Life as a Non Technical Employee at GitLab

Sylvia Kahn (https://www.twitter.com/KahnSylvia) Jun 30, 2015

After a career in education which I loved, I decided it was time for a career change. As ateacher, you have to “do it all yourself” and that state of working resonates with me. Theact of leaving was the hard part; finding opportunities where you could work hard, think on

your feet, apply the organizational and people skills necessary to be a great teacher camemore naturally. Before I continue, let me just say that four years into the tech world, and Istill maintain that being a classroom teacher (a good one) is one of the hardest jobs.

How did I get here?Prior to arriving at Gitlab, I had spent the past three plus years at a software companywhere the non technical user was surrounded with tools and employees to handle all ofyour technical needs. There was not much need to understand the mysterious stuff thatgoes on the various departments: QA, Development, Tech Support or even IT. If I had anissue, I could simply put in a ticket to a well monitored queue and within hours, sometimesminutes, a great “expert” was on my doorstep ready to save the day! For my daily needs Ihad tools with user interfaces that my 86 year old mother would be able to handle. Lifewas easy… but not so interesting.

It was time to move forward again… Interesting experiences wanted!

“Be careful on what you ask for because you just might get it.”Oh crap! Can I say that? The best way to describe my first month at Gitlab has been likegetting tossed out into the ocean and being told, “Swim the butterfly” as your first strokeever. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining because the learning has been amazing

and for that, I will be forever grateful. But, seriously, I cannot remember feeling this out of

and for that, I will be forever grateful. But, seriously, I cannot remember feeling this out ofmy league. I am fairly intelligent, I worked at a software company, I have friends who are“techies” and I can hang in conversations with them. That’s what I thought!

What language are you speaking?One of the first things I was told to do was to get my picture and a short bio up on thewebsite. No problem. I have done that before. My previous company provided us withproducts created by our competitors to make life easier for the likes of me.

Not Gitlab. At Gitlab, if we make it, we use it! Walk the talk! I cannot begin to describe thefear, anxiety and overall sense of nausea I felt when I realized that I was going to have todo things like: branch, fork and commit. And then there is the code! Seriously? And do thison something called a terminal? And what on earth is an SSH key and you want me to dowhat with it? The act of submitting something for the website is paralyzing. I am uncertainand embarrassed and you “tech” folks have no idea. The word “just” should be removedfrom your vocabulary.

In addition, we use: Slack ( I love it), LastPass (I hate it), Google Docs (not bad but not foreverything I do/need), Google Chat (sometimes good), Webex (useful option), Recurly,Twinfield, Stripe, MailChimp and Quickbooks (all for the sales process- yes I want to cry),DropBox (growing on me) and more!

What is working?

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What is working?I have no regrets about the change I made. It was a GREAT decision. There is not a daythat goes by that I am not learning, a lot! Work is interesting again.

Steep learning curves combined with tenacity often result in the most ardent fans. So as Ienter my sixth week on the job, creating issues in Gitlab and using that as a way to keeptrack of work that involves multiple people, all of whom need to be up to speed on thestatus of work is where I feel safe(ish)! I like it. I like it quite a bit. I think I am on my way tobeing a fan. So, with a lot of support and practice I have a good feeling that a few blogposts later and I may be the Gitlab employee writing about supporting folks like me usingour great product.

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