New Year, New Me - 2024

tl;dr finished 12.5 years at Meta and starting at Tesla!

For the last few weeks I’ve been fairly quiet as I enjoy the break with my family (and a lot of time revamping my home lab). I’ve been working on my DigitalGarden, updating the blog, and all my personal tech debt 😂.

I wrapped up my time with Meta at the end of the year. It’s truly bittersweet. I have loved my teams, colleagues, managers, and the many friendships created.

I’m excited to share that I’ll be joining Tesla as a Staff Software Development Engineer on the DevOps teams.

I’m sharing what I posted internally late last year (slightly redacted).

Badge Post - 33% #

I have spent a 3rd of my life at this company. Back in June of 2011, I was a kid taking a “risk” by joining Faceboook as a contractor. “They can fire you any day!” was what my old boss warned me. I was taking a step down in role by going from Network Admin to Helpdesk, but I knew that this risk would give me the opportunity to grow - plus I love helping.

I’m a firm believer that success requires at least little bit of luck. I was lucky that Mike Dodge didn’t give up on trying to convince me to join. I could have joined in 2009!!! I’ve spent the last decade learning from all the brilliant people here. When I was interviewing folks and they ask what keeps me here, the answer was always the people and their generosity to teach.

So here I am, 12.5 years later presented with another opportunity to step out of my comfort zone, continue to grow, and meet new “teachers”. I always wondered what it would be like to be in this situation. I always figured I’d probably be getting a visit by a guard with a box. Or get an invite to the [redacted HR room] because of something me and Benedict did or said. Luckily, I’ve had good managers who helped me (mostly) grow up.

I’ll be leaving Meta at the end of December and I’ll be missing you all immensely.

What’s next? #

Someone posted a role in the PowerShell Discord that I first wasn’t sure was serious. It was initially pitched as, “95% PowerShell” and ya’ll know how much I love PS. Turned out that it was very real and that I was already very familiar with a lot of their stack. It seemed like a once in a lifetime role and I couldn’t say no.

At the end of January I’ll be joining Tesla as a Staff Software Development Engineer on the DevOps teams.

Thanks #

I’ve had some pretty phenomenal managers/leads, I’ve been helped by so many different folks and there is no way I’ll be able to list them all. If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably on this list - Thank you <3.

Andrew Legodais, who we suddenly lost a few years ago, probably helped me grow the most. He explained about seeing my potential and took the risk of bringing me on. He fought for me to get a role on the “InfraOps” team. We butted heads regularly, but Andrew was the person who instilled me with good ops and procedures. I like to think at the end we both helped each other grow.

Like, Follow, and Subscribe! #

I will certainly be missing all of you. Please stay in touch! My little link site points to all the socials: https://links.gilbertsanchez.com/. Or feel free to e-mail me at [redacted]

Photo by Eyestetix Studio on Unsplash