This is a post about gratitude…
… and doing hard stuff.

Last week I left my position as Software Engineer at Emma, Inc.

I joined Emma at the beginning of 2016 as a member of their support team. Now, if you know me as a developer, you might wonder: does she mean dev support? Nope. Support — answering the phone and pulling emails out of the queue.

When I interviewed with Emma’s visionary VP of Engineering, I asked to start in Support. He shared how he’d been on the front line in a past life, and how it was a meaningful part of his journey. We connected, because we both care about creating opportunities to feel connected, learn something useful, and provide value.

I also shared how, after six months, I’d want to move to engineering. My goal would be to take what I learned–the extensive product knowledge paired with a crystal clear sense of user experience–and use it to enhance and drive my work as a developer. Having developed close relationships with colleagues across sales, services, and operations, I’d work transparently to strengthen our connection and sense of shared destiny.

I am endlessly thankful that that’s exactly what I got to do.

Good people made my journey possible, and to them I offer thanks:

• Jason, VP of Engineering, who creates and guards Emma’s inimitable engineering culture
• Clint, CEO, who I could listen to all day
• Sarah M., who believed in me as a self-taught “woman in tech”
• Kyle, my fearless and peerless Director of Support
• Scott, the Yoda of Client Experience
• Jean, my compassionate first engineering manager
• Seth, my model of servant leadership
• Jason Myers, for welcoming me as a first-time conference speaker at PyTennessee 2015, and for introducing me to the good and special people of Emmarica

I was lucky to get to work on an astonishingly high-performing and close-knit engineering team. We solved interesting problems, delivered real value, and liked each other enough that we played D&D/went on hikes/shared meals after work. Thank you Sarah S., Jackson, Parker, Megan, Kris, Lance, Evan, Adam, Josh C., Josh M., Scot, and Courey. And to all others — thank you. You made a difference.

This was a post about gratitude, and about doing hard stuff — because as much as anything, I want my life to be defined by both.

And on that note… very exciting news about what’s next, coming tomorrow!

This is the beginning, February 2016

Remember PokemonGo? July 2016

That’s a conference room, October 2016

We had a lot of fun, December 2016

Letter from the CEO in honor of the anniversary of my hire date, February 2017

Marketing United with Jackson, April 2017