I’ve told pieces of my story in recent posts. You know, the ones about Homebrewing being a salvation, and moving to a role in Customer Success at DigitalOcean. I don’t think I’ve ever posted about the long, circuitous route that my career has taken. Perhaps it’s time to tell you the story. So sit back and grab a cup of joe…this ride is known to cause whiplash. Trust me, the trail from aspiring academic to customer success engineer is not exactly the smoothest.

It’s weird to say that beer saved me from depression. Let’s face it, it’s not exactly the most common thing for someone to claim as having a positive impact on one’s life. But beer saved me, in a weird sort of way. Last winter, I was miserable. My wife saw it, my coworkers saw it, and after many conversations that highlighted my incessant complaining about my former employer, I finally admitted that I was in fact, a bit of a mess.

Starting Out Back in April, I started a new role as a customer success engineer with DigitalOcean. Admittedly, I didn’t know what to expect coming from being a systems administrator. During the interview process, I got the impression that the role was a mixture of account management, solutions engineering, and support. Now three months into the role, I can confidently say that with regard to duties, my impression was more or less spot on.

I promised the occasional banjo tune. I’m delivering. Whaaaaaat! For your viewing pleasure: Enjoy!

It’s been a while since my last post. In between the old day job, travel, and looking for a new day job, I’ve been helping out with a project called Burnout.io, which is focused on providing resources to help mitigate IT-related workplace burnout. I became involved with the project after my friend Mike Julian pointed me to the site. A little over a year ago, I found myself in a bit of a bad place and to be honest, was there for the last couple of months.