Career in Tech

Career in Tech

Reflecting On My First Year At Databricks

I recently finished my first year at Databricks, so I wanted to take a chance to reflect on the year; summarize what I’ve learned, see if the reasons I joined have proven valid, and check in on how I’m progressing on the goals I set for myself. If you haven’t yet read the blog post on why I decided to join Databricks, you might benefit by referencing that. How Has My First Year At Databricks Been? I’m generally very happy here and think I made a good decision to join. I am truly living up to my LinkedIn tagline of “having fun doing hard things with great people”. I’ve had a lot of fun, but it has also been very challenging, in the way I enjoy – the way that stretches me to be better. In some ways I got really lucky joining when I did, much like I got

Career in Tech

Why Databricks?

Last month I accepted a role at Databricks. I’m writing this post explaining my decision mostly for me to look back on and hold myself accountable to, but perhaps it will also help anyone else going through a similar decision. I’ve decided to be candid about the decision as that is the only way this post will be helpful for others. I suspect the ideas will be relevant for multiple groups of people: those in the exact situation (deciding between Google and Databricks), those in similar situations (people considering Databricks or people deciding between another large tech company and a smaller tech company), and even those people making general career decisions. I mainly want this current blog post to be about Databricks and the reasons behind my deciding to join them, but it is impossible to consider that decision completely in a vacuum. Every decision represents passing by some other

Career in Tech

How I Decide On A Job Role

Last week I accepted a role at Databricks. I wanted to write about why I made that decision (like I previously wrote about my decision to accept a role at Google), but I realized it is impossible to discuss that decision completely in a vacuum. Every decision represents passing by some other opportunity, and in this case, the other opportunity was Google. With that in mind, before I write about my decision to join Databricks, I’ve decided to take this as a chance to explain a bit more about how I make career decisions. I think this post help provide context for that post while also serving its own purpose as a valuable look inside how one particular (and peculiar) person thinks about this type of decision. Ready for some spreadsheets? My Job Rubric If you’ve stumbled upon any of my blog posts previously, you might have picked up on

Career in Tech

Reflecting On Four Years At Google

I recently resigned from my role at Google after four years (technically 20 days short of that) and so I wanted to take a moment to pause reflect on my time there. You can see previous updates for my 3rd year, 2nd year, 1st year and upon deciding to join. To start, I should be clear, that I’m >50% sure that I’ll work for Google again at some point in my career and I currently have a 7.5% chance assigned to me being the CEO at some point. Google is a great company and has many productive years ahead of it. My leaving Google is less about me leaving and more about me being lured away. I wasn’t looking to leave (in fact, I was setup for another few years of fast-paced growth) but a company reached out and made me an offer I wasn’t able to turn down (more

Career in Tech

Reflecting On Three Years At Google

I recently finished my third year at Google and so I wanted to take a chance to reflect on what I’ve learned and see how I’m progressing along the goals I set for myself when I joined. You can see previous updates for my 2nd year, 1st year and upon deciding to join. Things I’ve Learned During Three Years at Google 1. Things can Change Very Quickly or Very Slowly My first two years at Google were pretty stable in terms of the team around me and our mission. Our team grew a lot, which meant new people were joining the team, but there was very little attrition, especially from my management chain. My third year was a completely different story. In a period of six months I experienced churn in my SVP, VP, Director, manager, ENG manager counterpart, ENG TL, and TPM counterpart. I would have a hard time

Career in Tech

Reflecting On Two Years At Google

I recently finished my second year at Google and so I wanted to take a chance to reflect on what I’ve learned and see how I’m progressing along the goals I set for myself when I joined. Things I’ve Learned During Two Years at Google 1.By Year Two, You’re A Veteran It seems a bit crazy, but in only two years, I’ve now been at the company longer than most of the folks I interact with. I’m the expert in my domain. It seems like just yesterday I was starting out, looking at a list of names my manager sent me and scheduling meetings with these folks to basically say ‘hi, I’m new and I think we will work together’. Now on a weekly basis new folks join and I’m on their list of names. 2. Credibility Is Earned Much In the Same Way Everywhere I’ve spent my whole career

Career in Tech

Reflecting On My First Year At Google

I recently finished my first year at Google and so I wanted to take a chance to reflect on what I’ve learned and see how I’m progressing along the goals I set for myself when I joined. Things I’ve Learned During My First Year at Google 1. Google is Still a Startup When I joined I wasn’t sure what the company would feel like and how things would work. Would it feel like a big company where everything had lots of process? Would I be able to get things done at the pace I enjoy or would the overhead slow me down? What I’ve found is that generally, in both good and bad ways, the day to day work of my project area still feels like a startup. It took me some time discover that but I now feel like I have a decent read and have been able to

Career in Tech

Why Google?

Last October I accepted a role at Google. I wanted to write about why I made that decision, mostly for me to look back on and hold myself accountable to, but perhaps it will also help anyone else going through a similar decision. On the surface working at Google might seem like a no brainer. The company has been ranked first on Fortunes top 100 places to work eight of the past 12 years. The perks are legendary, the company has made some of the most used and impactful products in the world (Google search, Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome, Android, Youtube, etc.) and teams of Googlers are working on some of the coolest projects of the future (self driving cars, food delivery drones, cancer detection, etc.). Google known for fun offices and giving employees freedom to tackle big problems in innovative ways, of which there is a long history of

Career in Tech

The Chief Bottle Washer

To create something new, you must be willing to give up what you currently hold. To obtain it, you must die to the status quo. You must bask in the glory of discomfort. You must embrace a path with no map. Where you feel comfort, you must press on until you tremble at the view of a completely blank canvas. This is the fourth time since joining Hearsay that I’ve defined myself. Sought to find the optimal way to add value to the company in manner that was possible for my skill set, appropriate for my life state and aligned with my motivations. It is not lost on me that in the same time (nearly six years) the company has redefined itself nearly as many times, we’re on our third name & our second product evolution. To make a living dealing in ambiguity, one must become comfortable with uncertainty and all of the side affects that

Career in Tech

Product Management and Collective Action Problems

Bringing a new product to life, either as a product manager or co-founder, ultimately amounts to solving a collective action problem. That is a problem that often occurs when a group of people is trying to accomplish something that is in their collective best interest but that none can accomplish alone. Encyclopedia Britannica has the following to say about this type of problem: “However, it has long been recognized that individuals often fail to work together to achieve some group goal or common good. The origin of that problem is the fact that, while each individual in any given group may share common interests with every other member, each also has conflicting interests. If taking part in a collective action is costly, then people would sooner not have to take part.” The result is a set of decisions by individuals to participate or not. If everyone acts then the result can ultimately