Ian Pedowitz's README

Ian Pedowitz - Director, Strategy and Operations

This page is intended to help others understand what it might be like to work with me, especially people who haven’t worked with me before.

It’s also a well-intentioned effort at building some trust by being intentionally vulnerable, and to share my ideas of a good working relationship to reduce the anxiety of people who might be on my team.

Please feel free to contribute to this page by opening a merge request.

Connect with me

About me

• I grew up in Oceanside, NY, went to undergrad at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, lived in Norwalk, CT for a year, Stamford, CT for six months, San Francisco, CA for 11 years, and now reside in Eloy, AZ nearby Skydive Arizona
• I'm a private pilot with over 250 hours flying Cessna 172/182, AMD Alarus, Piper Archer/Cherokee/Warrior, and Cirrus SR20/22
• I train and compete in Formation Skydiving as well as participate in events around the world. I hold eight National Medals and four World Records. I have over 3,970 skydives.
• I've visited 22 countries and 37 states in the US
• I fully immerse myself in anything I'm passionate about
• GitLab's values of CREDIT (🤝 Collaboration, 📈 Results, ⏱️ Efficiency, 🌐 Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, 👣 Iteration, and 👁️ Transparency) resonate deeply with me, and I feel I was practicing them before even formally joining as a team member. I'm extremely excited to be at a company where the culture is rooted in these values.

How you can help me

• I welcome feedback at any time and treat all forms of feedback whether positive, constructive, or negative; as a gift
• If you work at GitLab and prefer to give feedback anonymously, you can use this form. Getting feedback continuously rather than waiting for formal reviews helps me improve my working ways and habits in smaller steps, bringing a level of iteration to personal improvement which is more manageable.
• If you ever feel like I could be doing something differently to be more helpful to you, your team, or the company; please let me know

My working style

• I'm still new to GitLab, so I expect for this list to evolve as I grow into working at an all-remote company
• I tend to think and work non-linearly so embrace working asynchronously and appreciate that GitLab measures results not hours and that the remote manifesto promotes Flexible working hours (over set working hours) which I fully intend to embrace
• I expect to work from 8/9am Pacific Time to 5/6pm Pacific Time. I prefer to take all meetings between 9am to 5pm Pacific Time, but can make exceptions if needed.
• When inviting me to a meeting, please make it clear in the invite or meeting agenda why my participation is important. This helps me manage my time appropriately among competing priorities.
• Please try to send meeting invites 2+ days ahead of when you'd like to meet, unless we've agreed to otherwise. It helps me better plan my work and schedule ahead of time.
• I really value building strong relationships professionally and personally. My network and knowing who I can rely on and reach out to for what and when is one of my assets.
• I'm a collaborative person who is just as happy contributing as a peer or leading initiatives. I like to do what's best for all involved and have no ego.
• I value my time off work to recharge and aim to not check any work messages outside of my working hours

What I assume about others

• I truly believe we're all in this together and that everyones default is to be helpful
• I assume no malice is ever intended when mistakes are made and believe that how one recovers from a mistake is more important than the mistake itself

What I want to earn

• I want to earn everyone's trust and respect and believe this is core to leadership
• I want to earn the knowledge I lack to do my job effectively
• I want the team to earn the results of the hard work we all do

Communicating with me

• I tend to be very friendly and cordial in communication and use emoji fairly frequently. I believe that in a world of text communication emoji can help provide those non-verbal cues we miss from video/in-person communication.
• I will read and respond to all forms of communication and generally do not need reminders or pings
• I come from a world where email and issuetracker (aka buganizer) were the primary forms of communication, so learning a world where GitLab MRs/Issues and Slack are the primary forms will be a bit new to me. I appreciate a bit of flexibility as I define my various SLAs to the inbound communication channels at GitLab and will document them once I'm more familiar.
• I try extremely hard to communicate in an inclusive manner and appreciate timely feedback if I did not
• I'm extremely detail oriented and "precise". If I ask several questions in a message; I expect all of them to have answers, an "I don't know", or a redirect. I don't like to ask the same question multiple times.

Strengths/Weaknesses

Strengths

• I'm very good at understanding nuanced details and reading in between the lines. I can look at a set of data or problem and see things not immediately apparent to others.
• I care to the nth degree and will protect anything I'm passionate about
• I'll say "I don't know" when I truly don't - I won't pretend to know something I don't or be an expert in an area where I'm not
• I'll do whatever I can to help someone, or if I can't, I'll point them to someone who can help them better than I can
• I won't propose solutions that end up "painting into a corner" - I truly believe in the iterative approach to problem solving which is a core value at GitLab

Weaknesses

• I've burned out several times in my career - if you ever see behaviors where you believe I'm heading down that path again, please let me know
• I can sometimes be fairly direct, but I try hard to be polite when being direct
• While I feel I'm open minded, if I believe I know the best solution to a problem, I will usually try to defend it strongly. Feel free to challenge me if you have a better solution - I do believe that better solutions come from the intersection of multiple ideas from people of diverse backgrounds versus an individual mindset.
• I have a hard time saying "no" which can result in me taking on too much. If you see me doing this, please tell me.

Personality tests (by recency)

2022 MBTI Consul Type

• Personality type: Consul (ESFJ-T)
• Traits: Extraverted – 56%, Observant – 64%, Feeling – 56%, Judging – 65%, Turbulent – 54%
• Role: Sentinel
• Strategy: Social Engagement
• Workplace Habits

  Teamwork is a concept that Consuls have no trouble putting into practice. Often seeking friends at work, people with this personality type are almost always willing to lend a hand when and where it’s needed. Excellent networkers, Consuls always seem to “know just the person” to bring a project together on time.

Note - I've previously tested both as an INTJ and an ENTJ. I consider myself a social introvert at the end of the day as I love group environments, but once I feel that my social tank is full, I need personal alone time to recharge.

Statistics

GitLab Statistics