On 15 years at one company
Yesterday was my 15-year anniversary at Adobe, and I celebrated by posting a photo of myself with the surprisingly heavy award I received in the mail a couple of weeks ago. “Wow,” I thought to myself as I was taking selfies, posing this way and that to try to find the right angle and facial expression. “Fifteen years.” And I was flooded by the memories of the many experiences I’ve had at this company, of the people I’ve worked with, of the lessons we’ve learned as a community, and of the sheer amount of personal growth I’ve had here.
I also recognized in the same moment that this is incredibly rare for the tech industry. Unlike 50 years ago, a career in one single company for such a long time is generally a signal of stagnation or of irrelevancy. But during my tenure here, I’ve met a number of people who have stayed for much longer, and whose contributions still remain significant and who participate in our initiatives in critical, vibrant ways. It’s the first company I’ve worked at where people actually retire from a company, not just leave for the next gig, and a place where there’s a spread of people of all ages and all lengths of service.
Why have I stayed so long? It’s not just the golden handcuffs of an amazing sabbatical program (an additional 6 weeks off at 15 years), or apathy or fear, but instead has been an intentional, deep investment in one location for a long period of time. Periodically, I ask myself the questions that I think every person asks of themselves after they’ve been at a role for a couple of years: Am I still relevant? Is this where I’m supposed to be? Am I challenged and content? Does this company and role meet my needs where I am today? Will it provide opportunities for me in the future?
I’m not going to lie — things haven’t always been perfect. I’ve stayed on in poorly-fitting roles with bad managers because of a softness in the industry or in the economy, or because I needed the stability during an unstable period in my own life. But by and large, this large company (which is 22,000 employees and counting) has provided me the career growth opportunities I’ve needed over the past 15 years. And that’s all sorts of amazing.
Looking back, though, there are a number of things I’ve learned from being planted in one place for a long time. And I want to make sure that different narrative is told: that a different career path than a typical 2–5 year series of rotations through a variety of companies can still be valuable.
# 1 The challenge has been a good fit for my personality and interests
One work pop-culture diagram that has floated around the Internet for the past ten years or so is a label of the work ikigai, or the intersection between what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Without getting into the complexities of what ikigai really means (the article linked above goes into far more detail than I really want to get into), my roles at Adobe have really managed to hit the sweet spot for me, especially when it comes to the mission of the Creative Cloud organization to bring creativity to all. As a musician and a general creative (video, audio, fibercraft, social graphics), this mission really resonates with me, and our customers are people like me.
But the mission is only a part of it. Over my career at Adobe, I’ve had the opportunity to grow to address different aspects of the mission. Some of the problems I’ve had to solve have been small. Some have been huge. And more recently, I’ve been challenged to collaborate with other teams within Adobe who have different goals than I have, and develop skills of empathy and persuasion to help our team build the right thing for our users.
I’ve only sometimes been bored or underutilized. I’ve had to learn how to ask (repeatedly) for opportunities to help me to take the next step in my career. Sometimes, the boredom led to developing skills that opened up doors down the line for me. I’ve been moved laterally more times than I can really count, and sometimes have had multiple manager switches in a year. But Adobe also offers opportunities to apply for lateral opportunities to work on new projects, which can open up new doors.
#2 A work community really makes a difference
A common question I get from applicants during an interview question is: what do you like most about working at Adobe? And my instant reply is always, “The people.” There are plenty of places I’ve worked where you have brilliant people who also foment toxic work environments. But what I like about Adobe is the fact that people are just… nice. This doesn’t mean that we don’t face hard truths or have to grapple with some very serious situations as an organization. Orgs are comprised of humans, and humans are… weird.
But I’ve had the opportunity to meet people outside my immediate work circles. Through the power of cross-organizational initiatives, I’ve had the opportunity to meet people far outside of my job role. Beyond my normal engagements with people in our engineering organizations, I’ve gotten to know people in evangelism, sales, customer support, communications, and HR.
More importantly, I’ve been a part of a work community that comes together to recognize and support each other through all seasons of life. Celebrations for weddings and births and new homes and graduations. Gathering together to support during illness and grief and loss. Grappling with the unknowable challenges in our human existence. Discussing hopes, dreams, and aspirations.
Work is not my replacement for genuine community, but our interactions with our coworkers make up a large part of our waking existence, and I feel privileged to be building my career alongside a group of thoughtful, supportive people. And there are people I’ve known for the entirety of my time at Adobe… which means that we’ve walked through many seasons of life together. That time together is precious.
#3 Work-life balance meets my needs
If anyone wonders how I’ve managed to sleep 8 hours a night, work out 6 days a week, cook my own meals, get a 5th degree black belt in martial arts, write multiple books, blog, write and play music (until relatively recently, gigging 40 weekends a year), and take on side projects and spend time with friends… it’s because I don’t work all the time.
Part of the reason I have stayed at Adobe is that I’ve been able to maintain boundaries. I love the fact that many people in my team have families and hobbies outside of work. Slack messages and Emails drop off like crazy at about 4:30pm. I love the fact that people don’t question that I don’t check Slack or Emails over the weekend.
Different people value different things in a job at different phases of their lives, and for me, work-life balance is one of the best things Adobe offers me. Time is not something I can earn back and is something I value. In an industry that values overwork, finding an organization that allows me the space to explore my own interests is absolute gold.
#4 Institutional knowledge magnifies my impact on cutting-edge technologies
At Adobe, I’ve had the privilege of working on the latest and greatest technologies. I was the one who pushed the button to submit the first mobile apps on iOS and Android that Adobe made. I’ve worked on technologies for connected televisions and flip phones. I’ve seen the complexity of what went into the system ubiquity of the Flash Player. I worked on the first revs of animation software and worked on the first of a new line of creative products for Adobe. I’ve been at the helm of multiple “tip of the spear” projects (and yes, I’m tired of hearing that phrase).
What makes me particularly effective in my job, though, is the sheer amount of institutional knowledge I carry from being here for so long. I can confidently explain the lessons learned from a previous product exploration, as well as know exactly which person to start with to chase down a specific person who owns an obscure area of our dependency chain. I can have a quick conversation on another product with someone I’ve known for years after working with them a different initiative. I can more easily have a challenging conversation with someone I’ve known for years, because they already know me from work we’ve done together previously.
While there’s definitely value in getting new and diverse voices in the room, there’s also value in bringing a sense of history and perspective to a discussion, of highlighting additional avenues to accomplish our goals and technologies we might be able to connect with.
I know that not everyone is as privileged as I am to find a job at a company whose mission and corporate culture matches their own values and goals. I also know that not everyone is cut out to stay in one place for this long. There are certainly opportunities outside of Adobe’s doors, and some day, I might be called away to something different. But until that time, it’s been 15 amazing years, and I hope for more.
A big thank you to the many people who I’ve worked with. You’ve made it worth it.
Elaine is a senior product manager at Adobe. You can find her on Twitter at @elainecchao. All statements in this essay are her own and do not reflect the opinions of her employer.
