Faces of SGH: Jake Ferraro

Jake’s Key Stats:

• Joined SGH: 2021.
• Current role: Marketing Coordinator, Waltham, MA.
• Education: University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (B.A. in Marketing).
• Secret talent: Sudoku puzzles (I’m in the top 1% of solvers in the world).
• Favorite sport: Watching basketball, playing soccer, and currently training for my first marathon.
• Best reason to smile: Making others smile.
• Last person you texted: My girlfriend.

What’s your favorite part about working at SGH?

I’m a member of the Marketing team at SGH. My work includes helping our technical staff members prepare presentations, managing our website and intranet platforms, and overseeing video production projects. I’ve discovered that my passion lies with the video content. It allows me to be creative and find ways to communicate a sometimes complicated message to our external audience. I find it rewarding to help our engineers tell their stories so our clients and partners can get to know our people, what we do, and the projects we work on.

What do you need to be successful in your role?

Creativity and adaptability are the most important aspects for me. I am constantly looking at things I see in my daily life and paying attention to why something is attractive or engaging to look at. I enjoy finding ways to apply that inspiration to my work. Being creative and willing to adapt allows me to look at the status quo in a new light and push my team to find new ways to approach things.

What’s your favorite memory at SGH?

I started at SGH during the height of the pandemic, so I was working fully remote. We had a brand launch in the fall of 2021, which included creating swag bags for our employees. This was one of my first times in the office, and my first time spending substantial time with many of my teammates. We were all climbing over mountains of goodies to put these bags together. I loved the camaraderie that came from that—this was my team, finally in person, working together on this big task that took weeks.

Have you had a mentor while here?

Yes, Matt Gotowala, the graphic designer on our team, is someone I look up to who has helped me more times than I can count. Every time he creates something—whether he knows it or not—I study what he does, his process, and how he approaches things. Watching him develop visual designs has helped how I approach my work, and it inspires me to look at things differently. His work product is amazing and if I can take just a little piece of that and implement it into my work, I know I’m better off. Additionally, he’s always willing to help. No matter what question I have, he’s never hesitated.

What does the 750 milestone mean to you?

It’s really exciting! I worked on the 750-employee celebration video and it gave me a chance to reflect on our growth from 3 professors in a tiny office to where we are now: a nationwide firm with 750 employees. It’s impressive. It’s important to step back and look where you came from. We get to celebrate everything that’s happened since our founding, all the stages our firm has gone through, and the fact that we’ve continued to grow and aren’t slowing down. It’s great to see how far we’ve come and how much further we can go.