If you told the 2015 version of me that I’d be the Director of Engineering at the beginning of 2022, I’m sure I would’ve laughed it off. But it happened!

My journey at Hearsay has been anything but expected, and over the course of seven years, a lot—besides my title–has changed. Each change brought new challenges and opportunities, and I’m excited to share some of the things I learned along the way in this post. 

How I landed at Hearsay

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In 2015, I interviewed at dozens of Bay Area companies in search of my next opportunity. Hearsay was the only company that included senior leaders and founders in my interview lineup. I had previously worked at a very large company and wasn't used to having the chance to talk to folks that high up the ladder! 

I ultimately accepted a job as Hearsay's first Android-focused Mobile Engineer. I chose Hearsay over competing offers, largely due to the encouraging environment I encountered during the hiring process. I felt confident that the company would support my growth and future career advancement–and my hunch proved correct.

Setting my career trajectory in motion

‍As a mobile engineer, I had the unique opportunity to write a mobile application from scratch and scale our mobile offerings. To do the latter effectively, I had to grow my team while simultaneously growing my own skill set. 

Thankfully, I had a handful of mentors who were strong advocates for my success during my time as a mobile engineer. These same mentors eventually suggested that I pursue a leadership role. 
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I was initially reluctant, as the management world is so incredibly different from hands-on software engineering. Still, one thing led to another, and the opportunity to directly manage the mobile team presented itself. 

Finding my stride in a leadership role

In 2019, I was promoted to Mobile Engineering Manager. Though moving to leadership wasn't an easy transition, I'm really glad I did it. I felt like the most impactful thing I could do was move into a leadership role to continue supporting the growth we were trying to achieve.

After two years in that role, our team transitioned from a scrappy “ship fast, break things” mentality to a fully-staffed group with intentional processes. We were reliably shipping features to a growing list of enterprise customers.

Serendipitously, I was able to recruit talent from previous jobs, and we nearly doubled the team in less than a year. My new role also allowed me to push for more mobile representation in the organization and to champion the idea of treating mobile as a priority rather than a nice-to-have.

Moving up and battling inner monologues‍

‍A few years later, my team had completed dozens of large projects, launched a myriad of new products, and welcomed a whole lot of new faces and roles to the company. Then, in early 2022, I was promoted to Director of Engineering. With that promotion, I became responsible for managing and directing multiple verticals within the engineering team.

Like many of us, I secretly battle severe imposter syndrome. Every promotion has felt like starting a brand new job, but I’ve ultimately found a path to success. Building relationships across teams and departments gave me the confidence I needed to jump into new roles, and I’ve always known and been grateful for my supporters. 

Paying it forward

More than anything, I want to positively influence people's growth and career trajectory the way I was influenced when I first joined the company. I do this by replicating the encouragement I got from my mentors early on with peers who I feel could grow into strong leaders. 

I'm excited to continue growing as a leader at Hearsay. I intend to do everything I can to ensure that our culture—which strongly supports opportunities to develop people's careers—never changes.