An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg
Nearly one year ago, indirect advice I received from you effectively changed the course of my professional life (for the better).
I’m not a very introspective person, nor am I very emotional — this whole blog posting thing for me is still really weird. Semi-frequently, someone on Twitter pings me to tell me they loved my first blog post, about deciding to learn how to code. More frequently, people in the tech community are curious as to how I landed THE internship (as mentioned in post 1) at Product Hunt. In short, it was not without trying my hand at a lot of things.
Masters in _____???
This part(s) of my life doesn’t need to be more than a couple of sentences, but for continuity I feel I must include it.
Sophomore year I was admitted to MSF (Master of Science in Finance), where I was locked in on pursuing a career in wealth management. Some things happened (things = I didn’t want to be a banker) and we decided that program was probably not best for me. For what it’s worth, MSF is a wonderful program for investment bankers to be, but never wanting to be that, I’m so thankful I decided to go a different route…
That route was MSRE (Master of Science in Real Estate). Or was it? Well it was, until literally a year ago when I was not admitted to the program. This story, for the sake of brevity, is best told over a beer. First round’s on me 🍻.
Meanwhile
The summer after sophomore year I interned at Apollo Jets — an incredible experience with even better people.
Apollo, however, was not necessarily a place I saw myself returning to at this point in my life, mostly due to the nature of the business. I am forever grateful for Al, Dean, Michelle, Mike, and the rest of the Apollo team. We often stay in touch (see below).
During junior year, lost in the mix of MSXYZ, I began looking into coding bootcamps (again, this process is described in more detail in this post). I had been considering it as an option, but not all that seriously until…
Until…
New Years Eve 2014 (that is the eve of 2015 — I had to Google it), I had heard Sheryl Sandberg express the importance of learning code. To paraphrase, she said that our generation (#millenials) will, at some point, need to know how to code to advance in our respective fields.
My parents, 26 years in the happiest of marriages, have been more supportive than I could ever ask in all of my endeavors. Despite having absolutely no idea what coding is, upon hearing my recounting of Sheryl’s notion about the subject, my dad was all in.
“What more convincing do you need than the most impressive woman in the world saying you should learn how to code?” #DadWisdom
Let the Games (Coding) Begin
6 months later, I’m in Miami, getting started with Ironhack. Having grown up in South Florida, attending Pine Crest, and now at the University of Florida, this was truly the first time I’ve gotten out of the scene I had been in for most of my life…and damn it was refreshing.
In the shortest recap possible, my summer at Ironhack was the most rewarding learning experience I’ve ever had, both academically and socially. How was coding 12 hours/day a rewarding social experience? For the first time, I fully immersed myself in a culture to which I previously had zero exposure. Twelve people from ages 21–42. A teacher and a waiter. A military man and a professional poker player. Truly a diverse bunch. It wasn’t necessarily the coding I fell in love with, it was the tech scene. I enjoy coding and, in my free time, still mess around to stay sharp(ish). The high-level competency I gained at Ironhack will help me immensely in any future endeavors, but it was the introduction to a world I knew nothing about that wowed me. It was events like Refresh Miami and #WaffleWednesday at Live Ninja. I had always been into tech, but I had never been in tech. Now, it’s a big part of my life and I don’t see that changing for a long time.
The Part about Product Hunt
Sometime between considering and deciding to do the coding bootcamp, a friend told me about this website to find cool new things everyday. I asked him for the name probably 2 or 3 times until I decided to actually bookmark it. I used it a couple times a week, but not religiously until I discovered Thrust and used it to help my friend find an (important person’s) email address…he was eventually offered an internship by said person. By the time I had begun my pre-work for Ironhack I was checking Product Hunt daily. It’s how I found these things I use and more.
Preparing to get back to school and start MIB (Master of International Business)…oh, you thought I’d stop after just two Masters programs? Knowing I was losing out on my final internship summer, where you typically intend to get a full-time offer, I figured I’d do this MIB program to add an extra semester (football season) and, hence, another summer. Not to mention being able to take some of the best finance courses in the country and a handful of entrepreneurship electives.
What I didn’t foresee, however, was stumbling upon a job posting for a part-time role at Product Hunt. I didn’t know the details, but I was definitely interested and figured “why not?” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
The application was 3 questions and a bonus Q. I believe these were the questions:
- Why do you love Product Hunt?
- What does community mean to you?
- Kale or Ice Cream?
- [BONUS] One word to describe you and a tweet length description of that word.
For the 1st question, I explained that PH is part of my daily routine. Essentially, I use it for 3 things: discovery, inspiration, and potential jobs. For the 2nd, I recounted what I mentioned above about immersing myself in the tech community while at IH. See answer 3 and the bonus below.
The application also requested attaching any relevant social links:
A week later I received this email from Corley 😄
2 days later we chatted via Google Hangout and it went great. She asked me about how I use Product Hunt, what I would change, and why I don’t upvote 🙈 — I gave honest answers to all the questions, including the latter. Since then, however, the way I use PH has changed, and I now upvote (see my profile), rather than bookmarking . 8 days later I received another email from Corley.
and then this one from Lejla…
We chatted. She had some prepared questions for me, but most of the conversation just flowed. Until she told me to tell her a joke. That’s easy, right? But this is a job interview, so I had to keep it PG-13 at the very least, which rules out nearly all of my best jokes. Settled on this:
“What’s the difference between snowmen and snowwomen? — Snowballs!”
Cringe. Lejla laughed, but after meeting her (see below), I know that she was just being courteous.
11 days after chatting with Lejla (or what felt like an eternity), I got the next email. This time I was set to chat with Ryan Hoover.
After another great conversation and another eternity…
I had no idea what to think about this one. But Corley called and…
I got the gig! By Wednesday of the next week, I was fully underway.
Since Then
Wow. What a wild 3 months this has been. I work anywhere from 15–40 hours/week. Every day there is an awesome improvement, a new feature, chats with some of my favorite people, and seemingly endless learning opportunities.
In just 3 months I’ve seen:
- The launch of Product Hunt Collections 2.0.
- The launch of Product Hunt 2.0, which I was in San Francisco for. Ryan had 9 coconut LaCroix… but who’s counting.
- A completely redesigned iOS App…and it’s awesome. Download it. Use it.
- This is unrelated to Product Hunt, but I have seen 11 UF football games in the last 3 months. Medium’s formatting is throwing me off. I have to put enough content so that my next paragraph starts below the gif of Ryan jamming out to DMX. Okay, we’re good.
As I’ve mentioned a couple times, I also had the fortune of going out to Product Hunt HQ in San Francisco for a week.
Notable, but not pictured:
- The 40 hours we worked in 4 days
- Excellent Food: Sushiritto, Korean BBQ, Shanghai Soup Dumplings
- Going to see Hermitude with the whole team (I had to leave before 2:00am, when they took the photo, to catch my 6:00am flight). I can’t hang with them.
What’s Next?
More Product Hunt! I’m continuing to intern remotely through the rest of the school year and then will be heading out to SF to work from Product Hunt HQ for the summer. If you’ll be out there, let’s grab coffee. Except I don’t drink coffee, so let’s get a beer at Black Sands.
Above all, I’m enjoying this ride and the incredibly welcoming folks in the community. This post mentions a lot of people who have helped me on this journey, but leaves out even more. Big thanks to everyone who has helped me — I appreciate you 💯.
Let’s Link Up
- Follow me on Twitter
- Connect with me on LinkedIn
- Any specific questions? Email me at andrew@producthunt.com
