Joining the Elastic Cluster

After almost a month away, I’m excited to start a new chapter as an Elastician! I haven’t traditionally been one to openly share, but time over the pandemic became a catalyst to grow and understand what the most important things in life were to me.

Wife AJ, and Son August Like many people around the world, AJ Ayenson and I have lost close family members and experienced some difficult hurdles while trying to balance everything else in life. After welcoming a baby boy last December, it, along with everything else, challenged us to swiftly re-evaluate where and how we spent our time, energy, love, and care.

After understanding Elastic's Source Code, this new opportunity was a no-brainer for me, and it would be a shame if I said there was only one reason. I hope these thoughts challenge you to think about your next decisions as you evolve in your workplace, and most importantly in life.

Home, Dinner: There’s no such thing as work-life balance. Being a new parent means that I can enjoy breakfast, lunch, and dinner with my wife and son. Children grow up so quickly, and the time in the mornings / evenings that I can spend with the family compared to tirelessly waking up and racing to beat rush hour is invaluable. Even 30 minutes of extra sleep when the young one wants to wake every couple hours throughout the night goes a long long way. It’s the sweetest balance for me to be more innovative and efficient at work.
Space, Time: Allowing for the space and time to dream requires conscious effort. My mind is always racing with ideas. I go to sleep churning thoughts and wake up with new ideas. Sometimes I can’t turn it off, but at Elastic, having the space to think things out and time to really focus is the time where my best ideas come to life. It’s a place where synchronous and asynchronous communication has been thought out to fully optimize your time. I feel like I could have an entirely other post about this topic and how well this has been thought through for those with too many meetings or e-mails and want ideas on how to improve.
IT, Depends: It’s pretty complicated to make some things simple, and even more complicated to make other things possible. Imagine innovating without over-engineering; where quality trumps quantity. At Elastic, I’ll be able to focus on quality APT threat research and detection engineering with the best security Elasticians around the world and the best cyber security research. Can’t beat it.
Progress, SIMPLE Perfection: An Elastic that moves is an Elastic that survives, thrives, and stands the test of time. One lesson everyone can learn from the pandemic is that we are meant to evolve. Everyone should be thinking about how they are progressing forward to ensure they are not stuck rushing back to former days and former ways. Re-evaluate your circumstances and ask yourself, how are things going? Consciously make decisions based on what you’ve measured and the things that you value most.
01.02 / FORMAT: A distributed Elastic makes for a diverse Elastic, which makes for a better Elastic. For those that don’t know, Elastic is a distributed company by intention with people literally all over the world with a global outlook. This means I’ll be working with diverse cultures, diverse backgrounds, and diverse thoughts, which to me represents true diversity. I can’t imagine all of the talent brought together from Japan, India, Singapore, France, Alaska, Maryland, etc. My family is from Ghana, so seeing more culture is very comforting, especially when I can ask my fellow Elasticians how things are going where they are. With a sense of inclusion, you feel supported and connected even though most of the Elasticians are remote! It’s a place where openness is embraced in both code but also the way people interact with each other.
As YOU, Are: We all have an accent. Celebrate it. Just come as you are. I already touched on the diverse Elasticians that I'll get a chance to work with, but it’s equally important to me to be in an environment where everyone brings their true self. No malice, just good vibes, empathy, and a genuine effort to understand who I am and what drives me.
HUMBLE, Ambitious: Be Humble. Be ambitious. At Elastic, we are both. It’s really intimidating to start a career with a new organization. The support to build and drive a middle-career Elastician like myself to be intimately technical by so many people who are also deeply talented technically at all levels is truly amazing. You can feel the ambitious, yet humble energy buzzing from bottom to the top from the junior engineer to the CEOs. The consistency of the culture and feeling of authenticity is contagious.
Speed, Scale, Relevance: We focus on value to users by producing fast results that operate at scale and are relevant. This core Elastic idea hits security for cybersecurity professionals perfectly. From enterprise IT organizations or the new niche industrial base. It’s clear that Elastic R&D has a solution for each of them, and there lies the opportunity for me to contribute in an impactful way.

There’s many other amazing benefits but one other thing I discovered while thinking about ways to make an impact in life was Elastic’s volunteering program. I put a link here because it’s just incredible and the video speaks for itself.

Overjoyed to be part of the #Elastic cluster.

#elasticsearch #newhire

Anyways, feel free to reach out if you have any questions!