Dec. 20, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by MarketBeat.

Rebecca McKeever’s career journey took a few turns before she landed a role as software development lead at MarketBeat. It’s a journey of remarkable growth, dedication and a thirst for continuous learning.

Rebecca McKeever works on the MarketBeat website.

McKeever earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Trinity Christian College in 2010 and spent two years teaching fifth and sixth graders in Bogota, Colombia. When her daughter was born, she decided to step away from teaching for a bit and moved back to Sioux Falls, where she worked as a freelance graphic designer.

Rebecca McKeever with her daughter and husband at the MarketBeat Holiday Plaza

“I had been calling myself a freelance graphic designer, but I had gotten more and more into helping people with their WordPress websites,” McKeever said. “And some small-business clients were asking me for marketing and business advice, which I was completely unqualified to give, but those topics interested me, so I would always try to do some research and help them.”

It wasn’t long before McKeever discovered her true passion for web development. McKeever began taking online web development courses and decided it was time to update her resume and start her job search.

“I realized that a lot of what I was doing for clients was actually web development, not design, and that development projects were my favorite types of projects. I started looking at what it would take to eventually get a job as a developer,” she said.

Part of that passion was fueled by tasks received from MarketBeat CEO Matt Paulson, who McKeever recalls meeting through The Bakery co-working space.

MarketBeat chamber ribbon-cutting in 2017

In its early days, MarketBeat operated with a small team spread across different locations. McKeever worked remotely, handling various tasks while Paulson focused on coding and another team member managed customer service.

McKeever’s role at MarketBeat began with small projects, “tasks like reformatting some images for the footer of MarketBeat.com in the early days,” and gradually transitioned to more impactful work, including making changes directly to the MarketBeat website.

“I’ve done so many different tasks as part of my job at MarketBeat,” shared McKeever. “There’s been a little bit of everything from explaining investing concepts to customers, to updating websites for business partners, among several other things.”

When Paulson heard McKeever was looking for a job, he recognized it as a good opportunity to grow his company.

“Rebecca completed a few small freelance writing projects for MarketBeat, and through those interactions, I knew I wanted to have her on my team long term. So I hired her and sent her through a training program called Code Bootcamp to help grow her technology skills,” Paulson said.

McKeever was convinced that working for a startup was the right move because the work would be more interesting.

“I knew that MarketBeat was growing a lot, so I figured there would be some room for myself to grow and learn in that environment,” she said. “I haven’t been disappointed.”

McKeever officially joined the company in 2015, becoming the second-ever employee.

Matt Paulson and Rebecca McKeever work next to each other at Queen City Bakery in the early days of MarketBeat.

MarketBeat, too, underwent significant changes, including the evolution from exploring diverse business avenues to concentrating primarily on financial media and adding more employees into the mix.

“I really enjoy variety and learning something new every day, so it’s been bittersweet to give up some of my roles to co-workers as they have been hired,” McKeever said. “But it’s so good to have so many talented co-workers share their expertise in those areas.”

MarketBeat’s development team was growing, and they needed someone to field questions and make decisions, someone who knew the code base well and had a good pulse on user experience and marketing strategy.

Rebecca McKeever holds her new MarketBeat T-shirt.

Despite lacking formal qualifications, McKeever found herself in the position of software development lead, where she has relied on her determination and eagerness to learn.

“I had no experience in being a dev team lead, so I’ve leaned on my ability to try hard and figure things out,” she said. “Out of the many roles I’ve had at MarketBeat, I think this has been my biggest challenge. Hopefully, I am a good role model of ‘if you don’t know, just ask.’ We’re all figuring things out together.”

This approach to challenges has played a pivotal role in the team’s growth.

“Rebecca has transformed into an exceptional software development lead,” Paulson said “Her ability to tackle challenges head-on and foster a collaborative learning environment for the team has been instrumental in our company’s success.”

Rebecca McKeever and the development team at the DEVintersection Conference

These days, McKeever works mostly in Visual Studio, a program for developers, making changes and additions to MarketBeat.com. When she’s not deep in the code, she’s busy navigating projects with the team.

McKeever reflects on her growth journey with MarketBeat, where she said she has gained a lot of confidence along the way. Looking ahead, she aims to guide the team toward bigger goals but won’t cut out the opportunity to explore new developments.

“Our future is more focused,” McKeever said. “We’ve had time to throw a lot of spaghetti against the wall, and at this point, we generally know what works, so we can focus on that. I see myself spending more time making sure the dev team is working as much as possible on those big goals. But I hope I always get to write code and try new things.”