A month ago I posted So What Am I Looking For?  which covered how everyone should know why they are working where they are.   I’d like to dive deeper into the analysis I did in choosing to land at PagerDuty.

Photo by Matthew Henry

To be honest I knew something was going to pop soon when I wrote that article.   But of course that wasn’t the first time.  Much of the past 5 months have periods where an offer was eminently coming.  Near the end one was in my hands and just needed a few details worked out/understood.  In the other cases roles were moved to other geographies or put on hold for various reasons.

You have probably already read the mistakes I made during my search.  Either way, it is time to share my rational behind that choice as well as how it aligns with my 4 goals stated almost a month ago.  Perhaps there is something you’ll gain from knowing more.

The first requirement for me was that it has to be a product that I believed in and got the value to my core.  And with PagerDuty I’ve depended on it in the past and have tremendous respect for the solution.  During the interview process I even got to tell a few times about my experience working at a place that didn’t have PagerDuty.  They had run out of money, which of course led to a RIF.  I had been laid off for 10 days when I got woken up by a call at 1:30 AM that their systems were getting overloaded.

Word hadn’t made it to the night shift that I was no longer with the firm.  I had to apologize and explain that I no longer had access and couldn’t help.  Hopefully the next person in their phone list would answer and be able to ease their pain and protect their brand. But that added delay wasn’t my problem.  It sure did show how important it is to be able to task the right person with the right information when help is needed!  And in retrospect things could have been fixed so much faster if they were properly balancing their emergency notifications.  (We also wouldn’t have been suffering from alert fatigue either.)

Part of the PagerDuty Platform

During the interview process I did learn that the company is loved and respected in a way similar to Fastly.  Sure you’ll get the jokes at the conferences about how “you are the people that wake me up.”  But it is always followed by “but we can always depend on you, and it only happens when I’m actually needed.”  A little different than the responses I got working booth duty in the past, but still a positive reputation either way.

He built one of the highest performing teams in the company with his sharp acumen of identifying right talent, and then driving the culture of focusing on business impact . . 

The second requirement in my first post was wanting leadership that I respected, want to excel for and learn from.  I already knew how much respect I had for Kieran Gavin and Kyle Duffy.  I’d gotten to interface with them before and sure did appreciate their priorities and communication style.   How could I not want to be at a company with people like this?

Image Courtesy of glassdoor

Of course it didn’t stop there.  I interviewed with two groups in PagerDuty that would interface with my team, plus one person that was as high up the chain as you could go.  The entire time it was leadership that was approachable, personable and impressive.  Not to mention all people that had been successful before.  I’m not talking “riding the Internet wave” to be part of multiple companies.  Rather making a real difference early on in firms that went on to grow even more because of their contributions.  If at this stage in my career I can’t have a candid conversation with anyone on a firm’s executive tier, I should be concerned.  Not at all the case with PagerDuty.

Besides a product and a team that I believe in, the third requirement is that I really want to work predominantly remote.  (The example being I’d rather be on a Sales call with the East Coast at 6am than commuting.)  During the interview for the first attempt to get into PagerDuty I did get to have lunch with one of their SCs (think Sales Engineer) that works in Petaluma.  He was very upbeat about how supportive PagerDuty was of him being remote as well as how enabled he was to get his work done.  He also exemplified the type of person who’s team I wanted to be part of.  Even if it was only indirectly.

Sure, I started writing this article from GoldenGate Transit on another trip down for a few days.  I’m looking forward to that time.  On a tangent, it wasn’t a full requirement.  I did want somewhere where I would have some opportunities to be in an office.  No matter how small.  For Mattermost there were only 4 of us in the SF office, and the time down there sure made some good motivation.  And if you ever want to be thankful for all your opportunities and blessings in life, commute to an office where you walk through the Tenderloin.  This is where my career had taken me right before the accident, and it might have been part of the strength, gratitude and optimism I felt while I recovered.

Photo by Ezra Comeau-Jeffrey on Unsplash

The final requirement for me is that it had to make sense as far as my career path and future.  I wanted the next role to be part of a thought out path.  And PagerDuty does that for me.  I’m being pushed to branch out into other spaces.  There will be a lot of value in all of the technologies I will be learning as I help build up the Partner Ecosystem.  And during that time I’ll be building up a large portfolio of public facing content.

Blogs, webinars, speaking at conferences, in some way there will be a public collection that I can point people to as a sample of what I am capable of.  I’m hoping to be at PagerDuty for a long time.  That being said I sure have learned that a career in tech can be unpredictable.  I can’t fathom PagerDuty being swallowed up by Thoma Bravo or running out of steam.  But facts are – no matter what happens I’ll be prepared and continuing to build value.

Prior I wrote about how this had been a much longer journey than I ever imagined.  But it was worth it.  I’ve landed, I’m home and I know this is the place for me.  Like Part I to this story, be sure that you can articulate what it is you want from your career.  Be able to define if your current role provides those items to you.  And when you make a switch (or get let go) stick to your guns and don’t lose faith!

A note from the editor:  A name was redacted.