If you’ve ever needed or wanted to relocate, you know the trickiest part is finding a job in the city where you want to be—and possibly sacrificing a great work environment in the process. Companies that support big moves in house are few and far between.
But they do exist. Dana Epsten, senior director of client advisory at VTS, knew she wanted to move from New York to the West Coast eventually, so she broached the subject with her manager multiple times, making it clear that her long-term career goals aligned with a cross-country relocation.
The real estate tech company made it happen, which, based on InHerSight data, is extremely on brand. VTS has nearly perfect scores for Ability to Telecommute and Flexible Work Hours, two essential metrics for supporting such a huge transition.
We asked Epsten to share what that support looked like in action and how VTS is supporting her now that she’s in California.
Read more: She Leads: Harlie Levine Is Director of Engineering at VTS
Dana Epsten
Senior Director, Client Advisory at VTS for 6.5 years
Her top three must-haves at work:
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Learning Opportunities
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The People You Work With
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Employer Responsiveness
Tell us about your role at VTS. What are your responsibilities and what is your day-to-day like?
I oversee our enterprise client advisory team for our core VTS products: lease, market, and data. I manage a team of 10 people focused on our largest customers nationally and globally. My team helps drive the value of VTS across these massive, complex organizations and ensures these companies can adopt this new technology in service of their larger business goals. In addition, I work closely with our product team helping to think through how our customers can best leverage new functionality and I help create the processes necessary for their rollout.
You recently relocated from New York to California while working at VTS. Describe how VTS supported that transition.
My entire family lives in California, so getting back to the West Coast was something that was always on my radar, and I’d shared that with my Manager early on in my career at VTS. A little over a year before I moved, I brought up with my manager and the head of our department that I was starting to get more serious about making the move in the future. I made it clear that I was invested in growing my career with VTS, but I wanted to prioritize getting closer to my family at the same time. Through all of this, I’d shown that I was a high performer and able to get my work done with little oversight, which made the conversation easier. My manager had no doubts about my ability to be highly effective, which I think she knew would hold true even if I was across the country. After that initial conversation, I checked in every few weeks to make sure we were on track to working toward the goal of the move together. Asking questions like “Do you see any obstacles to this move?” and “What other skills do I need to build to be successful while not in the office?” were important in the preparation to make the move so that I could develop any skills I needed accordingly.
During all of this, there was a death in my family, and it accelerated my timeline to get to California. My manager and VTS were extremely accommodating and completely supportive of my decision to expedite my move. During those first few months after I moved, I made a few more frequent trips back to NYC to finish out some client work, which was something VTS was supportive of given the circumstances. It really showed me that VTS is a company that puts their people first.
Leasing and asset management platform VTS aims to be commercial real estate’s modern operating system, and they’re looking for curious, driven, and customer-obsessed employees to help them reach that goal. Rated most highly for Paid Time Off, Employer Responsiveness, and The People You Work With, VTS has benefits like flexible PTO, 16 weeks paid leave for primary caregivers, and allowances for external learning opportunities. Click to learn more about the company and to explore their open positions!
At work, what, if anything, has shifted for you since the move, and what has VTS, whether through benefits or culture, done to continue supporting you as you complete this major life transition?
The biggest shift for me has been my work hours! I start around 7:30 a.m. to align closer to my team in NYC, which has been great for me because I’m a morning person and like having my late afternoons free. That’s probably not a schedule that works for everyone, so I encourage people to make sure they can set themselves up for success when working across time zones.
The client advisory team comes together in NYC a few times a year, and it’s a great opportunity to connect with people in person and build relationships. When you’re a remote worker, you lose out on some of that office camaraderie, so you must be much more intentional about your time when you make trips back to headquarters. As a manager, VTS is also supportive of ad hoc trips back to headquarters when a new person starts on my team or if there are critical client meetings I want to attend in person.
What about VTS as a company made them uniquely capable of supporting your move?
VTS genuinely cares about their people, which I don’t think is the case for most companies. I think that stems from our incredible people/human resources team, who are always there to help employees navigate situations, even if it’s not something that traditionally is in their scope. After I made the move, that team checked in on me and made sure I was set up for success and could help them build out a playbook for best remote work practices.
Beyond the flexibility to change locations, what would you tell a woman hoping to join the company about working for VTS?
In my department, customer success, half the management team is female. I think that’s a result of the focus we put on gender diversity on the team and the work we put into growing women into leaders in the department. It’s a culture where women support other women both in the workplace and beyond.
