I’m not talking about a flight into Denver with turbulence.  Rather about my journey to find a new exciting opportunity after the accident 11 months ago.  Of those 11 months, 4 were spent disabled in a wheelchair pushing hard to recover.  Over 7 were spent reviewing jobs online and email from recruiters.  I’ve lost track of the number of interviews or technical exercises I did.  This of course was way longer than I have ever looked for work.  I have a lot of people to thank for their help, guidance and support.

Key Folks at PagerDuty

Of course there is a long list of folks at PagerDuty.  Nick Benza got the conversation going with the most efficient 15 minute introductory call I’ve ever had.  That lead to the best technical exercise I’ve experienced.  Perhaps you’ve read how that first opportunity got reprioritized to another region.  Even after that happened, people like Kyle Duffy, Kieran Galvin and Chris Karnacki either sent my details onto other recruiters or sent me warm introductions to them.

This of course led to a call from one of their internal recruiters, Dick Hartshorne.  He described the opportunity he was looking to fill as 1/3rd coding, 1/3rd blogging and 1/3rd public speaking.  (“Right up my alley” as my wife put it.)  And of course once I got to speak with Jukka Alanen, the hiring manager, I would learn about the other 5 hats I’d have the chance to wear in this role.  Of course there have been a half dozen other folks that have helped through the process.  Various on boarding and IT Help Desk folks have been super responsive and on top of every step of the process.

The folks at PagerDuty are obvious to thank.  They’ve done a lot and I am grateful.  But there were a long list of people that helped along the way in a diverse set of ways.

A Great Recruiter

The first I need to thank is Ben Wu at Bett’s Recruiting.  He worked with me to get one of the offers a year ago when I decided to leave Fastly.  And when I knew I would need to start looking he was right there for me.  He even passed my name onto opportunities where there was no comp to him if I was hired.  He was there as a sounding board in ways that went beyond what most other recruiters do.  I was especially impressed as he handled an opportunity.  It was one that was one of the ones that I “really wanted.”  It did end up being put on hold internally.  Ben did right by them as well as helping me stay positive during that rollercoaster of a ride.  If you need to grow your team and don’t have the resources to build a quality sourcing team, reach out to Ben!  I know I will if I ever have that need.

There also were several sales people that I’d worked with at Fastly that were there for moral support and to remind me of how much I enjoy being an SE.  I had some down times, at times amplified by processing other losses, but people like Omeed Nosrati, Chad Long, Alex Joannou and Rio Pesino were not only positive and uplifting but also sent me leads on various opportunities.

And the folks in leadership really showed their true colors.  Mark Richards and Erik Watson met me for coffee and gave good tips for the search.  Jon Candee sent in praise for me to his contacts at one very hot opportunity.  (Alas, I wasn’t a cultural fit, but it was exciting technology to learn about and I grew from the experience.)  Chris Kruse did let me know what other opportunities were available at Fastly, and his one simple inMail about “looking forward to seeing where I choose to land” helped steel my resolve to stick my guns on what I want.  And of course Peter Wohlers who met me for lunch and was another excellent sounding board on the process.  Lastly Tim Mayhew joins this long list of people I (at a minimum) owe lunch and a few rounds of beer some evening.

Left Wondering

Along the way I did wonder why it was taking so long.  Why several openings felt like I was such a fit only to get a simple email that they weren’t moving forward.  I wondered if my injuries and long time away from work gave them pause.  Up until a few months ago I needed an eye patch to deal with the double vision.  Plus I still have visible scarring on my face.  I also wondered if I’d made some minor mistake along the process.  Perhaps that was the reason they were looking for to say no.  (So often the interview process is spent looking for evidence as to why to NOT hire the candidate versus validating that they have the key traits, experiences and soft skills that are required.)

And I can’t write this without thanking my wife, son and parents and the rest of my family that was behind me through some pretty rough times.

So Grateful

I also owe a lot of thanks for being here. Today is 11 months to the day for when the accident occurred. Yesterday Chris would have celebrated his 66th birthday. Next month will be one year since losing him, but instead I will focus on all that I learned from him – he was one hell of an Salesman. Perhaps reminisce about how next month would have also been 10 years since he drove Evil Tweety to a new record in a the J Gas Altered class. So I’m thankful for being here.  Thankful for the great friends that I have.  Lastly thankful for the opportunity at PagerDuty. More on that to come!