Thibaut + Loom

I feel like I have no energy left, and that was showing in my work, which is why I won't be working at Loom anymore.

I have learned a lot in a year. Seeing the small team evolve from 30 to 90 folks. Going through the incredible growth related to offering Loom for free to education customers during COVID-19. Working alongside brilliant people and getting challenged to work on many different codebases / technologies...

What drained my energy

11 days of vacation in one year. In France, we are used to the national minimum annual leave: 5 weeks. In the US, the culture is mostly to take vacation days when you have successfully finished a project. I made the mistake of not taking care of myself, I should have been more careful about taking days off regularly.

I love deep technical challenges, and failed to position myself on the project I was aiming for: I got assigned to it, but it was deprioritized. Instead I had to focus on shorter projects targeted at improving our customers' experience. I can't blame anyone for that, because customers always need to go first. I thrive when I can focus on a specific technical area, so it was hard to always restart in a new area of the codebase. I have learned that I need to have clearer career goals to help my managers help me.

Sometimes I found gaps in product/design specifications. All projects have them so it is usually not a problem. It becomes a problem with async teams that work on urgent projects, which has been my situation for the last few months. That one is bad timing: our team did not have a Product Manager (our team was hiring for the role) to fill these gaps and facilitate the team's progress.

What I loved in Loom is that there was a true commitment in improving things, so I can say confidently that my experience is unique to me. I believe you will see my ex-colleagues stay for a very long time there because of the positive culture 💯

What is next for me

For now I will focus on taking care of myself: resting and spending time with friends and family.

I will also be spending time learning new technology and prototyping crazy startup ideas 🤓 And when I am back, I will be building a business 🚀

I will be deeply missing my colleagues ❤️

It is hard to explain, but I feel like remote work allows for a deeper bond, so this is going to be the toughest part for me.

Thank you all for making this year so full of joy 🤗

To be continued...