. I think even Yves website, I’m gonna have to touch eventually as well. It’s like, yeah, that’s a huge project slowly coming through a long time.

Maranda:
Yeah. So like most of us, you wear a lot of hats here.

Ross:
Right? Absolutely. Yeah. I love that. It gives every day different fields instead of working on the same thing every day. You know you get different experiences and different learn different technologies.

Maranda:
How would you describe Dovico or where do you like the most about Dovico or working at Dovico?

Ross:
Definitely love the freedom. Both in my personal life and professional. I find that when I’m working here, if I see something doesn’t work, something doesn’t fit quite right. Or it could be better. I can just say it and you know, people will let me, let me do it the way I feel is better to a certain extent, obviously. Yeah. And personal life. I don’t have to bring anything home with me. I’m not, you know, I don’t feel stressed out that I’m working here. Cause then people have my back and you know, if times get pushed ahead, that’s okay. I’m not, I’m not stressed personally on my personal time, which is a really nice feeling, right?

Maranda:
We’re very lucky at Dovico that you’re right. We do have the freedom to just be ourselves and live our lives and yeah, we know people have our backs.

Ross:
It’s a nice feeling because that makes you want to come in every, every day, even on Monday morning, it’s like, you want to come in. You don’t want to, you know, you don’t want to miss any of it. Yeah.

Maranda:
So true. So true. I can’t wait until we can all, you know, get back together. And for you too, to really experience it.

What is something that people kind of misunderstand about you or something that people assume about you?

Ross:
Well age actually, especially here in this environment. Yeah. I love people even early today. We hear it when you discussed that I was like 23, almost 25. Yeah. I’m actually only 19, which makes me one of the youngest people working at this company right now. And it’s, you know, it’s not a bad assumption at all. I’m not offended by it, but you know, it’s different. I’m not used to that.

Maranda:
Definitely assume that you’re, you know that you’re a bit older. Not because you look older. But just because you’re here and you seem so accomplished and you’re very calm. You’re very, you know, well put together young man.

Ross:
Well, thank you. I Try!

Maranda:
What do you like to do when you’re not working?

Ross:
Oh, I have a lot of hobbies. One thing I started this summer, I’m staying with my stepmother in Riverview. She has a garden out back. The previous tenant had put it in and never really took care of it. So I decided to, revamp it. So I have tomatoes growing. I have watermelon peppers, chives, all kinds of fun stuff, I even have hanging baskets of flowers at the front and flower pots everywhere. I love gardening, I might kill a few things here and there, but yeah, that is part of the experience part of the learning curve, right? The other thing I love doing is baking. I’m not particularly good at it. I tend to burn things or overcook things.

Maranda:
We love your baking.

Ross:
I only show you what’s good. Right. There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t make it here!

Maranda:
Yeah. Like you’re, you know, you mentioned before your lemon squares and your rice Krispies that you brought in,

Ross:
I make cookies a lot, a lot of cookies, things like that.

Ross:
I love having things that I can do on my own. That’s why I like these hobbies because I don’t have to be, you know, answering anybody. You don’t have to say, oh, this is what I’m doing. I get to experiment while I’m cooking and it’s fun or experience while I’m gardening, you know? One more thing I love doing is I’m learning a bit more about woodworking and that type of thing. Well, less woodworking and more like carpentry, I guess you want to call it. So when I was like in middle school, I got gifted this bookshelf that my grandmother’s father had made with a Pope ironically at a military base out in Halifax when she was quite young and it’s been passed down through the family and it landed in my hands in like middle school because they had no room for it.

Ross:
And it was just painted this like awful, ugly blue. And I decided, you know what, I don’t want that anymore. So I decided I was going to strip the paint off of it, but I didn’t realize how big of a task it was going to be. But I, you know, I spent days just sanding and putting, um, paint stripper on it and you know, all kinds of different things. And eventually got down to bare wood. And I thought, well, you know, if I got this far I can go a little bit further, so I decided to make it into what I can, I have a little cabinet, you know, I can put my things in. I opened up like the top layer to be a bookshelf. And my grandfather told me how to build these cabinet doors.

It was very nice. And then from there, I’ve just, been experimenting. I haven’t had a lot of chances to work with really nice wood. So it’s mostly really soft like pine and things like that. So the quality of my work is pretty low for now, but as I’m learning, I’m working up, um, recently I made to a set of nightstands that I’m using now out of Birch and Oakwood, which are really, really hardwoods. It’s quite interesting.

Maranda:
Very interesting. Yeah. It’s, it’s really, it’s always really satisfying to, to use something that you’ve made yourself.

Ross:
Right? Yeah. It’s a very big point of pride. You know, I built that and it works great. It has its plus, but that’s, that’s all part of it. That’s what makes it yours. If you go, you can go buy at the store. Exactly. And it would be the same as everyone else’s but you made it to your design that has all your flaws in it and it’s perfect.

Maranda:
Definitely. It’s a good feeling. What do you do like on the weekends, other than your hobbies?

Ross:
Due to COVID recently, you know, there’s not much you can do around, but I definitely love going to the park and things like that, you know? Um, I love it. I love exploring, trying different things. You know, I don’t like falling into a routine, even though I do kind of have it as everyone does, but when I realize I fell into a habit, I like to break it. You know, it’s interesting to go try different things, go different places.

Maranda:
Are you like an adventurer?

Ross:
Adventurer? No, but like, you know, I’m willing to give everything a shot once, you know, everything one chance. Nice. Very cool. Like today when we ate Vietnamese food. You had to give it a chance. I never tried it until today and I have to say it was pretty good.

Maranda:
Glad you liked it. What’s the music that you have in your playlist?

Ross:
Well, I’m like most 19-year-olds. I don’t listen to much rap. Okay. I’ll put that out there right now. It depends on my mood. Mostly depends on how I’m feeling. A lot of the time I listened to like nineties rock and things like that, you know? When I’m working, I like calm music. Things like, very folky music, like luminaires. That’s not like, the norm. And in different moods, if I’m driving in the car, listened to like, you know, poppy music, not poppy, but mountain the car. I like a lot of music over a wide range. Just depends on my mood.

Maranda:
Do you have any pet peeves?

Ross:
Oh, I have lots of pets. Lots. Yes. Well, some of them are my own of my own creation, one of the biggest ones, my fidgeting, you know? Like if I have a pen in front of me or something,

Maranda:
I’ll play with this pen away from you

Ross:
I know it’s awful clicking it and everything, but it just drives me nuts.

Maranda:
Your own pet peeve. You’re doing it to yourself!

Ross:
Absolutely. Yeah. That’s on my own. It’s my own monster of my own creation. And there are all kinds of things like that. Like the thing that I do to myself is I’ll leave things out and go, I’ll put it away in a few minutes. And then I’ll walk away and then forget about it.

Maranda:
Yeah. how would you define success?

Ross:
How would I define success? A lot of people will find success with like, you know, having the house, the car… But I don’t like that. You know, I’m sure it’s nice to have those things and appreciate nice things. But at the end of the day, as they all say, you can’t take it with you? I’d rather spend it with people I like spending time with or doing things I love doing and that’d be a successful life for me, maybe not having everything, but you know, being able to, to just be yourself and not worry about impressing anyone.

Maranda:
I love that answer. Well, thank you, we might as well wrap it up there. Thank you so much, Ross.

About Dovico’s Employee Spotlight

Meaningful business is not about impersonal transactions between two faceless entities. It’s about a group of conscious people serving another group of conscious people.

Understanding and relating to who each member of the team is crucial to building longer-lasting and trusting connections between everyone.

Employee Spotlight is a series of short biographies of Dovico employees that are meant to bridge that relatability gap. Dovico would be nothing more than just another timesheet company without the fantastic people who make up the team.

Dovico is the product of who we are and not just what we do.

Read other Employee Spotlights:

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• Employee Spotlight: Who’s Ross Campbell?
  Who’s Ross Campbell? Ross is one of our Junior Developers. One of Ross’ favourite things to do outside of work is playing with his brothers Tatsuo, Heath and Landon. Ross looks to Adam Savage, the creative host of Mythbusters, as his biggest inspiration. Ross loves to bake goodies to share and satisfy the sweet tooth of those around him. At home, he has an energetic pitbull named Willow. Listen to this article now: This is…
• Employee Spotlight: Who’s Shelley Butler?
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