How Asymmetrik stayed true to itself while growing, and moving

For Asymmetrik, the last year and a half brought lots of growth.
The tech and analytics company has been around since 2007, quickly establishing a 25-employee headcount. But an expansion from working with government into healthcare and other commercial work led the company to nearly double in size. Now the total is 67 employees, and they’re still hiring, said Asymmetrik’s Toni Fung, who gave us a tour of the office recently.
With the fast ramp-up, CTO Amit Singh said the business growth has remained organic and referral-based. That’s also how they hire.
“We get to be very selective in who we hire,” said Singh. “What I’m personally proud of is our vetting process has gotten more rigorous over time rather than less, which I think is the opposite of what most companies do as they get larger.”
The company has job descriptions posted, and will be at Technical.ly’s jobs fair, NET/WORK Baltimore, on Feb. 23 at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
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Singh said the first priority is finding people.
“We say we don’t hire for the position, we hire for the career,” Singh said. That might mean hiring outside a position. He described one recent hire who didn’t line up with a specific job description that was open, but was someone the company wanted to work with.
“What we’ve found in our experience is that for great people, work finds them,” Singh said.

The space where they work is designed to encourage those folks to share ideas. The team moved to its current office on National Business Parkway in Annapolis Junction in May 2016. The old office was half the size of the current space, Singh said.
There’s more green and games than you might expect when driving in past the similar-looking office buildings that house government contractors. Within the new spot, the open layout is designed to help those folks exchange ideas.

Along with discussing the latest technologies, it’s brought some creativity to the office building. Teams within the company are organized by animal icons. Those signifiers can also appear on kegerator taps if team members brew beer. That comes in handy for monthly happy hours, which highlight the musical talent. October’s gathering featured a performance from an accordionist and bassoonist. During the holidays, a life-size nutcracker built by the company made an appearance.

Singh said he always smiles when he sees people from different teams talking, whether it’s about a recent conference or something outside of work.
“That’s when that spontaneous combustion happens,” he said.