A New Adventure

I am excited to announce that I have accepted a job at Hims and started on Monday, June 17th. It’s been several months of searching in a job climate that I was surprised to fall into. I was surprised to fall into it for one, as the “lay-off” was unexpected, and for two to fall into the thousands of others that are now looking for a job.

It was 272 days of applying; 8 months. I submitted 180 applications. Yes, I was picky, I’ve seen the stories where it was passing a thousand. I wanted to find the right job, and those were the ones that I felt I was both qualified for and would have been excited to take. 400+ emails between recruiters, colleagues, and businesses. Let’s not even count the LinkedIn messages and phone calls.

This brought me 92 automated declines; 51%. I had an average response of 23 days from any submission if they responded at all. I locked down 15 interviews which I heard was pretty good at an 8% response, but I figured myself being picky with what I applied to helped with that. This rounded out to about 40-50 hours of actual interviews. A little less than 10 hours of take-home tests, not counting the unknown amount of time for preparation.

In the end, I locked down two offers in the same week; somehow. I chose Him and Hers because I believe it was the best long-term opportunity for myself and my family. The comp was similar enough between the offers but after talking to family and friends, this is what I felt was the better opportunity for long-term growth.

Shocked! Shocked I tell you

As a Director of Engineering and one who had been at Angi, formerly Angie’s List (while I disagree with the name change being a good Idea) for 12 years I was lucky enough to see many changes. I saw good leaders and sadly far too many bad leaders. Before the lawyers get excited to think I’m going to commit libel against the company, just look at the stock. I was part of the growth from 6$ to over $20. It wasn’t until the last few years of horrible decisions that the stock tanked. If you call that good leadership, then we are not aligned.

Some may think that I made a mistake staying at the company as long as I did. However, I had the opportunity to try and grow and finish things in the way that many job hopers never have. Through several mergers, I’ve gotten the chance to be a part of aligning job descriptions, un-siloing teams, and combining tech stacks. I’ve been a part of both architecting the new microserve architecture as well as ripping apart the monoliths. I’ve led prioritizations of that migration while simultaneously delivering new features. During my journey at Angi, I watched many “Leaders” be a part of some of it, but few stay through all of it, and I’ll tell you firsthand, that you miss critical skills when you've only been a part of planning and not the final delivery.

You are Fired. by: Fifth Element

I was there on a Zoom call, with all of this before the mentioned background, expecting the HR call to be about rectifying an entirely different situation. I was told that Monday that I was being let go, as well as several others based on “performance.” They couldn’t answer what that performance was, or why there had been a lack of discussion about it in reviews. What the HR representative could answer was here’s severance, and a get-out of the building after you collect your personal items. I supposed the shock could have been worse, It could have just been in an email.

The next shock on this journey was the job market that I entered into. https://layoffs.fyi/ is a great resource to realize that you aren’t alone if you too have gone through it. 350,000 layoffs in the technology sector have happened in the last year and a half. This is beyond a significant percentage. While I watched that layoff number grow, I watched hundreds of individuals applying for the same job I was also applying for. When a year previously there were recruiters calling with an offer letter in hand requesting only a superfluous interview to get it. Such a short time for such a shift.

This made me refocus on what I was looking for. I started lining was to search, writing out ways to give standard answers, and practicing being on the other side of the interview table. I grabbed colleagues to do mock interviews and reached out to mentors to see what advice they had. The worst was that I had to remember that while this economic slump was hitting it wasn’t the first. 2008 was another terrible job market as well, where I was told my raise was keeping my job.

What it was like to interview

About halfway through this window of interviewing nightmare, I realized that while I had taken a couple of interviews in that last decade it had been over a decade since I was on that side of the proverbial table. It was a reminder to learn the techniques and remember to tailor my answers to what the interviewer was looking for. Preparation is your greatest asset, as well as years of experience as an interviewer and knowing what I wanted to see and hear.

It took a while to get there though. In my first interview, I focused so much on how to get the exact answer that I often couldn’t come up with a good example of a time I had done the thing I am speaking of. Do you know how foolish you look, 2 decades of experience in the industry, when you are asked, “Tell me a time when had to take challenging feedback and how did you handle it.” All I could think of was a recent incident with a “leader” who stated, if you don’t like this change then maybe we’ll have to find someone who does. Look above and refer back to bad leaders and you will realize that there weren’t great examples on the tip of my tongue. I’m sure I’m not alone in that trauma.

What I realized is that while interviewing you need to make sure the answers are tailored to the question. In an interview, they want to know what you did. When your frustration slips out, justified or not, you’ve failed the question. If it’s bad enough a single bad answer could fail the interview. If that interview is part of a panel, it could be just enough to keep you from getting that job offer.

Frustration was my killer. It could be yours as well. The interviewer wants to know that you can take feedback. They don’t care about what the feedback is, as much as how you handle it. You’re looking for a job, so of course your previous employer is a festering puss bucket. If the job was rainbows and cuddly kittens you wouldn’t be looking for a new one. So the advice here is to ignore the negativity and show how whatever the advice is, which often you don’t even really need to discuss, but show how you took something and grew from it. Every question is about how you can grow yourself, grow the team you will join, and grow the company.

The Rollercoaster

The most difficult part of the process is the rollercoaster. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions filled with ups when you are talking to a company, and downs when the conversations stop. While the downs don’t hurt as bad when you get feedback, it’s the process of back-and-forth conversations that just abruptly stop that can hurt the most.

In this case, there have been a dozen conversations that halted. Some have been obvious as to why. When the conversation halts after you give a suggested salary range, it’s understandable that they think you are asking for too much money. It’s still rude, but a clear message. It’s something else when you go through an entire interview process that “went well” but they don’t think you are great for that position and encourage you to “try back later if you see a new posting.” When you get ghosted even after inquiring about a new position you saw at a later date it can feel a bit rough.

There are dozens of other negativities, the worst is the regular bill that takes a little more from your savings. The question of what you are doing next week, outside of waiting for that proposed call back. The empty email inbox that you return to after taking a walk for your mental health. Each thing chips away.

12 years ago

12 years ago, I chose to come to Angie’s List. It was a great choice for myself, my family, and the friends I created along the way. I know it’s cheesy, but it was the perfect kind of cheesy for that last decade of life. At that time too, I had two offers come in on the same day. The irony of twelve years ago is something that is repeated today. I was so excited to give my two weeks then and in walking to my manager's office, I received that second call with that second offer.

I made the same type of choice then as I did now. I looked at the opportunities before me. I looked at what those opportunities may be over the next few years. I tried to think both long and short-term about what I was looking at. I also looked at the background of the board a bit to see if I was going to run into some of the same issues I had previously experienced.

It’s been over an 8-month journey. It’s been difficult. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster. It’s been a learning experience. It’s not an experience that I would recommend, but to my fellow cavemen who are also going through it, I encourage you to remember a few things. Remember to stay positive and focus on your growth. Remember that you iterate and build on things. Remember as well, that while it is hard, you are not going through it alone.