19 years

The Cognity beginning

I am deeply thankful for the close, family-like environment I was lucky enough to join. The startup phase was long and often thankless for everyone involved, but the team more than made up for it.

I joined just in time to witness the 2008 market crash through the eyes of a highly knowledgeable financial team that helped me make sense of it all. We had to build our product during uncertain times, facing constant hurdles of every kind. The lessons learned during late nights and on tight (or sometimes nonexistent) budgets only made us more resilient for the years to come.

The enterprise switch

In quick succession during 2016 and 2017, I went from a 40-person startup to a 10,000-employee enterprise with more than 30 years of history. The transition did not happen overnight, but it certainly felt that way at the time.

This turbulent period was a watershed moment for me. I had to put aside my engineering hat and learn how to navigate unfamiliar waters. For one, I had to hire people. People I would trust and delegate work to. Getting to know a person in an hour is very different from building trust over years. I also learned that, in a large organization, the bottom line almost always takes precedence over personal connections. (That lesson would prove more relevant than I realized at the time)

The FactSet growth

Once the acquisition was complete and the old domain was no more, the challenges grew in both complexity and duration. Gone was the agility of making split-second decisions over a conversation by the water cooler. Gone was the freedom to pick whichever tools seemed best suited to a solution.

Now there were quarterly goals. KPIs. Performance reviews. Required frameworks.

The brightest part of that transition, however, was the managers. Somehow, I was fortunate enough to work for not one but two exceptional people. Not just great managers, but genuinely good humans.

They showed me that caring for your team is not merely a phrase repeated during interviews, but a real quality that some people possess. And it makes all the difference.

The lessons I learned from them were countless - not only in engineering, but also in becoming a better person. I cannot imagine being where I am today without their guidance and encouragement. In my early twenties, I sorely lacked many of the non-technical skills required to thrive in this field. They patiently helped me build that foundation and, in many ways, shaped the professional I became.

The letting go

I am not someone who let go things easily. Anyone who has seen my storage room - or my CV for that matter - can attest to that.

Nineteen years with the same product is an achievement in itself, but surviving every hurdle, acquisition, and financial downturn makes it even more meaningful.

So obviously, I did not envision my departure being so abrupt. But life can be strange like that sometimes.

Now, with all of that experience under my belt, I am preparing for a new beginning - one that I hope to help shape in a way that would make those managers proud. A chance to apply the lessons they taught me with the confidence and perspective that only a long and winding road can provide.

Future, reconsidered

So where to now? I’m definetly not taking a break. Staying with the same product for so long comes with its own downsides - I missed out on gaining experience with some of the technologies that much of today’s IT world runs on. So I have some catching up to do, which can only motivate me.

Hopefully, I’ll find a company that feels worth committing the next 19 years to.