[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":793},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/imposter-syndrome-and-remote-work":3,"navigation-en-us":37,"banner-en-us":437,"footer-en-us":447,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Sara Kassabian":689,"blog-related-posts-en-us-imposter-syndrome-and-remote-work":703,"assessment-promotions-en-us":743,"next-steps-en-us":783},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"body":8,"categorySlug":9,"config":10,"content":14,"description":8,"extension":25,"isFeatured":12,"meta":26,"navigation":27,"path":28,"publishedDate":20,"seo":29,"stem":33,"tagSlugs":34,"__hash__":36},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/imposter-syndrome-and-remote-work.yml","Imposter Syndrome And Remote Work",[7],"sara-kassabian",null,"culture",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"imposter-syndrome-and-remote-work",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9,"tags":22},"How to tackle impostor syndrome while working remotely","Isolation can cause impostor syndrome to flourish. We explain how adopting a growth mindset can help stop impostor syndrome in its tracks.",[18],"Sara Kassabian","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749681541/Blog/Hero%20Images/done_perfect.jpg","2020-09-02","\n\nNow that the pandemic has shifted office operations at countless companies across all industries from in-person to online, many workers are witnessing the informal modes of communication and recognition that come with occupying a shared space all fall away. When you're working remotely, there is simply no opportunity for chance encounters, which means giving and receiving feedback from colleagues and management requires extra effort. It can be easy to feel anxious about whether or not the right people are noticing your hard work, and even when they are, that nagging feeling of doubt, or feeling like an impostor, can derail your efforts before you even begin.\n\n## What is impostor syndrome?\n\nImpostor syndrome comes down to feeling inadequate or undeserving of your success despite objective evidence showing you otherwise, explained [Taylor McCaslin](/company/team/#tmccaslin), Senior Product Manager, Secure:Static Analysis at GitLab, in a presentation on the topic at [GitLab Virtual Contribute](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mICmSotKwik&list=PL05JrBw4t0KrGipyfKvBifwFhNE8sjRN_&index=5&t=0s). Impostor syndrome creates a negative script that can obstruct your progress on meaningful projects, slow your journey to achieving your goals, and suck the energy out of your days.\n\nSo how do you slay the vampire that is impostor syndrome?\n\n## The growth mindset\n\nImpostor syndrome manifests in different ways for different people, and in this blog post we introduce different strategies for stopping these negative thought patterns. But one universal approach is adopting a [growth mindset](https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/). On her blog [Brain Pickings](https://www.brainpickings.org/), Maria Popova summarizes the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset:\n\n\"A 'fixed mindset' assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can't change in any meaningful way... A 'growth mindset,' on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.\"\n\nThere is no turnkey solution for combatting impostor syndrome, but thinking about times of challenge as opportunities for growth is one way to stop being so hard on yourself.\n\n## Types of impostor syndrome\n\nSometimes remote work can leave you feeling isolated, a cognitive space where impostor syndrome thrives. Whether you've worked remotely for years, or just recently started working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, impostor syndrome might be showing up for you a lot more now than before.\n\n### Perfectionism\n\nPerfectionism is the ultimate trap and creates a vicious cycle of over-thinking and procrastination. The fear of getting started is often rooted in insecurities about laying bare the imperfections that are guaranteed in first iterations.\n\nSoftware development seemingly tries to correct for perfectionist tendencies by prioritizing iteration over perfection, speed over polish.\n\n\"One thing that I'll mention about a perfectionist vampire is that this is why agile is structured the way that it is,\" said Taylor. \"We do these iteration cycles and do innovative work to avoid this build trap where you want something to be so perfect that you never actually ship anything. So it's interesting to see software development taking some of the cues from the struggles of perfectionism to try to get something out and learn quickly.\"\n\nWhen you're working remotely, the options for procrastination are about as long as your household chore list. At GitLab, we recognize that [friends and family come first](/company/family-and-friends-day/), and that sometimes it's better to step away from your devices and go for a walk or start a load of laundry when your brain can no longer compute.\n\nWhen it comes time for the perfectionist to buckle down and produce results, the mantra ought to be: \"don't get it perfect – just get it done.\" In software development, it's always better to ship small, unpolished changes rather than pressuring yourself to send a finished product in one working session. Remember, in the impostor syndrome roshambo – [iteration](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#iteration) beats perfection every time.\n\n### The superhero\n\nWhile the perfectionist is often afraid to get started, the superhero is afraid to stop. The superhero will push themselves harder and further than everyone else to try and prove to themselves and their colleagues that they are not an impostor.\n\n\"[Superheroes] feel that they need success in all aspects of their life, at work, as parents, as partners, and they may feel stressed if they don't get to accomplish something,\" Taylor explained. \"This is something where you can deal with what's called Clark syndrome, where you're trying to be a superhero. At night you're trying to be a parent, during the day, you're trying to do all of these different things that split you in lots of different directions.\"\n\nRemote work means there is more time in your day to, well, work. While great in theory, for the superhero, remote work means that you can easily reach burn out faster than the speed of light. The pressures of producing results, managing a growing team, and being the most supportive family member can send a high-achiever into overdrive.\n\nIf you recognize yourself in this description, it may be time to assess your [burnout levels](https://burnoutindex.org/). If you're in the red zone, it's time to talk to your manager to see how you can better balance the demands of your work with your health and wellbeing.\n\nA note to managers: It is important to recognize that the responsibility of supporting superheroes doesn't just lie on the individual. It is incumbent upon managers to recognize when a team is underresourced and overperforming – is it fair to continue demanding more from your superhero just because you're confident they'll rise to the occasion?\n\n### The natural genius\n\nThe struggle is part of learning, but the growth mindset is particularly challenging for the natural genius to wrap their heads around.\n\n\"When the natural genius has to struggle to work at something, they think that they're a failure,\" said Taylor. \"This is someone who, maybe, school came easy for them or a particular subject made sense, or maybe they were just someone who's an awesome programmer that self-taught themselves. They're used to skills coming easy. And when they have to put in the effort, their brain tells them, 'Oh, no, like you have to work for this. You're not good at this. You are an impostor.'\"\n\nThe natural genius effect is particularly acute in the tech industry, where you're collaborating with a lot of sharp minds with deep knowledge of technology and computers. But as Taylor pointed out, there is no one person with a complete and total understanding of everything about computers and technology.\n\nYou may be collaborating on code produced by someone who knows all about a complex technical topic that is unfamiliar to you. It's easy for the natural genius to conflate a lack of understanding of one technical subject with a lack of knowledge in _all_ technical subjects. While working remotely, it's even easier to get stuck in your head, and asynchronous collaboration means you're not communicating in real-time.\n\nSometimes, in a quest to prove their smarts, the natural genius can overcorrect their feelings of impostor syndrome and dip their toes into the [Dunning-Kruger effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect), which describes a cognitive bias where people with low ability overestimate their capabilities. Don't fall into the trap of trying to write complicated and clever code to impress yourself and your techy colleagues.\n\nA tip: Don't be so hard on yourself. Instead, think about how you would approach your niece and nephew who may be having trouble with a particular subject in school. Would you admonish them for struggling? Hopefully not. Instead, check your ego at the door, embrace a growth mindset, and remember that learning something new is hard, but that doesn't mean you're incapable.\n\n### The lone ranger\n\n\"Soloists, as I call them, feel like they have to accomplish tasks on their own, and if they need to ask for help, it makes them feel like a fraud or a failure,\" said Taylor. \"When in reality, this is not true. It takes an army to build a company, to raise a child, to build a successful career. This is one where asking for help is not a sign of weakness. In fact, it's actually a sign of strength.\"\n\nThe lone ranger complex is alive and well in a remote work set-up. Without your colleagues nearby, the impulse can be to fumble through a challenging workflow instead of reaching out to a colleague with your questions.\n\nWe are encouraged at GitLab to be a [manager of one](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#managers-of-one), meaning the individual is accountable for themselves and their own time, which could create an environment where impostor syndrome flourishes. Still, the company worked hard to encourage collaboration and communication through our [handbook](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/) and the GitLab tool itself. [Collaboration](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#collaboration) is one of our core values, and we have many methods for communication with colleagues when you might get stuck with a question that isn't documented in our handbook. Post to our #git-help channel on Slack, ping your manager in an issue, or create an MR for some broken code. Just remember, when you find the solution, write it down.\n\nOur [document everything](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#write-things-down) policy and emphasis on collaboration helps to slay the lone ranger vampire at a company-wide level.\n\n### The experts\n\nThe expert feels as though they need to accumulate every single piece of information before they are qualified enough to dive into a new project or new role.\n\nThere are far too many smart and qualified people who feel as though their competence is measured only by what they've already accomplished, and their incompetence is measured by what you are striving to achieve. This insecurity will lead people to collect certifications and do exhaustive research before taking the plunge by diving into a challenging new project or applying for a new role.\n\nWomen-identifying individuals are particularly vulnerable to \"the expert\" fallacy. Research indicates that women-identifying folks are more likely to talk themselves out of opportunities or not apply for promotions or new roles when they don't meet the total list of qualifications.\n\nGitLab has established two mentorship programs that help our team members lean in to new opportunities: CEO shadow and the Minorities in Tech (MIT) Team Member Resource Group (TMRG) mentorship program. The [CEO shadow](/blog/gitlab-remote-ceo-shadow-takeaways/) program is a (formerly in-person, now remote) rotation designed to give future senior leaders insight into the operations of the company by following GitLab CEO [Sid Sijbranij](/company/team/#sytses) throughout his day. Earlier this year, the MIT TMRG launched a [new mentorship program](/diversity-inclusion-belonging/) that connects underrepresented minorities that work at GitLab to senior leaders.\n\n## What can you do about impostor syndrome?\n\nImpostor syndrome is fueled by the negative scripts we use to narrate our life, so one of the methods for combatting impostor syndrome is to reframe your thinking.\n\nIt can be tough to identify your negative thoughts in the moment (meditation and yoga can help here), but once you can identify a negative thought, challenge it.\n\n\"Ask, 'What is objectively the answer to this negative thought? Is it true? Is there any grounding evidence that suggests that it's true?',\" Taylor explained. \"And then you want to reframe that. Now that you've looked at your negative thought in an objective light, you probably have some very tangible points to be able to take that energy then and say: 'Actually, I had this negative thought, but instead I'm feeling these things because of X, Y, or Z'.\"\n\nThe growth mindset can be a helpful way to combat feelings of impostor syndrome. The idea that success is rooted in learning from mistakes and catalyzing your potential, as opposed to achievement itself, will help rewrite the script that holds so many of us back.\n\n# More questions about impostor syndrome?\n\nThanks to Taylor for putting together the presentation that this blog post is based on. 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success for many tech companies. Find out how GitLab's DevRel program has evolved to stay aligned with the industry and our customers.",[709],"John Coghlan","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749672008/Blog/Hero%20Images/AdobeStock_204527293.jpg","2024-03-13","Earlier this year, a tweet (are they still called that?) by [Kelsey Hightower](https://twitter.com/kelseyhightower) sparked discussion on social media and internally at GitLab.\n\n![Kelsey Hightower tweet](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749678041/Blog/Content%20Images/Screenshot_2024-03-08_at_8.19.09_AM.png)\n\nAt first, Kelsey's response might seem a bit flippant, but there’s an underlying truth to it: Developer Relations (short: DevRel) – and other business functions – must meet the needs of the business and your customers. However, what your stakeholders and customers need will be different in the future. Therefore, to be successful, you have to iterate to stay aligned with them.\n\nReflecting back on my five years working in Developer Relations (formerly known as Community Relations) at GitLab, our team has continuously evolved to stay aligned with the needs of our customers, our community, and the business. GitLab CEO and founder Sid Sijbrandij explains how North Star Metrics evolve in his blog post on goal-setting for startups: [Artificially constraining your company to one goal creates velocity and creativity](https://opencoreventures.com/blog/2023-06-05-artificially-constrain-one-goal-to-create-creativity-velocity/). He details the shift from attention to active users to revenue to profit. The evolution of DevRel at GitLab in many ways maps to that same journey.\n\n![What is DevRel - image 2](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749678041/Blog/Content%20Images/image1.png)\n\n## Early DevRel at GitLab\n\nWhen I joined GitLab in 2018, our team was largely made up of Community Advocates, an Evangelist Program Manager (me), a Code Contributor program manager, and a director. The Community Advocates were tasked with monitoring and engaging with GitLab community members across various online channels but primarily [Hacker News](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/developer-evangelism/hacker-news/) and Twitter. Answering questions and creating issues based on comments served to increase awareness and attention for GitLab. In addition, users learned that their questions would be answered and feedback was being heard and, frequently, acted on.\n\nAt the same time, the Code Contributor program and Evangelist program were driving growth and interest in GitLab by helping our contributors navigate the contribution process, organizing events and meetups to connect our community, and deepening our relationship with our community champions, also known as [GitLab Heroes](https://contributors.gitlab.com/docs/previous-heroes).\n\nFor companies in early stages, this is how DevRel often looks. The key tactics in this phase are:\n- use low-cost tools (blogs and social media) to drive attention\n- capitalize on people’s interest to deepen relationships and create advocates and champions\n- smooth the pathways to contribute or discover content\n\n> **Tip:** Direct engagement with your community through social media and online forums drives awareness, builds trust, and increases the quality and volume of feedback on your product.\n\n## Expanding DevRel's reach\n\nNext, we ramped up programs like GitLab for Open Source and GitLab for Education. These programs helped attract to our platform key open source projects and many large academic institutions, both with large numbers of engaged users. More users meant more feedback to help us improve the product and more contributors.\n\nAs attention grew and the breadth and depth of our platform increased, we needed to better enable our customers to leverage the capabilities of GitLab’s DevSecOps Platform. This stage roughly maps to the revenue North Star Metric. To drive greater awareness and adoption, the Community Relations team underwent a critical change.\n\n> **Tip:** When looking to grow your active users, engage with partners who can bring their community to your product or platform. This strategy is often overlooked but can be a big boost to awareness and growth, setting you up for success.\n\n## Deepening the DevRel bench\n\nAs our next move, we formed a team of technical experts, known as Developer Evangelists. This team engaged in more traditional DevRel practices, those that might come to mind when asking yourself “What is DevRel?”. Internally, we referred to this team’s role as the three Cs:\n- Content creation - creating blog posts, technical talks, demos, and other content to enable our customers\n- Community engagement - engaging online and at events with our customers and community\n- Consulting - serving as internal advocates for and experts on the wider GitLab community\n\nHaving technical experts who could connect directly with customers and escalate that feedback internally helped improve the feedback loop between users and product teams. This team also deeply understood GitLab users, which improved the company's ability to enable our customers and community through content.\n\n> **Tip:** Early in your company journey, executives, product managers, and engineers play a vital role in engaging with community. As the number of users grows, you’ll need technical experts on your team who can directly engage with users and ensure customer feedback reaches key stakeholders (executives and product owners).\n\n## Continuously evolving DevRel at GitLab\n\nOver the past year, the team has evolved again.\n\n- A new vice president joined our team and has helped us become more strategic and better aligned cross-functionally.\n\n- A Contributor Success team was established to better engage and align with our customers around contributions to GitLab. Evolving from a one-person function to a full-fledged team of engineers with deep experience in open source (including multiple past contributors to GitLab), this team continuously improves the contribution experience and engages directly with customers who wish to contribute.\n\n- We updated our team name and many of our team members’ job titles to align with industry standards.\n\n- And we’ve all ramped up quite a bit on AI, perhaps you’ve heard of [GitLab Duo](https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-duo/)?\n\nAs GitLab continues to mature as a public company, the team will continue to evolve. Through these changes, we will stay focused on increasing the efficiency and impact of our efforts for our customers, our product, and our team.\n\n## Gaining - and maintaining - executive buy-in\n\nExecutive buy-in is essential for DevRel. Look at the companies with the largest, most engaged communities and you will find that those companies also have the most active, engaged, and often highly respected founders and CEOs. This is certainly true with GitLab.\n\nGitLab’s engagement with our community began before we were even a company when Dmitriy Zaporozhets (DZ) started the open source GitLab project with [this commit](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/commit/9ba1224867665844b117fa037e1465bb706b3685). The engagement continued when Sid [launched GitLab on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4428278).\n\nThe importance of community in GitLab’s success cannot be overstated, and while we’ve grown to heights that few companies reach, contributions from our customers and community remain central in [our strategy](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/strategy/#dual-flywheels). Because of this, team members, from the highest levels of GitLab and throughout our organization, remain in active communication with our customers via issues and social forums, working hard at all times to help them succeed. Transparency is key here. Documenting our DevRel strategies in the [public GitLab handbook](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/) enables everyone to contribute.\n\n> **Tip:** Executive support is critical when building a community.\n\n## So what is DevRel?\n\nI want to go back to the initial question that sparked this blog: What is DevRel?\n\nI’ll leave you with a quote from Emilio Salvador, vice president of Developer Relations at GitLab, which was recently merged to [our handbook page](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations):\n\n\u003Ci>\"Developer Relations (short: DevRel) operates at the intersection of technology, community, and advocacy, serving as the voice and ears of GitLab in the wider tech world. Their core mission revolves around nurturing and sustaining a vibrant, engaged community of developers, contributors, and users. This involves a multifaceted approach that includes creating educational content, organizing events and workshops, developing programs, and providing platforms for knowledge exchange and collaboration. The team not only focuses on promoting GitLab’s features and capabilities but also actively listens to and incorporates feedback from the community to inform product development and improvements.\"\u003C/i>\n\nThat’s what it is today, but if the history of DevRel at GitLab is any indication, I expect that we’ll continue to iterate going forward.\n\n> [Join our Discord community](https://discord.gg/gitlab) to continue the conversation.\n",[544,554,714],"inside GitLab",{"slug":716,"featured":27,"template":13},"developer-relations-at-gitlab-what-weve-learned-since-our-start",{"content":718,"config":729},{"title":719,"description":720,"authors":721,"heroImage":723,"date":724,"body":725,"category":9,"tags":726},"Visualizing 11 years of GitLab contributions","Check out this animated video, which beautifully visualizes every contribution since our start.",[722],"Darwin Sanoy","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749682555/Blog/Hero%20Images/gitlabeveryonecontributesdna.png","2022-12-19","\n\nGitLab’s mission is to make it so that **[everyone can contribute](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/mission/#mission)**. While I have been experiencing this mission for three years, I wondered if there was a way to visualize the effect of having everyone contribute over GitLab's history. It turns out there is. An open source project known as [Gource](https://gource.io/) can create an animated visualization of the commit history of a repository. I ran it against the GitLab repository and it visualizes 11 years of busy developers contributing over 300,000 commits to GitLab - covered in just under 10 minutes of video. Each node in the visualization is a file and the count of various file types is shown on the left.\n\nA big thank you to absolutely everyone who has made contributions to GitLab over the years. Hopefully this visualization helps you have a greater sense of this community.\n\nGitLab has recently published the management principles that help enable the \"everyone can contribute\" mission within GitLab. This new people management framework is called [TeamOps](/teamops/). Everyone can learn and become certified in TeamOps through GitLab’s learning portal.\n\nAs another mile marker of the power of the everyone can contribute mission, GitLab also just celebrated one year as [a public company](/blog/one-third-of-what-we-learned-about-ipos-in-taking-gitlab-public/)!\n\nI hope you enjoy Gource’s video visualization, which is filled with the glow of light - seems very appropriate for the many global cultural festivals at this time of year that use light and fireworks to celebrate their communities!\n\n\u003Cfigure class=\"video_container\">\n\u003Ciframe width=\"1870\" height=\"937\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/QxLzyJDljpg\" title=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen>\u003C/iframe>\n\u003C/figure>\n\n\nIf you'd like to become a contributor, check out our [contribution guide](/community/contribute/).\n",[259,727,728],"contributors","features",{"slug":730,"featured":12,"template":13},"everyone-who-has-contributed",{"content":732,"config":741},{"title":733,"description":734,"authors":735,"heroImage":737,"date":738,"body":739,"category":9,"tags":740},"The many routes to a tech career","GitLab team members of different ages and backgrounds share their entry into this industry.",[736],"Heather Simpson","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749667236/Blog/Hero%20Images/Learn-at-GL.jpg","2022-10-04","\nThe path to a career in technology isn’t always straight, particularly today. World and economic uncertainty, a lingering pandemic, a shift to remote work, and a need to do something that *matters* – all of these factors have caused sweeping changes in the broader workforce, in individual careers, and in the labor-shortage-plagued technology industry.\n\n## Tech career: Overview and insights\n\nEver wondered how to get into the tech world? To help try to make sense of it all, we asked three GitLab team members how they made their way into technology, and why they stay. Each has a different story to tell.\n\n### [Mark Loveless](https://gitlab.com/mloveless), Staff Security Engineer\n\nFollow Mark on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/simplenomad)\n\nI’ve been working since the age of 16 at various jobs, eventually gaining my first real tech job in 1990 as customer support at a call center. I had always had an interest in security and moved into more of a true security role in the mid-1990s, followed by my first security research job in 1999. For many in the security field, security research was fairly brand-new territory, so those of us who had been working for quite a while found ourselves reporting to individuals our own age or younger. Later on in my career this more or less became the norm, as my peers were almost always younger than me.\n\nI did, on occasion, run into prejudices involving my age, with the main two being as follows:\n- I was often overlooked for exploring new technologies as it was assumed I would not “get it.”\n\n- It was assumed that there was something wrong with me for not being in management. I love learning new things and am constantly exploring new technology. I’ve never had the desire to go into management as I preferred the independent contributor (IC) role.\n\nTo stay active and “keep up on the latest” whether it be the newest apps or what some weird meme means, well, Google is your friend. I try to stay active on at least some social media sites. I have friends and family who are much younger than me that I interact with a lot, and I ask a lot of questions. All of these steps have helped me substantially.\n\nIt is nice that when some new bit of tech comes out, I now have family and friends asking me what it's all about, and they certainly start asking if it is considered “safe” technology because they know my background. I’m fortunate that here at GitLab what knowledge I have is appreciated, no one assumes I can or cannot do something because of my age or because of preconceived ideas about what I might know at this point in my career.\n\n### [Juliet Wanjohi](https://gitlab.com/jwanjohi), Senior Security Engineer\n\nFollow Juliet on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/jay_wanjohi)\n\nI started in tech by undertaking a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. I had an interest in software engineering before I decided to specialize in another area of interest: security. My goal was to blend my knowledge and skills in the two fields, and create a niche for myself as a security software engineer. I got the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the GitLab [Engineering Internship program](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/working-groups/engineering-internship/) and progressed on to become a full-time security engineer on the [Security Automation](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/security/security-engineering/automation/) team in 2020.\n\nIt was both exciting and overwhelming to join such a distinguished, mature team while still being very green in the security field. I was among the youngest members of the team, which definitely drew out my imposter syndrome. Despite this, GitLab offered a welcoming environment where I felt comfortable and encouraged to bring my ideas forward, and contribute as any other team member would. About a year later, I was promoted to senior security engineer, highlighting the fact that number of years of experience does not necessarily translate to seniority; you also don’t have to be of a certain age to work at a certain level of a role. It all comes down to your skills, and a willingness to further your passion and be better at what you do.\n\nIn previous junior roles I had experienced negative effects of stereotypical thinking and unconscious bias, where my contributions were not valued because of my age. I was often overlooked when it came to opportunities to lead presentations or own projects. This made me feel like I had to work harder and put more pressure to prove myself “worthy.” Such occurrences should not discourage anyone who’s young and new to tech, but instead push you to confidently contribute your ideas, and look for ways to expand your reach by making the most of the networking and learning opportunities available to you.\n\nIt’s important to research and evaluate the culture of a company before joining it. Take a look at the initiatives the company carries out to increase awareness against these biases and the efforts to support those who are new to the field (whether they be due to age or career path). I feel lucky to be a part of GitLab, as there are [dedicated resources for team member career, growth, and development](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/learning-and-development/career-development/#resources-for-team-members), including a newly created [Early Career Professionals Team Member Discussion Group](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/inclusion/tmdg-gitlab-early-career/). The group helps those that are early career professionals in the team by supporting their growth and increasing awareness in the organization around the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis.\n\n### [Pj Metz](https://gitlab.com/PjMetz), Education Evangelist\n\nFollow Pj on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/metzinaround)\n\nI made a transition into tech at 35 years old. I didn’t feel 35 when I started though because I had only just started learning about tech through coding a year before I started at GitLab. Instead, I felt 19 – brand-new and lost in a world in which I had no experience.\n\nAs a teacher, I was confident in my abilities in the classroom. I was, not to brag, a great English teacher. I was engaging, excited about the material, and worked hard to make it relatable and enjoyable for as many students as possible. Leaving after 11 years was not an easy choice, especially because my degrees felt suddenly useless. What other work could I possibly do with a Master’s degree in Secondary English Education?\n\nI joined GitLab as an Education Evangelist in our [Education Program](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/community-programs/education-program/) and was able to draw on my former knowledge base, but not completely.\n\nAlthough I don’t have to code for my role, I have to know coding, which I had only started to learn in 2020 in between grading papers and working with a marching band at my high school. I also have to know how to talk to students and educators in a variety of concentrations. Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Analysis, and other degree programs are all looking to use [GitLab for Education](/solutions/education/), and I have to find ways to make it relevant for them.\n\nThis challenge has led to some of the hardest moments of my professional life. I can navigate an unmotivated teenager in class, a parent email about their child’s low grades that blames me, an administrator suddenly showing up for an observation, a drumline member who hasn’t figured out the rhythm for the halftime show opener, or an AP student stuck on analysis of the assigned article. However, this is different. The career I entered into is full of jargon and standards that were unfamiliar to me.\n\nI had a lot to learn. What are stock options? What is Slack? How do I structure my time if there isn’t a bell ringing to let me know the beginning and end of class? What is an expense report? People expect someone my age to know these things already.\n\nI have a sticker on my laptop case that looks like the kind you’d get at a small meetup, the kind that says “HELLO, I’m...” and then there is a space to write your name. This sticker says: “Hello, I’m Still Learning.” I have this not so people can lower their expectations of me; instead, its purpose is to highlight that we should all still be learning and I’m going to be open about what I don’t know. I’m doing my best to turn my perceived shortcomings into strengths by bringing a mindset of [iteration](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#iteration) to my work, something GitLab helped me realize was important.\n\nI’m still learning, and feel so far behind some of my colleagues, but GitLab and my team have worked hard to create a space for me to feel comfortable while I work through this career change. It helps that my manager is also a former educator, so she understands the change from education to the corporate world.\n\nShe reminds me to take time for myself after each conference or lecture. My onboarding buddy still meets with me regularly to help me work through something technical or to give advice about a project I’m working on. Every opportunity to connect with people as a person, whether through a [coffee chat or the “Donut-be-strangers” Slack bot](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/informal-communication/#coffee-chats), which matches me with another, random team member, helps me remain grounded in the humanity of my work. Every team meeting I’m in has a reminder of the importance of taking time for ourselves, and a section in the agenda to cheer each other’s accomplishments. I couldn’t ask for a better place to have my first non-teaching job.\n\n### What’s your story?\n\nHow’d you get into tech? Make any pit stops along the way, or have you always been working in this industry? Let us know in the comments field. Also, if you are considering GitLab as your next step, check out our handbook to learn more about [our culture](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/), and then take a peek at our [open roles](/jobs/all-jobs/)!\n",[23,714],{"slug":742,"featured":12,"template":13},"the-many-routes-to-a-tech-career",{"promotions":744},[745,759,771],{"id":746,"categories":747,"header":749,"text":750,"button":751,"image":756},"ai-modernization",[748],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":752,"config":753},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":754,"dataGaName":755,"dataGaLocation":241},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":757},{"src":758},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":760,"categories":761,"header":763,"text":750,"button":764,"image":768},"devops-modernization",[762,557],"product","Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":765,"config":766},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":767,"dataGaName":755,"dataGaLocation":241},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":769},{"src":770},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":772,"categories":773,"header":775,"text":750,"button":776,"image":780},"security-modernization",[774],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":777,"config":778},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":779,"dataGaName":755,"dataGaLocation":241},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":781},{"src":782},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":784,"blurb":785,"button":786,"secondaryButton":791},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":787,"config":788},"Get your free trial",{"href":789,"dataGaName":48,"dataGaLocation":790},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":493,"config":792},{"href":52,"dataGaName":53,"dataGaLocation":790},1772652070490]