Cover Letter

Mmmm. Donuts..

WOODROW PEARSON (Woody)

I wanted to be the "Batman" as a child. In the technology industry, my role as an SRE for a business & its customers is as close as I think I’ll get. Working in the background, hidden, keeping customers safe & sound by developing robust solutions for reliable, secure, & scalable infrastructure.

If you asked your customers to name their favorite features of your products or company, it’s unlikely that their lists would begin with reliability, security, or the continuity they experience. These are expectations, not features. It requires an organization of many "Batman's" working in an orchestrated, thoughtful approach, towards automating the delivery of these expectations at scale.

Behind the mask of this "Batman" is me, Woody. Big friendly giant, HUGE donut lover, who also has a total obsession for automating all aspects of my life. My background & how I got to where I am is far from traditional & in my opinion one of the best qualities of working with me. I approach some problems differently, I am a strong communicator, & strive to develop strong working relationships. I believe my unique background plays a large role in my tenacious, yet humble approach to my work.

So how did I go from an accounting major, to ad manager, & transition to a software engineer? Early in my career, at SocialCode, the lion-share of my time was generating excel reports. It was tedious & boring & most importantly I believed it could be automated. So I did something about it. I learned enough python to write an app that automated the reports, & myself out of a job. It was a calculated gamble but I shared with the engineering director my app & made a case for my transition to a Jr. engineer role. In my engineer role at SocialCode I received excellent mentorship & some industry experience. I now had a couple years experience as a SWE before I left to work at Uber.

In my next role I was hired on to the infrastructure team at Uber. This is where I learned about the DevOps philosophy, & how critical the role of the SRE is. The work was difficult, the learning curve steep, but I loved it. I was passionate about my new role & its impact. Almost surpassing my passion for a good donut. I was fortunate to work on projects that had incredible impact & I picked up so many skills during my tenure at Uber, both technical & non-technical. But two skills in particular stick out. First, make sure your work is always being built with the customer in mind, & the second was to always try to be an empathetic co-worker.

I moved back to Washington to be closer to family. After taking a hiatus & doing some traveling I started work remotely at PilotX. As their only SRE I gained experience with all areas of DevOps & cloud infrastructure (AWS). I also volunteered as a STEM teacher & freshmen basketball coach at Lake Stevens. The lessons & insights I learned & the positive impact on my personal & professional development can’t be undersold. How to lead a team/class without any rapport or respect established, dynamic speaking, knowing what styles of communication are effective & when and how they need to be tailored for a specific kid or situation were invaluable.

WIth all of this recent work & volunteer experience I am so excited to be an even better "Batman". I am seeking a company to join who will understand the importance of a reasonable work/life balance, enforce a culture that hires both brilliant talented people; who are also decent human beings, & tackle challenging problems.

Be humble, empathetic, & always maintain the attitude of a student.