Why I Joined InfluxData - Barbara Nelson
By
Barbara Nelson /
Company
Dec 04, 2019
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Hi! I am Barbara Nelson, and I joined the engineering team last month, as Head of Applications (I’m Rick Spencer’s peer on the apps side). If you look at my LinkedIn profile, you might wonder how I ended up at a time series DB company, given that for most of my career I’ve been in the Wi-Fi space (except for a brief stint in eCommerce).
When I was growing up, one of my favorite fairy tales was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Goldilocks gets lost in the forest and stumbles across a home owned by three bears. She tries their porridge (one bowl is too hot, the second is too cold, and the third is just right). She gets tired and lies down on their beds (the first bed is too hard, the second is too soft, and the third is just right so she settles in for a nice nap). I won’t give you the rest of the story, or say too much about the appropriateness of Goldilocks’ behavior (breaking into someone’s home, eating their food and sleeping on their bed is probably not a good idea in this day and age), but as a child it appealed to me as a way to make decisions consider the alternatives and choose the one that fits you the best.
So how does this relate to InfluxData? I feel that I have found the company that is just right for me not too big, not too small. InfluxData is just right. I’ve worked in very small companies where everyone knows everyone, and it’s easy to work together without too many processes or procedures. I’ve also worked in a very large company, where there are lots of processes in place to help you navigate the organization, figure out which teams are responsible for which products, and enable you to actually get things done. Lots of people love working in large companies, lots of people love working in very small companies, but for me, InfluxData is just right. We are growing fast (and hiring some great people), so relying on everyone knowing everyone else isn’t working as well as it used to.
I’m excited to be joining the engineering team at a time that we get to figure out what adjustments to make to ensure that all the new additions are just as effective as the engineers who started here a long time ago. We are very fortunate that those earlier engineers are excited to support the new team members, so we can continue to deliver great products, leveraging the skills that the new folks bring, along with the experience of people who have been here for a while. I love working with teams to figure out how best to work together, so that as we continue to grow, the company will continue to be just right for everyone who is here.
We use the phrase “time to awesome” at InfluxData to mean the time it takes a new customer to get an awesome experience with our products. My own “time to awesome” has been the time it has taken me to confirm my first impression that this is an awesome company. With the great welcome that I got from everyone here, my “time to awesome” has been pretty short.
If it sounds like InfluxData could be just right for you, please check out the Careers page and apply.
