#7, Kurtis Nusbaum, Sr Staff Engineer: Journey from Uber to Early Stage

On the seventh episode of the 1st10 Podcast, hosts Boris Epstein and Alexis Munger talk to Kurtis Nusbaum of Chronosphere. Kurtis is an experienced software engineer who recently transitioned from Uber to an early-stage startup. He shared some wonderful insights from his recent job search experience, emphasizing the importance of personal connections in career decisions. In this free-wheeling chat with Boris and Alexis, Kurtis discusses his journey from starting UDJ, to joining Facebook, then moving to Uber, and now to Chronosphere, highlighting the significance of personal connections, company culture, and team dynamics in his decision-making process. Here’s a short list of some key takeaways from the episode Importance of Personal connections - "You're gonna be spending a lot of time with them. You better not just like that person. You better really connect and jive with that person." (17:55) Cold outreach is NOT always spam - "Don't just ignore all of that cold outreach. If something does seem interesting, it might be worth at least a 30-minute conversation." (15:57) Building relationships with good people - “You really need to make sure like, ‘Do I like these people?’ [...] It's really, really important to make sure that that box is checked.” (23:48) Take-Home vs Leet-code - I really don't like the, like, leet-code style of interview-questions…(31:56) Don’t miss the rapidfire question segment - it actually ended up being not so rapidfire. Chapters 00:00 Introductions 00:48 Kurtis on College, his startup UDJ, Facebook, and Uber 11:42 Chasing Cool People Instead of Cool Projects 18:14 Identifying Points of Connection With Cool People 22:13 Advice for Founders & Engineers 28:54 Observations on Job-Market and AI Opportunities 31:29 Some Fun Rapidfire Questions! 37:31 Sidetrack: Reflecting on Interview Follow-ups 40:44 Kurtis' Concluding Thoughts Connect with us Website: www.1st10.com Podcast: www.1st10.com/podcast Twitter www.x.com/1st10engineers LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1st10/ YouTube: www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast Links: Blog: https://knusbaum.org Blog Post about Job Search: https://www.knusbaum.org/posts/job-search Crane Presentation I mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQPTlrff8iU Music by Roman Senyk from Pixabay Producer: Shrikant Joshi