It’s been a long road since getting laid off in May 2023, but I’m excited to finally talk about the end of this journey. As of December 18, 2023, I am starting the next phase of my career at Rubrik as a Technical Marketing Architect.

This was honestly not the position I imagined taking at the end of a public search, but I’m really excited to join this team and dig into this (new to me) product. Rubrik is in an interesting position; in many ways they are leading the shift from “backup” to “data security” and I’m really impressed with their product and messaging thus far. Focusing on cybersecurity was one of my goals for the next role, and it seems like they were looking at me for that as well.

I was also really impressed with the team I’ll be on. Two of the people – Kev Johnson and Mike Preston – I’ve known through the VMware community for several years and I am excited to work with them, while my other two new teammates I met through the interview process and connected with very quickly. It also turns out I know quite a few people at Rubrik, especially pre-sales engineers in the field (a lot of them are ex-SimpliVity people).

There are so many people who helped me during this timeframe, so I’m not going to even try to call people out. If you were one of those people, hopefully I’ve already expressed my gratitude. If not, please understand I do appreciate it but have been overwhelmed with all the support I’ve received.

While not something I would have expected at the beginning of the search, I’m very happy with this outcome and I think Rubrik will be the perfect place for the next phase of my career. Six months of downtime, reflection, investigation, and conversations provided perspective and understanding of what I needed to move forward. I also now have a much better understanding of what it’s like to experience a layoff and how best to support others experiencing one, and if sharing those experiences and insights help others, then six months of unemployment were put to good use.