How Do You Let The Cat Out of the Bag?

On what has now become to be known as Star Wars Day, I thought it prudent to write about A New Hope, Mike-style.

A few weeks ago, I took a step in life that is a bit different from everything I’ve ever done before.
I know I’m likely to get questions about it, so I figured I would attempt to preemptively answer here.

I’ve left Datadog, a company I hold close and dear to my heart.

I started working as a consultant for Datadog in 2011 with some co-workers from a earlier position, and joined full-time in 2013. For the past 3 years, I’ve pretty much eaten, dreamt, lived Datadog. It’s been an amazing ride.

Having the fortune to work with some of the smartest minds in the business, I was able to help build what I believe to be the best product in the marketplace of application and systems monitoring.

I still believe in the mission of building the best damn monitoring platform in the world, and have complete faith that the Datadog crew are up to the task.

Q: Were you let go?
A: No, I left of my own free will and accord.

Q: Why would you leave such a great place to work?
A: Well, 3 years (5 if you count the preliminary work) is a reasonable amount of time in today’s fast-paced market.
Over the course of my tenure, I learned a great many things, positively affected the lives of many, and grew in a direction that doesn’t exactly map to the current company’s vision for me.
There is likely a heavy dose of burnout in the mix as well.
Instead of letting it grow and fester until some sour outcome, I found it best to part ways as friends, knowing that we will definitely meet again, in some other capacity.
Taking a break to do some travel, focus on some non-work life goals for a short time felt like the right thing.

Q: Did some other company lure you away?
A: While I am lucky to receive a large amount of unsolicited recruiter email, I have not been hired by anyone else, rather choosing to take some time off to reflect on the past 20 years of my career, and figure out what it is that I want to try next.
I’m also trying a 30-day fitness challenge, something that has been consistently de-prioritized, in attempt to get a handle on my fitness, before jumping headfirst into the next life challenge, so recruiters – you will totally gain brownie points by not contacting me before June 4th.

Q: Are you considering leaving New York City?
A: A most emphatic No. I’ve lived in a couple of places in California, Austin TX, many locations in Israel, and now NYC. I really like the feel of this city.

Q: What about any Open Source you worked on?
A: Before I started at Datadog, and during my employment, I was lucky enough to have times when I was able to work on Open Source software, and will continue to do so as it interests me. It has never paid the bills, rather providing an interesting set of puzzles and challenges to solve.
If there’s a project that interests you and you’d like to help contribute to, please let me know!

Q: What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
A: That’s a hard one. I really like chocolate, and am pretty partial to Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food – it’s pretty awesome.

Q: What about a question that you didn’t answer here?
A: I’m pretty much available over all social channels – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – and good ol’ email and phone.
I respond selectively, so please understand that if you don’t hear back for a bit, or at all.
If it’s a really good question that might fit here, I might update the post.

TL; DR: I’m excited about taking a break from work for a bit, and enjoying some lazy summer days. Let’s drink a glass of wine sometime, and May the Fourth Be With You!