
Taking Career Risks: Why Snap's Farnaz Azmoodeh Sees Her Career in Two-Year Cycles
Farnaz Azmoodeh used to dislike running. She was really, truly, actively not interested.
But after suffering through it for a few months, it's now one of her favorite things to do. "I get so much joy out of it," says Farnaz. The same thing happened when she started making pottery: she says the first month was "terrible" as she struggled to shape the clay with no success but shares that she came to love the process of building after getting through an initial period of learning and adjusting.
Farnaz draws a parallel from her approach to hobbies to her approach to her career. She's currently a Senior Director of Engineering at Snap, a role she's earned after taking several calculated risks at work, each of which came with its own uncomfortable period of growth and adjustment. She's learned to chase those periods and value them for the growth that they bring.
We sat down with Farnaz to hear about her path to Snap, how she first identified the benefits of taking risks at work, and what advice she has for other women looking to make bold moves to advance their careers.
Learning to go for it
Farnaz was working on her PhD in computer science at USC when she got an email from Google. They were recruiting for engineers. She'd just completed the required courses for a master's and wasn't planning on leaving her PhD program, but the opportunity made her reconsider her plan. She realized that she wasn't feeling fulfilled by having to go so deep (versus broad) in her studies and wondered if making the switch from academia to industry would allow her to get more meaning from her work. "I was really frustrated," explains Farnaz. "I'd be doing this amazing work, and the output was often a paper, as opposed to putting what I'd built in the hands of people to use."
So she took the first of many risks in her career and left her PhD to join Google's publisher quality team. In her first few months on the job, she realized that instead of just focusing on making sure that the content Google's advertisers were showing up on was brand safe and removing bad content, they could also try to proactively find quality content. Farnaz set out to work on that and soon found herself preparing to present her team's findings to Google's founders.
"It was really exciting for me, presenting my project to these legends," she remembers. "I was nervous. Either they were going to promote me and this was going to jumpstart my career, or I was going to get fired, and I wasn't sure which one."
As you may have guessed, it ended up working out just fine, and Farnaz went on to spend almost 10 years at Google. Halfway through her tenure there, she ended up taking another big career leap: this time, stepping up to be a manager.
"In our field, you either need to go down the direction of being a technical lead or becoming a manager in order to multiply your impact," explains Farnaz. She chose the latter, but didn't find it to be the smoothest transition.
"It was extremely difficult for me," she says. "I went from being able to pinpoint what I was responsible for, going home and knowing exactly what I accomplished that day, to this role where I couldn't get a tangible sense of the impact I was having." (Eventually, she learned to quantify her impact as a leader with the help of mentors who had made the same transition, but the learning curve was certainly steep!)
When the opportunity to work at Snap came up, Farnaz recognized it as a risk from the beginning—but she also saw that the company was built on embracing that risk. "Imagine the DNA of the company where the idea is 'hey, I'm going to go build an app with disappearing photos and videos.' It's such a different way of looking at it. The culture at Snap empowers people to take risks and be creative about solving old problems from a different perspective," says Farnaz. "Snap acknowledges the importance of being a risk taker, being creative."
Every two years: a framework for signing up for constant growth
When Farnaz became Senior Director of Engineering at Snap and had to learn how to run the platform engineering team, she was certainly forced out of her comfort zone—she didn't have a background in platform engineering and remembers having to "study almost every night" to pick up the skills she needed to be successful.
But just like with running or pottery, Farnaz got the hang of things pretty quickly. Looking back now, she's realized that her career has tended to follow a pattern.
Farnaz explains it as a two-year cycle. First, she takes on a new role outside of her comfort zone and feels overwhelmed. Then, she builds up the skills and experience to do that role well. After some time operating from a place of relative expertise and comfort, she needs to take on something new to make sure she's still growing.
"I've learned that this cycle repeats almost every two years. That's how long it takes me to get comfortable, and if I don't make a change at that point, I'm going to get really bored, and that's not a good state for me," she says.
She doesn't think about it as a hard and fast ticking clock, but she does make sure to stay open to new opportunities. "Keeping myself and my options open helps me absorb opportunities a lot better than having a fixed mindset around 'this is what I want to do in two years,'" she explains.
3 ways to be bold in your own career
Farnaz acknowledges that the right ratio of challenge to comfort will be unique to each individual, but she does want to encourage others to stretch themselves and take risks when it's right for them. She left us with a few tips for getting started:
1. Do your homework. "Taking educated risks requires you to do some real homework and be conscientious about what it is that you're doing, how you're going to avoid mistakes, and ensure that you're not jumping hastily into commitments," says Farnaz.
2. Invest in your confidence. Farnaz's two-year approach allows her enough time to get comfortable in her past role before taking a new one, and she highlights the importance of spending some time in that comfort zone before moving on. "Learning and absorbing is really fun, but at the same time, it's very humbling. After every major change, you often find that you're the person in the room who doesn't have much to add. But then you ramp up slowly and you get to the point where you're actively contributing, and I've learned I need to stay in that zone for a little bit to build my confidence back up and be able to remind myself when I'm facing the next challenge that I've been through it before."
3. Don't be afraid of failure. Being scared to fail or to be judged is an understandable feeling before taking on something new, says Farnaz, but a misplaced one. "We all have the grit required to be successful, even though it might take time," she says. "There isn't even a single 'failure' I can look back at and not see a ton of positives that came from it. I would remind people that, particularly in tech, there are so many opportunities that there is no real failure. You can bounce back right away."
If you're interested in joining Farnaz at Snap, check out their open roles here.
Want to join the engineering teams at Workiva? Learn more about them!
💎Want to know what engineering teams are like at Workiva? Watch the video to the end to find out!
📼 Engineering teams at Workiva are constantly hiring. Marie Yue, Senior Engineering Manager at the company, tells you what they look for in a candidate and what the dynamics of teamwork are like.
📼 The typical path in the engineering teams at Workiva is that you grow into a senior, and then you move into a lead role. From there, there are a few different tracks that you can take depending on your interest. You can become a staff engineer, an architect, or even an engineering manager. What are you waiting for to apply?
📼In the engineering teams at Workiva every member should feel empowered to do their job effectively. For this, each has to understand how the work they do day to day solves customers’ problems. Managers will always seek to be aware of members’ career path aspirations so that they can look for opportunities and projects to help each person reach the next step in their career.
Engineering Teams At Workiva: A Safe Space
Marie Yue’s team is a safe space for people to make mistakes and ask for help, and each member feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. She wants to make sure that everyone is individually empowered to lead and make decisions. For this, the team has regular meetings where they do fun things like play virtual games or eat lunch together, and they also like to re-review and add to their team working agreement once a quarter.
🧑💼 Are you interested in joining Workiva? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Marie Yue
If you are interested in a career at Workiva, you can connect with Marie Yue on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Workiva
Workiva was founded to transform the way people manage and report business data with various collaborators, data sources, documents, and spreadsheets. Today, people all over the world use their platform to seamlessly orchestrate data among their systems and applications for transparent and trusted connected reporting and compliance. At Workiva, they are innovative in everything they do—from how they build their software, to how they serve their customers, to how they treat their employees.
Careers in Web Development: Which One's For You?
We all have our favorite websites– the ones we frequent, bookmark, and recommend to others. You might even enjoy some website features so much that you’ve found yourself wondering why they aren’t more popular. Or maybe you’ve experienced times where you were frustrated with a website and wished you could add features or even design your own!
If you’ve ever found yourself intrigued at the prospect of designing and developing your own websites, then a career as a web developer might be just for you!
As a web developer you would be responsible for coding, designing, optimizing, and maintaining websites. Today, there are over 1.7 billion websites in the world and, in turn, the demand for web developers is on the rise. In order to figure out what kind of web development work best suits you let’s start with an introduction to the three main roles in web development that you can choose from.
The Three Types of Web Development Jobs
Front-End Web Development: The Creative Side
Think of front-end development as the décor of a house. The color scheme, furniture, manicured lawns, and overall aesthetic. In terms of a website, front-end development is laser-focused on the appearance of a website and its presentation on different devices. If you’re considering a role in front-end development, it’s important to learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These three languages go hand-in-hand. HTML allows you to create user interface elements, CSS helps you with stylistic elements, and JavaScript allows you to incorporate online tools and connect your website to back-end functions.
In addition to programming skills, front-end developers need to be detail oriented, creative, willing to keep up with the latest trends in web development, cyber security conscious, and geared toward user-friendly designs. The median salary for a front-end developer can reach well into the $90,000 to $100,000 range.
Back-End Web Development: The Logical Counterpart
While a house can be beautifully decorated, it’s incomplete without a solid foundation and efficient infrastructure. Similarly, a well-designed website depends on logical and functional code to power the features of that website. Back-end web development is code-heavy and focused on the specifics of how a website works. If you enjoy the analytical challenge of creating the behind-the-scenes code that powers a website, then back-end development is for you.
Since this role is more code-heavy, it’s important that you learn numerous programming languages and understand algorithms and data structures. Some languages that are essential to back-end development are Ruby, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. Back-end developers also ensure that users can successfully retrieve and access data. This requires creating and using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which act as messengers that relay data related requests. Additionally, developing the code for the inner workings of a website also requires back-end developers to be conscious of the user interface features designed by front-end developers and to internally mitigate potential security risks. Due to the increased technical aspect of this position, back-end developers normally earn higher salaries than front-end developers. The average median salary for this role is around $118,000 per year.
Full-Stack Web Development: A Little Bit of Everything
A full-stack developer is essentially the Jack (or Jill)-of-all-trades in web development. Full-stack developers need to be knowledgeable about both front-end and back-end roles. This does not necessarily imply that you would need to be an expert in both roles, but you should fully understand the different applications and synergies they each imply. In order to work in this position, you will need to know the programming languages used by front-end and back-end developers. In addition to these languages, full-stack developers also specialize in databases, storage, HTTP, REST, and web architecture.
Full-stack developers are often required to act as liaisons between front-end and back-end developers. Full-stack developers need to be both problem solvers and great communicators. The end goal for a full-stack developer is to ensure that the user’s experience is seamless, both on the front-end and on the back-end. In return, you can expect to earn a median salary of $100,000 – $115,000 a year for this role.
Taking the Next Step
Web development is both in-demand and lucrative! All three roles described above contribute to specific aspects of web development and the scope of each one can be customized to the industries and positions you feel best suit you. Regardless of which role you choose, all of them need a foundation in programming.
To gain the programming skills needed in each role, you can enroll in courses or learn independently. Coding bootcamps are a great way to boost your skillset quickly and efficiently.
Click here for some of our highly rated programming bootcamp options! Make sure to check out the discounts available to PowerToFly members.
Never Done Shining — Introducing the 2022 NIKE, Inc. Internship Program
After two years of remote programming, we’re excited to welcome the 2022 NIKE, Inc. Internship Program back to our U.S. offices this week!
This year’s class of 318 represent the top 1% of 34,000+ applicants from 113 universities – including 10 Hispanic Serving Institutions and five historically Black colleges and universities. And that’s not all! Many of this year’s interns are Division 1 student-athletes, representing Track and Field, Rowing, Soccer, and Volleyball, to name a few.
During the nine-week internship – built around the theme of Never Done Shining – interns will work across Nike, Jordan and Converse taking on meaningful projects for the business areas they’re supporting. We can’t wait to watch this talented, diverse group kick off their Nike journey and shine!
Want to learn more about the program? https://jobs.nike.com/internships
#nikeintern2022 #swooshlife #internprogram #nikeinterns#nikeinternprogram
Clyde’s Joseph Arquillo on the 6 Things Leaders Need to Do to Build Inclusive Spaces
Joseph Arquillo doesn’t work in Human Resources — he works in People Operations. And the distinction matters.
“It was named ‘human resources’ because it saw humans as resources, utilized for certain tasks or behaviors. But that’s not really what it’s about,” says Joseph, who is a Senior Manager of People Ops at Clyde.
“Calling it ‘people ops’ adds back what you lose with ‘HR.’ My philosophy is that I am there to support you. I am there to work with you, empower you, and enable you so you can be your best self.”
For Joseph, a key element of helping employees become their best selves is making sure that the workplace, whether in-person or virtual, is an inclusive space for all. That doesn’t happen by accident — it requires a dedicated DEIB strategy and leaders who are committed to asking hard questions of themselves and others.
We sat down with Joseph to hear more about his professional journey, and the practices of leaders who create environments where everyone feels included.
More Than Just a Number
As a college freshman, Joseph planned on sticking with liberal arts when it came to choosing a major. But then he took a class in Boston College’s School of Education, and loved its holistic approach to applied psychology.
This inspired him to switch his major to psychology and human development, and select minors in political science, and management and leadership, where he enjoyed learning about organizational psychology.
After graduation, he explored the consulting space to put theory into practice, but found out during an internship at a multinational consulting firm that finance or accounting weren’t the places he wanted to build his career.
“Since Big Four companies have 250,000 employees, you become just a number,” he says of the experience. “It wasn’t my cup of tea. Too corporatized.”
That kicked off Joseph’s interest in startups.
“It’s always fun to get in the weeds! One thing that’s very interesting to me is a challenge,” he says. “When you’re helping a company like Clyde grow and scale, joining when they’re at a Series B and helping them get to the next level, you really get to focus on the interaction between people, process, and product,” explains Joseph. “You need to hire the right people to work towards increasing efficiencies in all areas, but also make sure that we’re enabling them to create a strong product.”
6 Keys To Building Inclusive Spaces as a Leader
Across the different industries and companies that Joseph has worked in, he’s identified the behaviors that create truly inclusive environments — as well as those that discourage them.
Here’s what he’s seen:
- First, recognize your own privilege. “If you’re a man, you have privilege, even if you’re a gay male. If you are a white woman, you have racial privilege. It’s really important that you’re cognizant while you interact with somebody how they might interpret the interaction based on your identity.”
- Leaders should always speak last. This is important always, but especially in in-person spaces, where it might seem even more nerve-wracking to speak up in a crowd, says Joseph. “You want to make sure you’re creating that space for employees who aren’t as senior to feel comfortable voicing their thoughts.”
- And, leaders should use check-ins liberally. “You need to ask yourself how you’re supporting your employees. Are you checking in on them as people before you ask about certain tasks? You want to foster a workplace where employees from all walks of life can feel supported,” he says.
- DEIB isn’t just about adding new initiatives — sometimes it’s about removing barriers. “You need to remove unnecessary bias,” explains Joseph. “That can mean making sure you have appropriate policies and practices that don’t hinder people depending on who they are or where they live.”
- Maximizing participation requires planning with a diversity lens. Joseph has helped the Clyde team gather together and bond as a group. Along the way, he’s been careful to consider physical and psychological safety for everyone involved. “For instance, if you’re doing an event, do you have someone who’s not drinking? Have you set up the environment for people who might have a physical disability, or carefully planned the flow of activities for people who might be neurodivergent?”
- Saying you want to be better isn’t enough — articulate actions you will take. “Pride is a great example,” explains Joseph. “Yes, June is a time to celebrate. But it’s also a time to march. And beyond that, how do you show up and celebrate with the LGBTQIA+ community throughout the year?”
Embracing the Unknown
If you visit Joseph’s LinkedIn profile, you’ll see his personal motto: “Without challenge, change, and a bunch of unknowns, it’s no fun.”
That belief has led him to study what he’s passionate about, to take on new and exciting roles at growing startups, and now, at Clyde, to help formalize what world-class people operations looks like at a fast-growing company.
“I view myself as a connector that really empowers people, challenges teams, and helps drive us towards what I consider to be an improved future,” he says. “I feel like it’s my responsibility to be the chief advocate for each of our employees, and remove any barriers in the way of their growth.”
Want to learn more about what opportunities Clyde offers? Check out their open roles!