Reflection: First third of my fifth year at GitLab and defining Staff Support Engineer

Normally, I wait until at least the half-year mark to do a reflection post, but this year for the 4th quarter, I am doing a rotation for the Acting Chief of Staff to CTO role, which deserves its own post. So, I’m doing the first reflection post now to cover mid-June 2022 to the end of October 2022.

If you’re a first time reader, you may want to read one or more of my previous reflections posts. Continue reading “Reflection: First third of my fifth year at GitLab and defining Staff Support Engineer”

Presentation: Everyone Can Contribute: Making Support Effective Through Contributions

Everyone dreams of talking to someone who can solve their problem. Opening up ways for Support team members to contribute to documentation and code will improve the customer experience and the company’s efficiency and we can prove it!.

Presented at Support Driven Expo 2022. Continue reading “Presentation: Everyone Can Contribute: Making Support Effective Through Contributions”

Reflection: Second half of my fourth year at GitLab and becoming Staff

Fourth anniversary! When I started at GitLab, I was wondering if I’d be here for 2 years, let alone 4 and counting. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend reading the reflection on the first half of my fourth year though it’s not necessary to know what I’ve been up to during the last 6 months specifically, which is covered here. Continue reading “Reflection: Second half of my fourth year at GitLab and becoming Staff”

Summary and Thoughts on Being/Becoming a Staff Support Engineer

I recently organized an AMA on Being and Becoming a Staff Support Engineer. This was meant to be similar to last year’s Being/Becoming a Senior Support Engineer. Normally, I would have actually waited longer to do it, since I only got promoted in February and I feel like I haven’t been working at the Staff level very long. However, at the end of May, our other Staff Support Engineer, Will Chandler was transferring to the development team. So, I decided before he transferred would be a good time to have the AMA. Additionally, I invited Drew Blessing, our first Staff Support Engineer (who had transferred to development a couple years ago) to also join the group of people answering questions.

This is not just a summary of the answers from that AMA session though. I’ve tried to put the answers and thoughts together with the previous video that I recorded with Lyle Kozloff while I was still working on becoming Staff, and some additional insights. Continue reading “Summary and Thoughts on Being/Becoming a Staff Support Engineer”

Evolution of the GitLab Support Portal landing page 2018-2022

While I touched on them in my first year and second year reflection blog posts, I didn’t really discuss the changes of the GitLab Support Portal landing page. So, I thought with the launch of the latest revision, it was the best time to put together a short blog post. Continue reading “Evolution of the GitLab Support Portal landing page 2018-2022”

Another Letter of Thanks

I recently refound my letter of thanks from 2016, and I thought 6 years meant it was long past due for another. Similar to the first one, I have thanked a lot of the people mentioned before, but putting it together in a single “letter” allows me to reflect on how their combined support helped me get to where I am today. Continue reading “Another Letter of Thanks”