Our people

A Company of ThoughtWorkers, by Matt Simons, our Chief People Officer

Being asked to describe, in a few short sentences, our diverse community of more than 800 unique, complex, and truly brilliant individuals is a daunting task indeed. Fortunately, our long tradition of including individual ThoughtWorker Profiles on our website allows everyone to speak for themselves.

Browsing through a few profiles will give you an idea of the kind of people you might bump into here. What it might not capture is the exhilaration of being part of a ThoughtWorks team, the electrifying atmosphere at one of our Away Days, or the joy of spending hours debating any topic imagineable with a group of people from all over the world who share common values but often have radically different views.

Being a ThoughtWorker or working with one of our teams will switch you on. You'll find yourself challenging assumptions, questioning the status quo and redefining what's possible. You'll see how a potent combination of high energy, hard work and pragmatic innovation delivers rapid results that create exceptional business value. You'll learn and grow more quickly than you ever would have believed. You'll take risks, and sometimes you'll fail. But as long as you fail quickly and learn from your mistakes, you'll find support and encouragement to carry on and make it happen the next time. Perhaps most importantly, you'll have a chance to make a positive impact - for your team, your company, your customers, your industry and the world.

If all of this sounds a bit intense, it is. ThoughtWorks has gathered together some of the most talented and passionate intellectuals on the planet. The result is a potent cocktail of ideas, energy, innovation and achievement. That makes it a very stimulating place. What makes it a truly great place is the fact that each ThoughtWorker is hand-picked to meet not only exacting aptitude standards but also to align with our core values. Our values bind us together into a global community of people who truly care about one another. At ThoughtWorks, we blur the lines between colleague and friend, customer and partner, work and play. The way we trust, support and care for one another often makes ThoughtWorks feel more like one big global family than a rapidly growing transnational company.

In the modern workplace, people are switching jobs with increasing frequency. In professional services especially, it is a common across the industry for people to spend 2-3 years with a company and then move on. ThoughtWorks is different. We've built this place from the ground up to last for 100 years and to carry on providing opportunities for many future generations of ThoughtWorkers. It isn't easy to build this kind of organisation in today's world of short-term focus driven by fast profit. As Chief People Officer, I consider it my personal mission to sustain and improve ThoughtWorks as a place where exceptional people have an exceptional experience - one that becomes so much a part of them that it's hard for them to imagine being anywhere else. Personally, after being a ThoughtWorker for the past eight years, I still often get the feeling that I've only just started my TW journey - and I'm most definitely looking forward to the road ahead!

Matt Simons, Chief People Officer. View Matt's profile

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