Today is my first day at Pure Storage as a Systems Engineer!
Dear TinkerTry Readers:
Today May 8 2023 is my very first day at Pure Storage! As a "Systems Engineer - Commercial", it's a return to a role that's more similar to what I was doing at VMware than at Dell, but with an even greater focus on customers right here in Connecticut and the rest of New England, reporting to Chandler Bassett, and working with Jay Gallagher. It also turns out that several of the folks I'll be working closely with also live right here in the Greater Hartford area. I'm so excited to have this opportunity, and I look forward to making the best of it!
Earlier this year, I experienced my first lay-off. I knew when I pivoted to presales about 6.5 years ago that it's a much riskier type of position to take on. It happens. It's common in IT. Move onward.
My job search began right away, and it quickly became clear to me that so many people I've been blessed to got to work with or met at various VMUGs/VMworlds are now at Pure Storage, including:
- Matt Bradford
- Joe Filippello
- Dmitry Gorbatov
- Joseph Houghes
- Jonathan Jones
- Greg LaMonica
- Jase McCarty
- Rob Quast
- John Shedlosky
- Steven Souza
- David Stamen
When a trusted mentor of mine suggested I look into a role spotted at Pure Storage, it didn't take long for me to get a referral link then click on that apply button, in hopes of something happening. If you know me, you know I love me some All-flash NVMe storage!
While the interview process took a while in the midst of some big stuff that happened to be going on in my personal life, the Pure Storage recruiter and manager were incredibly understanding and supportive, which I greatly appreciated. I cannot emphasize this enough. I also owe a huge thanks to the IT community for reaching out to me over LinkedIn to help me land many conversations with hiring managers and even some interviews. You are awesome.
With all that job searching and interviewing stress now behind me, it's time for me to focus on what's ahead and do some deep dive learning. I started my day by un-boxed my new work laptop, which I always find quite fun. Not just any laptop, but a Lenovo ThinkPad T16 with that oh-so-familiar TrackPoint! For me this evokes some great memories from my years at IBM where I was quite accustomed to using ThinkPads. Not a bad way to start the first day of my new adventure!
I also hear I'll also get to head spent some time at Pure Storage HQ in Mountain View California soon, which will be my first time flying in nearly 4 years. Always good to see new things and meet new people.
How serious is Pure Storage about Sustainability?
Given how "green" TinkerTry has been for a dozen years now, does Pure Storage also care about sustainability? The answer is yes:
- You'd Look Good In Orange
- ESG Report: Technology and Sustainability
- Matt Bradford (who I worked with at VMware) in his great video here:
Jan. 17 2023 - Pure Storage - Digital Bytes: Efficiency SLA for your STaaS
Author Notes - If you're interested in my major home renovation project that ditches fossil fuels and goes all-electric (heat pumps for heating and cooling, energy monitoring, solar with battery storage, home automation), please consider subscribing to TinkerTry Weekly, and/or my RSS and YouTube Channel where you'll get to read all about and see those personal sustainability efforts. This ongoing effort is far bigger than anything I've ever attempted these past dozen years of producing over a thousand long-form technical articles and hundreds of videos!
TinkerTry - PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency and more.
See also at TinkerTry
- Road-warrior productivity boosters for laptops blessed with USB-C but no Ethernet or VGA
May 15 2017
See also
