Originally aired on May 28, 2021 @ 5:00 AM - 5:30 AM EDT
Our London & Lisbon Site Leads will cover a number of topics; how we have ensured our local teams felt connected whilst working remotely, Cloudflare initiatives that ensure employees are able to balance family responsibilities alongside work as well as what makes Cloudflare a great place to work!
If you're interested in a career with Cloudflare, you can apply by clicking on this link: https://boards.greenhouse.io/careersday/jobs/3085504?gh_jid=3085504#app
Hello everyone, welcome to Cloudflare Career Day. This is our first panel. I'm here with Sarah Meyer and Justina Wong, their site leads for the London and Lisbon office. I am from the recruiting team and I'm very happy to be your host for this segment. So I think I can just jump into it. I would love to hear more about yourself. So can you please introduce yourself starting with Justina. Hello, my name is Justina. I am from the Lisbon office. On my regular job with Cloudflare, I work for the customer support team and I'm the site lead of the Lisbon team. And Sarah? Awesome. So my name is Sarah Meyer and I am part of the London office. So day job wise and looking after sales nightlife. So looking after kind of helping to train our customer base and sales team and then also the site lead for our London office as well. Great. So I think the first question should be, what does a site lead do? I think I could start with a couple of things that we do. So for one, because it is actually an interesting role because in our company, we already have our HR team, we already have a payroll team, we have all these administrative team that is helping with everybody already. So site lead for me is more of the contact person that oversee all the functionality of the office and be the cultural point and the cultural ambassador for Cloudflare and for our local offices. So I think that's the main thing I see as a site lead. What do you think, Sarah? I think that's a great, great starting point for it. And I think the coming the pre-pandemic side when we were actually being able to go to offices or having people come visit offices too is continuing to be that point of contact. So if we had someone coming to visit, making sure that they are getting to know the office, know the space and help to be that ambassador kind of going back and forth, both connecting between EMEA offices and then also with the offices in San Francisco and the States too. So it is a similar, just kind of carrying Cloudflare culture throughout the different offices from there. That's great. It's very interesting actually, because Justine, you're not originally from Lisbon and Sarah, you're not originally from London. So how did you become site leads? Sarah, do you want to start? Yeah, I'm happy to. I actually laughed because I think that's probably one of the things that's so great about the London office is how many of the times you're in meetings and there's like maybe one person that's originally from the UK and everyone else is from remote. And I know we'll talk about that in just a moment. So when the site lead was originally, so it's a role that or a kind of a concept that's been around now for just about a year and a half. And when it originally was kind of introduced of helping to be that connection point, it was something that was just instincts of how important it is to have kind of that culture and connection point. So I was just talking to our head of office and just kind of there's an application process where you go through and just apply for at that time, but really helping to be that connection point for it. And I think for me, how did I start it? So when I moved to Lisbon, there was only a few of us, like there's like less than 15 of us and we all moved from different offices. And it essentially, I actually have to give credit to Sylvia, who is not on the call right now, but like she was our very, very first unofficial site lead of Lisbon. She was like overlooking everything from like setting up our office environment, from decorating the space, from ordering the most important coffee machine that everybody needs. So that actually is a part of the site lead role as well, because we didn't have an administrative team back then. So it was a very important part of like building the office. And when I came to Lisbon, I was happily taking over all these things that she has set up and just continued to building it up and to continue to, I guess, invite all the new hire, because naturally I was already a Califlare employee before I moved to Lisbon. And we want someone who has already been with the company for a while to help share our culture and to help share all the fun things that's going on around the world. So, and I naturally become a part of site lead team. Thank you for sharing. So Justine, I think I'm gonna start with you. I'm curious because you're speaking a lot about Cloudflare culture, but we are at home currently, we're remotely working. So how do you keep a sense of community within the Lisbon office? And then sorry, if you want to add what you're doing for the London office, that would be great as well. I think I'm super lucky to be in the Lisbon office because everyone in the Lisbon office is very outgoing and we're all very talkative and we like to share our ideas. And so naturally everybody would jump in whenever you ask a question. Like for example, you asked about, oh, how do I set up my medical account with the country? I actually don't even know how it's I think it's called SNS. And everyone who is from here will jump in and help you. And everybody who has moved to Lisbon a few years back, they will tell you, hey, this is what I went through. This is like what I need to do. And so on my side, I actually don't need to do much to rally the team and everybody would just jump in and help. So that was really great. And I think on the other hand, we want to keep things going. So we try to maintain some online events. So on different weeks of the day, on different weeks of the month, different days of the week, we try to have a little bit of new events going on. So people in the office, they could get to meet each other virtually. For example, we have this Lisbon check-in that they could just show up and talk about anything. It started with talking about, OK, what is the pandemic rules now? I can't read Portuguese. Can someone share with me? Now, it's mostly about food. And hey, where do you go this weekend? Where do I eat certain type of cuisine? So yeah. Sorry to interrupt. But it's interesting because a lot of people who are currently in the Lisbon office actually joined Cloudflare during the pandemic. So they've never been to the office and they've never met each other in real life, right? Yeah. Actually, I think we have less than five employees that we hire locally that might have met each other during the whole pandemic. But it doesn't stop us from talking to each other. I think when you're ready to help, then you're ready to help regardless. I think encouraging people to turn on their camera and show their face, to talk to each other is very important as well when we try to do virtual events. So it gives people a sense of connection when you could link a face to a name. So that's something we tried. Definitely. And I think adding on to that, too, is everything. It's interesting between the different offices and the size and kind of where they were in their office journey at that point. I remember when Justyna was going in and thinking about applying to be a site lead in Lisbon. And we were brainstorming doing stuff kind of cross -office from there. Because London had been established more as an office before we went into this virtual realm. And at the beginning, we tried to kind of keep some of the... There's some things that we're able to keep and merge onto the virtual realm. And some things that just really we tried to do virtually and just didn't work. So I think continuing to have that cultural point and testing and experimenting. What would work in a virtual realm? So keeping things like we have a company-wide meeting that happens every Thursday or is recorded on Friday morning. So watch. We always have a meeting before that just depends. It's very London-specific. And we're like, that was... It was something that worked and we were able to keep virtually. So keeping some of those consistency things that were key to the culture and then experimenting and trying with some of those other pieces of it of what we could keep, what we couldn't. And then trying to figure out, yeah, how do we keep with this? Because onboarding, I think that's one of the key things we have to be looking at is how do we keep this culture? And there's people now that have been in the company that have for over a year that have never stepped foot into an office. And so imparting that culture onto them. And it'll be fun as we start to transition back into opening the offices in more capacity, what that whole transition will be as well. But yeah, starting to introduce that culture very much through meetings and chats and both live events or virtual live events and different elements as well. Yes. I think it's really interesting. I think people are adapting well to working remotely. But from what I see in the local chats, I think they're very excited to go back to the office and actually meet the people they're talking to every day. So that's an interesting phenomenon. So speaking about supporting employees and the events and initiatives that Cloudflare organizes, can you talk a little bit about those? What does Cloudflare do currently to support their employees in the various locations? Can we start on that one, Justina? I thought you're going to start with the onboarding processes, because we moved the whole onboarding process online, right? Exactly. I think that's just it. So if we talk from, and especially on this career stage, let's talk about people that hopefully are watching and maybe will be joining us on one of these sessions soon. I think that is tribute to the company and the culture is the fact that literally in March last year, it was halfway through an onboarding group, because we do onboarding about every two weeks, was like, okay, and now everything that was going to San Francisco is now going completely virtual home offices. Let's just figure everything out as we go. And those first couple of classes, I just remember just people going, okay, it's still happening for it. And just seeing the whole team and we switched everything around right away. So what is starting the pure fact of onboarding that we now, it's just now become the normal pattern and we have switched everything to go virtual. Brilliant. So I think that's first and foremost, is one of the good things is that nothing's changed. It's changed some, but it's very similar things. Great feedback that still comes out of it to make sure that those similar connections are starting to be made as much as possible. We're still doing virtually from there. So I don't know, Justina, if you want to pick up a couple more and then I can piggyback off of you. Yeah. I think like after onboarding, so you will have your time with your team and you will have your own team's training process and your own onboarding process, right? During this bootcamp, a lot of different teams are doing extra sessions. Like for example, they will have extra one-on-one training for all the new employees so they can connect with people. On our team, we actually connect everybody with the local management so they could actually talk to everybody and they have someone to talk to and they know who to ask questions to when there is any confusion or concern that come up. For myself, whenever there is a new Lisbon group, a new Lisbon class that joined, I would set up a time aside to say hello to them so at least they could know me and I could get to know them and I will have a better understanding of what team are they joining. Maybe there are some hobbies that I could link them to people that already exist in the company. So for example, we have a huge group of people that likes hiking. So for example, if I know that Sarah and Danella, they both like hiking, then I could tell them to, hey, talk to each other. Maybe when pandemic is over, let's go for a hike. So I think these little things would help as well. It's not an official thing that we must do to everybody, but I think it's all these tiny connections that helps. Well, I think you can piggyback off of that too. One thing that was pre-pandemic that we've kept going is just doing fun facts for it. So everyone that's joining the London office will introduce themselves in front of everyone and if they're comfortable with it, if they're not completely fine. But they'll just kind of say their fun fact and that's just a fun to see a tradition keep going and getting to know those connection pieces as well. You'll see the music people, the cooks, the sports fans, and how that's just naturally a way for people to continue to connect and get to know people and how many times you'll see them a couple of weeks later than kind of just joining one of the ERGs or something. And it's all started from very much early on into their process. Thank you for sharing. I was actually thinking about one of the things that I've been enjoying the most lately in terms of Cloudflare activities. It may seem like something small, but celebrating birthdays after each weekly team meeting is fantastic. And also I was wondering because we're already remote. We already don't know personally the people we're working with in the same location. But there would be even more reasons for us to not know people in different locations in London or Munich or any other Cloudflare office location. But instead, we actually have groups of interest and people connecting and sharing what they love to do with their passions. We have groups for everything, I think. Even for dogs, for pets, people who like to share cute pictures. So in a way, I think we're very connected as a company, which may not be very normal for other companies out there, right? And I think even one thing that's been very interesting is coming out of this and having to do everything virtual is we've been able to bring all the MIA offices together. So Justyna and I and the other site lead and the great people team that people in places team that support us as well will try to do things that are MIA wide. But honestly, if we were in the offices, that opportunity probably wouldn't be happening there as organically for it. So like we did the escape room at the end of the year last year, and it was teams across all the different regions coming together. So not only are they connecting with people in their own offices, but across the MIA as well, which I think it's been a really, it's been a good part of having to go virtual and get to expand that culture. I think so. And I think like Sarah mentioned a bit earlier about ERG and ERG stand for our employee resource group. They are the official groups that is supported by the company for people who have a specific need. For example, parents like they might need extra support and they might want extra help on how to organize the day or how to work with the teams and kids at home better. So these are the official channel that the company continue to offer to help for people who needs help. And of course, like we have all these hobby groups like the dog flair. Is it called dog flair? Yeah, maybe the cat group. And we also have a group of farmers that we will share pictures of our growing plants. So those are all like really fun things that you could find a different sense of belonging on top of the macro cloud flair culture. So yes. And don't forget about bread flair. So when the whole sourdough craze is going on, you had everyone that was consolidating with each other and counseling and going, my bread is very flat right now. What happened with it from there? So absolutely. I think I need to join that one. Actually, I'll think about it. Yes. Okay. So on the topic of events, what would you say is your favorite events that we have organized so far, Justina? Favorite event. There's too many events that I really like. But actually, I think my favorite in Lisbon is our cooking workshop. Because you actually get to learn how to cook a local dish. And it was host by our, our staff. So they were sharing their grandma's recipe. They're sharing a little bit of story about like, what is this dish? Like, which area did they come from? And there are a few of us that just like, attend and try to learn how to make those dishes. It's a part of being in Lisbon, I guess. Yes, definitely. I attended those. I attended that one workshop. It was fantastic. I hope we do it again. I hope you will be the one who's hosting and sharing with us your grandma's recipe next time. Were these are these mostly recipes from like Lisbon and like local more Portuguese dishes? Or they also kind of show showcasing like from anywhere? It's from Portugal, any area of Portugal, focused on the south of Portugal, Alentejo region. And we had a couple of people share some recipes with us. But I think we can go all the way up to Porto in the north of Portugal. That will be fun. They have tasty cuisine as well. So what about you, Sarah, tell us a little bit more about your favorite event or initiative? I think there's been a couple of them, but probably the one time going off baking. So clearly, we like food here on it is we did do a whole baking competition. Again, it was across AMIA offices from there where people would just they sent in photos of the baking that they did. And then there was different voting that happened with it. Because again, it was just something that was bringing people together. And then also, we have just random coffee check ins that happen every other week with it. And people come in. And it's, I think the one that was in there. And there's, there's only a few of us that time. But no one was from the UK that was in there. And we were just kind of laughing about it was all talking around the right when we were able to start traveling more in the UK and start doing holidays. And everyone's just giving, again, suggestions of ideas of where to go and what to do in different parts of the UK to explore. And actually, after that, we started on the part of the one in like an internal page is going, where to go explore outside of London where it can get to easily by train where it can get to by car again, kind of realizing that so many people have not only started the company, but moved to the UK or moved to London for these jobs. And so not only is it getting to know a new city, through a pandemic, getting to know new places to travel and the quirky things to do outside of it and how to do it easily, how to where you can go on it with a dog on a train outside of London that's in like an hour journey. So it's just a fun just those fun, again, have happenstance conversations, the conversations that you usually have in like the kitchen that you're not able to and just starting to have those places to allow those to happen for. So what I take from from your favorite events is that Cloudflare is a place for foodies, people who love to cook and love to eat. And second, that Cloudflare has a very open and friendly culture in the sense that everyone's always available to help. And if, like you said, if someone moves to London or Lisbon and any other location that they've never been to before, then they feel supported because everyone's always available to lend a hand, right? Totally. Yeah. And I think it's great, great to see it for it. Yeah. Just seeing in similar, like, even though London's it's a slightly bigger office than Lisbon, not much, Lisbon's growing massively quickly, but seeing just those similar things still in chats and people going, yeah, where can I go surfing or where can I get this is the recommendation for that. And that hasn't changed as offices have grown at all for it. Fantastic. A fun question, I think. Could you summarize why Cloudflare is a great place to work in one sentence or perhaps a little bit more, but Justyna, do you want to start? I would say it's the people, it's always the people. So you are working with a whole group of very, very talented and very intelligent people. And they're not only caring for the work they do, and they also care for one another. So at the same time as improving products, they also want to improve everybody's ability and help one another to grow. So I love it. Sarah, do you agree? I would completely agree for it. I think it's it's absolutely the people that there's incredibly smart people and talented people and just in the things and how knowledgeable they are in their areas, but how they're completely OK to take something that is absolutely just baffles me so much of the time and are willing to just explain it in a way that makes sense to it and take that time for it and you don't feel bad to it. And they'll just yep, absolutely. They'll take the time we had. Yeah, there is a like something we just did yesterday where a product manager just took and explained this this concept that was just baffling a bunch of people. And they just took about 45 minutes out of their day, whiteboarded the whole thing and just went, OK, does this help? And it took a roomful of about 100 people and going, that's so much more. Thank you. And I just the fact that they were able to do that. Great. Like, I think that just is really a testament to the culture. And then that's also driven by, I think, a lot of the work that the company's doing in different projects that they're doing between like Fairshot and Fairshot Project, Galileo, some of these initiatives. So Fairshot is one that we're giving away our waiting room, which is a product that's able to allow kind of lines and queues for everyone that's doing the vaccines for. And that's been also helping to drive both the people, but the the culture and some of the mission of the company as well, I think all kind of is important to knit together. Thank you for sharing. I have to echo that as well. I think people are what make Cloudflare amazing as alongside our mission to make the Internet a better and more secure and safe space, which I find amazing. I was thinking like what you just said, Sarah, it really resonates with me because I'm going to use a sentence I've heard this week from one of the London folks that what makes me tick is being in a room with people smarter than myself. And I think that really goes to show how much you can learn at Cloudflare because you have weekly talks, you have willing people that if you just need help or if you don't understand something, they're more than happy to jump in and to help you out. And I feel like even though I'm not I've not been here for many years, but in the time that I've been at Cloudflare, I feel like I've learned so much about things that I would never even imagine I would be learning about. And it's amazing. So I definitely feel Cloudflare as a company is a place of growth in general and knowledge sharing. So that's that's fantastic. I wanted to ask a question going back a little bit about moving. So you both have moved and you're in London and in Lisbon currently, Justyna, but I know that you've been traveling quite a lot. So I'm curious to know what would you what would your advice be to someone who's thinking about joining Cloudflare but probably would have to relocate? Do you have any sort of practical advice maybe? Practical advice? Ask questions. So for everybody who is going through the application process, you will have a recruiter and actually you will have a whole group of recruiting team that is helping through the process. So if you have any questions about the visa process or the moving process or anything about like your the new country that you're going to arrive in, ask them. Like we have all the information that we can share with you. And if not, we'll find out. So like but if you never tell us, then we'll never know that there's a question in your mind. So don't be afraid to ask. I think that is very important. And non-practical notes, just go for it. It's fun to move around. As expected from me. Well, I think it's important to know and what was so brilliant for Justyna when she came in to do this math is because you had been able to work in a number of the different clubs or offices. So get to taste that culture in the different places and then being able to transplant that into Lisbon as you're there and seeing it. And also I think it's a good testament to how the how you are able to if there's different opportunities come up that you can actually go from and move from and work from different areas as well. Oh, my. Definitely. So, okay. I'm going to ask you another question. I'm very interested to hear your answers. But how has your Cloudflare journey been so far? I'm sure it's been exciting for sure. But what was it like for you, Justyna, moving across offices and, you know, becoming site lead and everything? How's your experience been so far? I love it. Every time when I do an interview, like when someone asks me, so what do you feel about working in Cloudflare? And I always tell them, okay, I'm very biased because I love the company. And this is why I'm still here. And this is why I've been moving offices. And I still enjoyed it. I think the fact that like looking back in the very beginning, right, like we're trying to carry the Cloudflare culture around the world with us. And across every offices, you will see people who are nice, like we said, who are super intelligent, like we said. And this is not only in a very small group or in a single location. This is everywhere of Cloudflare you could see. So, this is something I've really enjoyed about being in this company. And a lot of times, like you will see new things happening very quickly. This is another exciting thing of being in this company. So, nothing is slow here. You see a release last week and you're thinking, okay, let's take a break. No, we have a new release coming out tomorrow too. So, let's go and let's learn new things. So, the constant challenge and the constant new technology that we could share with the world is a very exciting piece. Thank you for sharing. Sarah, do you want to add anything to what Justyna said? I mean, I think it's just great following Justyna so you can go, yep, that's that. There we go. Agree with that. All right. Thanks for answering that question for me. No, I think I'll just echo exactly what Justyna said for it. It's very much just, I think, I guess the thing I'll add to it is seeing how, because when I joined Cloudflare in London, they were maybe about a quarter of the size that we are now or so, or a fifth of the size that we are now. And just seeing in this about three years that I've been here, just how much it's grown and then how EMEA has grown as well. So, in that time, it was just the London office. And since then, we now have Lisbon and Munich and Paris and seeing just how the whole, just how Cloudflare has grown has been an amazing part of that journey. And as our co-founder says, we're just getting started with it as well. I love that. Yes, exactly. Thank you so much for sharing that. Do you want to leave any last words for anyone who's watching us and who's interested in learning more about Cloudflare and our careers? I think the only thing I would end with is, I think one question whenever I'm doing interviews is people ask, what about the culture for it? And I think part of that interview process is you do get to meet so many different people through that interview process that you're able to kind of answer that question yourself. Like, can you imagine working with these people that you get to interview with? Because culture, it's, Justyna loves it, I love it, Danielle love it, like it works for all of us, but it is also a personal choice as well. And I think that interview process is such a great way for candidates to be able to go, can I imagine sitting across from this person? Can I imagine going to them when I need advice and questions? Because it is a great way to get to know the people as we've, the theme of everything is keep hearing on this call, it's all about the people. And it's, you do get to meet so many people during that process, it's that you're able to answer, help to answer that question yourself as well. Right, Justyna? I think there was actually a lot of resources before you even start your interview process indeed, like with now we have the Cloudflare TV, we have all these blogs, we have all the community resources that you could read about the company and read about the people of the company first. So do take a look of those, like and see if this is the culture that fits you. If you're watching this segment and if this is what like you would like to do as well in the future, then it's very high chance that you will likely to fit in here as well. So I think just make use of all the available resources online. Sounds good, and if you want to learn more about Cloudflare and our recruiting process, don't miss the next panel on recruiting. Thank you so much for watching. We're almost done, and have a lovely day.