Karsun was named by employee rating site Comparably among the Best Companies for Career Growth. Key to our commitment to growth is Karsun Academy, our professional development program run through the Karsun Innovation Center (KIC). The Karsun Academy team ensures people of all experience levels, from interns to subject matter leaders, can learn and advance their skills at Karsun.
Growing from the Start
Karsun’s extensive internship program combines codeathons, research, and real-world problem-solving. Likewise, Karsun employees of any tenure can work with the KIC research and development team. Anyone may submit a suggestion for an improved process, new tool or application, or extraordinary idea through the Innovation Radar. Experts in the Innovation Center select submissions each month, work with the submitting teams, and showcase prototypes and their implementation at monthly town hall meetings.
Interested Karsun team members may also participate in different coding challenges, such as those held during Innovation Weeks. Here, they apply emerging technologies to known industry problems. Some Innovation Weeks pair expert panels and certification tracks during these weeklong events.
Growing as Experts
With the many opportunities to experience new technologies, approaches, and tools, Karsun also ensures every team member has the opportunity to earn the professional certifications relevant to them. Karsun hosts various training workshops every month. A combination of external industry experts and Karsun subject matter experts teach these. After training, Karsun employees are eligible for subsidized certification fees.
Additionally, while many training workshops are taught in a remote-hybrid arrangement, Karsun Academy also provides a virtual training library. These include industry-standard training for key certifications such as the AWS Associate and Professional Certifications.
Growing as Champions
Karsun team members who are confident in their expertise may also improve their instructional, people leader, and collaboration skills. Weekly brown bags feature employee-to-employee sharing on both technology skills and professional development. Topics range from writing and speaking to emerging AI trends. For team members passionate about a particular discipline, Karsun Practice Areas empower advocates to build resource libraries, connect with technology partners, and introduce industry experts to their teams.
Career Pathing tools transparently reveal the technical and managerial skills required to advance at Karsun. For new and growing supervisors, managers, and team champions, Karsun offers resources and an expanding training library. It also invests in forums, like Brunch Leadership, to receive employee feedback in this career stage.
From early career through established professionals, Karsun has a growth program designed to support their skill development. Each team member has multiple avenues to grow their career through Karsun Academy, the Innovation Center, and other resources. An ongoing commitment to this growth is how every team member can Find Your Next at Karsun.
To learn more about opportunities to grow at Karsun, visit KarsunCareers.com/jobs.
Our people at Karsun Solutions, power possible for government agencies. That includes our modernization experts currently building new solutions for complex systems. It also consists of the people that lead and champion their efforts. At Karsun, whether you are building solutions or cheering on our teams, we empower you to Find Your Next.
In this final post in our series on how problem solvers grow while supporting our customers’ missions, we share the experience of team champions and leaders at Karsun. Our team champions are an integral part of our collaborative, problem-solving-oriented culture. That includes providing the resources and tools they need to grow in their practice. Our Karsun Innovation Center has a Lean Practice Area dedicated to this mission. Like the toolkits and other resources provided by our other Practice Areas, this team advocates for project management, process improvement, and operational excellence.
Champions Grow With Karsun
We also support the growth and ongoing professional development of our champions. Every Karsun employee has access to paid training and subsidized professional certifications. We also host people leader workshops and workshops important to emerging leaders. For example, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) scrum master, product owner/product manager and agilist are among our most popular training options for growing leaders.
Karsun sponsors senior team leaders for industry fellowships and mentorship programs as well. We are a longtime supporter of the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) professional development programs. Eleven Karsun leaders are ACT-IAC fellows and several have returned to their programs as leaders and advisors.
ACT-IAC is a premier forum for collaboration between the government and the technology community. Each of our industry fellows partnered with a government fellow as part of their professional development program. Supporting our team champions’ engagement in organizations like ACT-IAC is how we ensure your growth is part of our commitment to serving our agency customers’ mission.
As our leaders cheer on their teams, we cheer on their growth at Karsun. Our teams grow together, serving the government and building new, exciting technology solutions. Whether you are one of these champions or someone looking to experiment and build with us, Find Your Next at KarsunCareers.com/jobs.
This blog is our fourth and final our series our how problem solvers grow at Karsun. Check out our previous posts and discover where we find our next, we experiment for mission success and how our teams collaborate with toolkits.
HERNDON, VA – Karsun Solutions announced today it won an award from Comparably for Best Company Career Growth. The award recognizes small and medium sized businesses rated highly for career growth by their employees. An enterprise modernization company serving the federal government, Karsun provides extensive career development resources through its in-house Innovation Center.
“We are proud to see our commitment to career growth recognized through this award from Comparably,” said Badri Sriraman, Senior Vice President of the Karsun Innovation Center.
Team members have many opportunities to grow their careers through the Karsun Innovation Center. Its professional development program, Karsun Academy, provides access to workshops, brown bags and training resources so that every team member may earn industry standard credentials. Additionally, anyone may research recommended certifications and classes through the career pathing tool on the Karsun Konnect employee app.
Karsun also celebrates and encourages team members when they put these skills into practice. Monthly Innovation Town Halls celebrate the successful implementation of emerging technologies. The Innovation Radar, also available through the Konnect app, tracks these projects from ideation to completion. Moreover, innovation weeks, hackathons and challenge teams allow employees to test their skills in implementing solutions to known customer problems.
Karsun’s commitment to career growth supports the upskilling and expansion of its teams. Many of these teams grew throughout the pandemic and even as Karsun moved to a remote-flexible model. Several teams continue hiring nationwide. Interested candidates may apply at KarsunCareers.com.
About Karsun Solutions
Transform your career with the company transforming possible for the government. Join the workplace where the only limit to your potential is the limit of your curiosity. Thrive in a community that empowers software development, cloud and data experts. At Karsun, explore every possibility and turn your bold ideas into reality. Expand your career potential with dynamic development resources like Karsun Academy and sponsored technical certification courses. And joining a growing enterprise means as we grow, so do your career opportunities. Take your career to the next level and play your part in powering new possibilities for federal agencies.
Company Contact: Karsun Solutions, marketing@karsun-llc.com
About Comparably
Comparably (now a ZoomInfo company) is a leading workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform with over 15 million anonymous employee ratings on 70,000 companies. With the most comprehensive data on large and SMB organizations in nearly 20 different workplace categories – based on gender, ethnicity, age, experience, industry, location, education – it is one of the most used SaaS platforms for employer branding and a trusted third party site for workplace culture and compensation. For more information on Comparably and its annual Best Places to Work Awards, visit www.comparably.com.
The Great Resignation is out, and the Big Stay is in. At least according to a recent report from ADP, which observes many people are opting to stay in their current roles rather than risk an unsteady job market. However, at Karsun, we are still growing and want you to grow with us!
Here growth is about more than moving up (though if that is important to you, we hope you do that too!). It is also about growing your expertise and technical skills in government technology projects. We are an information technology consulting company, but our teams exclusively serve the federal government. If you want to grow your career in public sector IT, there is no better place to be than Karsun.
Grow to Serve the Mission
We support important missions at agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). We prioritize training to ensure our support of the mission continues. We proudly recall several examples when our teams persevered, despite external constraints. During the 2019 Government Shutdown, rather than send our teams home, we created a training program focused on developing the skills and tools that would best support our agency customers the moment the work stoppage lifted. Likewise, during the early days of the pandemic, one of our teams not only continued delivery on their current project but due to their expertise in enterprise modernization and grants management systems onboarded a new program to support first responders.
Because our training programs anticipate the needs of our agency customers, we can ensure they meet their missions. And as our customer wins, our teams share in those successes while growing their experience in new technologies and tools. Our Innovation Center has dedicated technical practice areas and experts focused on modernizing Acquisition, Aviation, Grants, and Fleet management systems. These same practice leaders work with our Karsun Academy team to develop tailored training programs to support the needs of our customers and our teams serving them.
Grow with our Industry
In addition to our in-house resources, we also proudly support local industry organizations like the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC). In fact, eleven Karsun leaders are ACT-IAC fellows, graduating from one of its exclusive professional development cohorts. We also support organizations such as Women in Technology to ensure our region has diverse opportunities to grow and excel.
Join our team and not only grow your technical skills but grow your knowledge and experience in public sector IT. In fact, you do not have to be based in the D.C. region to utilize our resources. Karsun hires remote roles nationwide, and all of our team members have access to Karsun Konnect, our virtual portal where they can access the same Innovation Center resources available to our local employees. Many of these tools and courses are designed for remote/asynchronous learning. Visit our Career Development page to learn more about growing with Karsun or apply today at KarsunCareers.com.
At its final All Hands event, Karsun Solutions celebrated the more than 1400 hours of training, professional development, and certifications earned by its team members in 2020. This incredible accomplishment was driven by the Karsun Innovation Center (KIC) and its newly launched Practice Areas. These employee-centered teams introduced a series of Dojos, Brown Bag, and certification workshops to ensure all teams had the experts they need to Do Extraordinary while Defying Assumptions.
The KIC was first introduced as an in-house Research and Development unit. Later, in 2016, it added Karsun Academy, a professional development program aimed at supporting team member technical certifications. In 2018 it introduced the first of five Practice Areas. These currently include Solution, DevSecOps, Lean, Data, and Development Practice Areas.
These areas span Karsun offerings with a dedicated lead for each and a core set of practice advocates in every delivery program. They also drive excellence through the creation of reusable assets and toolkits, the establishment of guidelines, industry certifications and technology partnerships, and the enablement of active collaboration among employees. It is through these industry partnerships, with vendors like Red Hat, AWS, and StreamSets, that the center offers a full training curriculum designed to familiarize teams with the latest enterprise modernization technologies and solutions.
Subject Matter Experts Share Experience in Multiday Dojos
Karsun Practice Leads introduced Dojos as a format to deliver multiday, hands-on training to delivery teams. These in-depth workshops bring team members up to speed on best practices and emerging methodologies. While initially created as in-person events, the Innovation Center quickly enhanced its digital workplace tool suite, Karsun Konnect, to offer these events in a remote environment.
DevSecOps Practice Adapts Ansible 101 to Virtual Workshop
Karsun is a long-standing Red Hat Ready Partner. Karsun Academy previously hosting multiday in-person workshops led by Red Hat experts. This year the KIC adapted some of this training into an Ansible 101 Digital Dojo. Led by Samir Bham, the Director of the DevSecOps practice, this virtual workshop allowed team members to log in remotely, gain hands-on experience with a subject matter expert all while learning best practices.
Employee to Employee Sharing in Weekly Brown Bags
Brown Bags, hosted by any Karsun team member, spotlights team member expertise in short, one-hour presentations. The training and professional development team introduced these shorter sessions to augment Karsun Academy certification courses. Today, sessions cover a range of professional development topics from new vendor solutions to soft skills.
Lunchtime Workshop Focuses on Migration & Disaster Recovery
Madhu Chellappa, of Karsun’s DevSecOps practice, led one such workshop on Migration and Disaster Recovery. This short, one-hour session discussed a solution using Cloud Endure. This highly automated rehosting solution from AWS simplifies and expedites migration.
Certification Programs Ensure Expert Teams Ready on Day One
Certification programs formed the original backbone of Karsun Academy. This provided employees with industry-standard certifications. Through this program, for instance, the Innovation Center ensured over 40 Karsun team members are AWS certified!
DataOps NoVa Hosts StreamSets Certification Workshop
The Innovation Center also hosts DataOps NoVa through its Data Practice. Members in that Meetup group attended a three-day data engineering workshop from StreamSets alongside Karsun team members. Participants enhanced their data pipelines skills with a combination of vendor-led presentations and hands-on challenges using the StreamSets DataOps platform. After the workshop, most participants had the opportunity to be fully certified as Expert StreamSets Developers.
Karsun Solutions is repeatedly recognized for growth by publications like the Washington Business Journal and Inc. Magazine. Innovation Center Practice Areas ensure team members will continue to Grow with Karsun. These programs in turn create a pipeline of Enterprise Modernization Experts ready to solve difficult government transformation challenges. To learn more about how Karsun’s modern software development, cloud solutions or data solutions complete the form located here.
Karsun kicked off its ten year anniversary celebration this year. During an event in its new Virginia headquarters, it recognized the dedicated team members responsible for the organization’s early and sustained growth. It also affirmed its commitment to team member development over the next ten years. Throughout 2019 Karsun celebrated its love for community, continuous learning, and excellence. Team Karsun embraced these culture-defining moments while preparing for the next decade to come.
Karsun Academy Transforms Government Shutdown into Growth and Learning Opportunity
The Oklahoma FAA SSD team initially planned to return from winter break to a week of Red Hat training. However, they soon faced the partial government shutdown impacting federal contractors at the beginning of 2019. Rather than grinding to a standstill, the Karsun community came together during this uncertain time. In addition to the planned Red Hat training, Karsun arranged for additional professional development courses. This continuation of the Karsun Academy program allowed team members to train on topics from solutioning to project management instead of taking paid time off.
From Hacklahoma to Southampton Karsun Connects with Students
In addition to team development through Karsun Academy, the IT recruiting team and innovation teams extended development resources to college students throughout the year. Hitting the ground running after the shutdown some Karsun Oklahoma City team members joined the University of Oklahoma for Hacklahoma 2019. At this hackathon, they mentored students and spoke on DevOps practices. Students were also given the option to connect virtually with Karsun recruiters after the event.
In the spring and fall, Jason Marceau, a Director with Karsun’s GSA DMS program, returned to the University of Southampton for a series of events with graduate analytics students. In partnership with the Centre for Operational Research, Management Science and Information Systems (CORMSIS), Karsun held a hackathon, challenging students to uncover insights behind U.S. government spend data. In October, Jason returned to reprise his popular talk on leveraging internship experience in academic and professional settings.
The Karsun Innovation Center (KIC), the organization’s in-house research and development unit, also sponsored a senior capstone at George Mason University this year. Mentored by Shanmuga Palanivelu and Badri Sriraman, these students developed a rapid prototyping tool for microservices. Karsun technical recruiters and hiring managers also attended fairs at the university in addition to holding virtual information sessions with Master of Information Technology students at Virginia Tech.
Opening Doors, Supporting Communities Abroad
Karsun Solutions sponsors several organizations supporting students and communities abroad. In the spring it was the event sponsor for the Organization to Provide EducatioN’s (OPEN) annual Rasika concert. The event raises money for the charity benefitting more than 33,000 children and 105 schools. In the fall Karsun supported Bridges to Community. This organization connects service-learning groups with communities in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
Celebrating with Families at Home
Fun is a Karsun core value and just as essential to team development. The summer family picnic is one of the yearly traditions which anchor the Karsun events calendar. This year the Oklahoma team and Karsun leadership gathered at the Frontier City amusement park. Meanwhile, the Virginia team celebrated their picnic at Ticonderoga Farms. The Oklahoma team recently held a second event, a winter festival held at an indoor arcade. In addition to these family-oriented events, the employee led events committee plans monthly activities in both locations.
Learn from Experts, Work from KIC
In September, Karsun and the Innovation Center moved into the organization’s new 75,000 square foot headquarters. Utilizing its new facilities, the innovation team strengthened its practice areas including a new DevSecOps innovation center practice and hosting Work from KIC days. The team also hosts monthly innovation town halls and is the home of the DataOps NoVa community Meetup. Investing in the resources used by many employees during the shutdown at the start of the year, the Innovation Center solicits feedback through a web application and shares its roadmap in its town hall sessions.
Find a Place at One of the Fastest Growing Companies in DC
Karsun Solutions celebrated its fifth Inc. 5000 win with its annual August ice cream parties. The festivities do not stop there! Team Karsun also celebrated awards from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce (Fantastic 50) and Washington Business Journal (Fast 75), culminating with the Northern Virginia Technology Council Tech 100 in December. Both Virginia and Oklahoma teams will continue hiring throughout 2020. Sign-up for the monthly Extraordinary Life newsletter for the latest on employee celebrations, company awards, and job openings.
HERNDON, VA – As the 2019 government shutdown continues, Karsun Solutions LLC, an IT modernization contractor for the government, encouraged its employees to hit the books. Offering class as an alternative to absences, employees strengthened their skills supporting Karsun Solutions’ software development, cloud solutions, and advanced analytics practices. The option to pursue professional development and continuing education classes was offered through the company’s Karsun Academy program.
Karsun Academy, initially created to ensure team members earned industry certifications in emerging technology, has grown alongside Karsun Solutions. With a growing headcount, the company was already adding partner-led training to its catalog of classes. During the shutdown, academy participants accessed the extensive menu of certification programs and partner-led training sessions. The company also expanded their offerings adding classes in topics including Angular, Java, C#, PowerShell and Azure. New competencies were reinforced with coursework on Microservices, Domain Driven Design, Web Application Security and Testing Automation.
“Karsun Solutions hires employees for the journey, not the program.” said Karsun Solutions Chief Architect Kartik Mecheri adding “We consider ourselves the Enterprise Modernization Experts. Using this opportunity to deepen employee expertise is part of our commitment to establishing an enterprise-wide culture of innovation.”
David Eden, a Karsun Solutions employee participating in training in Oklahoma City added, “Despite the shutdown, we are making the most of our time away from our normal duties by training on technologies that will help us better serve the Federal government and the American public once we return to our work. Examples are web application security, cloud technologies, and automating the build and deploy processes so we can provide secure, stable, and scalable solutions more quickly, securely and reliably than ever before.”
Team members have access to company thought leaders throughout the year. The organization encourages employee knowledge sharing through its weekly brown bag program. The Karsun Innovation Center, an in-house research and development unit established early in the company’s founding, offers numerous opportunities for employee advancement. Team members may cycle in, receive additional training through one of the organization’s centers of excellence or challenge teams, then return to their teams as embedded experts.
Karsun Solutions is also preparing for more growth in the coming year. Even as the shutdown continues, the talent team is actively hiring. They are prepared to hire in the Greater Washington D.C. and Oklahoma City regions. Bolstered by Karsun Academy, the team feels confident in their ability to rapidly onboard the next generation of team members.
For more information on joining the Karsun Solutions team visit the Karsun Careers Page at karsun-llc.com/careers.
About Karsun Solutions
Karsun Solutions is a fast-growing, innovative enterprise modernization firm. Recently awarded Best Company Culture by Comparably.com, its teams deliver modern software development, cloud, and data solutions to customers at government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration and General Services Administration. Leveraging GoLean, Karsun teams drive digital transformation and help its government customers Do Extraordinary. Learn more at Karsun-LLC.com.
BE GREATER is the challenge we give to all employees at Karsun Solutions. Professional development is one of our core values. We offer the Karsun Academy program as part of our commitment to nurturing enterprise modernization expertise among team members. Karsun offers multiple avenues for in-demand IT skills development through this program.
Workshops from the Karsun Innovation Center
Participation in innovation is a pillar of Karsun culture. The Karsun Innovation Center (KIC) is Karsun’s in-house research and development team. KIC team members act as expert resources for teams at Karsun. As part of that mission, team members establish industry partnerships. Innovation partners include AWS, Appian, Microsoft, and Red Hat. KIC also brings in partner experts to host workshops on topics like DevSecOps and data streams in Internet of Things implementations.
Employee Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge sharing is an extension of our continuous learning culture and GoLean methodology. As part of that philosophy, Karsun also hosts a recurring brown bag series. Teams share insights and learning with their peers across the enterprise. Karsun employees are encouraged to participate in local industry groups. Employees are also encouraged to share their findings through outside organizations. Recent presenters are also invited to present internally at Karsun. Employees were recently treated to talks on microservices and serverless architecture.
Certification Programs
Karsun Solutions’ AWS certification classes are one of the earliest manifestations of the Karsun Academy program. Today Karsun employees have the opportunity to receive training and support for either their AWS Associate or Professional Certifications. They may also work with their supervisor to seek out IT skills certification opportunities in any of our three practice areas: Modern Software Development, Cloud Solutions, or Advanced Analytics.
We are rapidly growing and looking for team members excited to grow with us. Apply through our careers page to join us in Oklahoma, Virginia or Washington, DC. To learn more about professional development at Karsun, speak directly with one of our recruiters during our weekly Talent Thursdays chats. For the latest job openings and Karsun news follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube.
In July Karsun launched Karsun Academy, an on-site training and certification program for its employees. The two areas of focus initially were AngularJS and AWS certifications. At the conclusion of the most recent program several employees received their AWS Associate or Professional certifications. Karsun offers training for AWS Certified Developer – Associate, AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional, and AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certifications.
Karsun Academy is one of several programs offered by Karsun Solutions designed to help employees achieve their personal and professional goals. All employees also have the opportunity to engage with the organization’s in-house research-and-development unit, the Karsun Innovation Center. If you’re ready to join a team that embraces growth visit our job postings and connect with our Talent Acquisition Team at hr@karsun-llc.com.
This year, students will pay $200 million for coding boot camps. That’s an estimated 18,000 students attending camps. Given such boot camps can cost upwards of $10,000, company-sponsored training can be an invaluable benefit for employees.
At Karsun, innovation is a core value. Training teams in the newest technologies and tools is not a matter of simply checking off a contract requirement. This method deepens the knowledge pool of veteran developers and engineers while bringing the newest members up to speed. Every employee is an expert!
As a growing organization, Karsun recently expanded on-site training opportunities. This summer we launched our newest series of in-house training programs – Karsun Academy. We kicked off with an AngularJS program and are developing a series of other programs including Drupal and AWS that will run throughout the year.
If you want to learn more about Karsun’s culture of innovation, connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you’re ready to join a team that embraces personal and professional development visit our job postings, follow our blog for the weekly job opening announcements and connect with our Talent Acquisition Team at recruiting@karsun-llc.com.