The Yammer IT Team: ‘cause Some Damn Fool Accused You of Being the Best!
Mitch Eaton
Disclaimer: This blog post is rated PG-13 for language and violence against ghosts.
(A fair warning: I’ve been told I have encyclopedic knowledge of movies from the years 1978 to 1998, and I tend to sprinkle that into my writing.)
The title of this post is a line from one of my all-time favorite movies, and one we watch here on a regular basis… Predator. See, Yammer IT is Schwarzenegger, and I’m Carl Weathers, and… Hold on, if you haven’t seen the movie and have no idea what I’m talking about, watch this:
But before we talk about why that scene is an appropriate metaphor, let’s talk about how I got here. After living in San Francisco for several years, I’ve had the privilege of working in IT for all types of companies; I worked for Apple, an advertising agency, a mobile gaming startup, and I even did some consulting for a bit. I’ve worked on big teams, small teams, and the just-me-team. And now, I have the pleasure of working for Yammer.
Working in Yammer IT has been distinct from any other job I’ve had. I’ve only been here for eight months, but the amount I’ve learned in that time is amazing. I can say—hands down—that I’ve acquired more knowledge at Yammer than at jobs I’ve had for years, and it’s not just the amount of things I’m learning, but also the rate at which I’m learning them. I feel like Matt Damon from Good Will Hunting, soaking up information from everything I glance at.
Now, I’ve worked in some jobs where I felt like one of the smartest guys in the room; that’s not the case here. Here, I’ve worked directly with at least five Will Huntings, and it’s humbling and inspiring all at once. At Yammer, I realized I’ve been Ben Affleck all along, and it really makes me strive to be better at what I do. The people here are smart, patient, and have been my biggest resource.
Before Yammer I had very little programming experience. In the last month I’ve learned enough Rails to develop a couple of applications that Yammer IT uses to make our jobs easier. This, in huge part, was possible due to the people I was able to interact with and pull from. Sure, I went through some books and videos, but it was the people that would explain things when I hit a roadblock, and were patient with me until I got the swing of things.
The fact I was even given this project with little-to-no Ruby experience seriously boggles my mind. My team and managers saw something in the way I work, the way I process information and solve problems, and they figured I would be a good fit for the project. They asked me if it was something I wanted to learn, provided me with the tools, and pointed me to the resources I needed to get it done—and I did. It makes me extremely happy to contribute back to Yammer with what I have learned.
Another aspect that really sets Yammer IT apart is their process. Many of my past jobs have seemed very scripted. You learn a process, and you’re forced into the same routine every day. There isn’t much room for change. At Yammer, we’re always striving to make our processes more efficient, whether that’s through automation, documentation, or some new tool we develop to help us. We’re faced with problems on the reg, and we’re given the tools and time we need to engineer or refine our processes if needed.
I think the key component here is that at Yammer, everyone’s input is valued. We all work together to find the best solution that works for the team, our infrastructure, and Yammer as a whole. We basically come together like the Ghostbusters when they proton pack the fluff out of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man….
All in all, I’m extremely happy I ended up here. The IT team sets the bar for innovative and sound approaches to infrastructure development and issues, and the people in general are just super solid.
Yammer IT; You son of a bitch! You’ve got me hooked, and I’m here to stay.
Mitch Eaton is a Systems Administrator at Yammer. He is getting to the chopper, likes them apples, and loves this plan and is excited to be a part of it.
