I've loved working at Netlify. it's really nice to be at a company that's guiding metric is "build a better web" — it means I get to learn so many things and focus on making the web development community better as my job
as far as I can tell, the journey to VP will be different for everyone, but there are a few big things that contributed to me getting here (I think):
- learning how to step back from a problem and see how it affects an entire company
- developing an understanding of how different departments function and what their desired outcomes are, then using that knowledge to frame proposals from that point of view
- being willing to own an outcome. I regularly stake my job on decisions, and I've been willing to do that for a while now. willingness to take full responsibility for projects that multiple people work on is rare because it can be scary to know that you'll be responsible for someone else's work and decisions — but without someone owning it, we get decision paralysis and bureaucratic gridlock
- taking most of my victories in the form of seeing other people advance. I try my best to give credit away and advocate for the advancement of my team (as well as people who don't work at Netlify but that I see doing amazing work) — my role is to be a springboard for others, not to hoard credit
I could probably go on about this for a long time, but to be completely honest I think my journey was more timing than preparation. I was at the right place in my career at the time the role opened, and Sarah Drasner was there to advocate for me