Six reasons you should turn in your badge and join a startup

The defense industry, where I worked for 13 years, has offered me a highlight reel of experiences. During field tests, I rode a Navy SEAL RHIB boat around a nuclear submarine in the Bahamas, was airlifted off a Navy Destroyer in a Seahawk helicopter in Hawaii, streamed live UAV video from the desert onto an app that I built, and dodged international special forces in a live simulation centered on technology that I led. Countering improvised explosive devices (IEDs), bioterrorism incidents, and anti-ship missiles are all ingredients for dramatic scenes in big Hollywood blockbusters, and it was my job to play out these hypothetical situations using technology I helped build.

Call me an over-privileged Xennial, but none of that was really all that satisfying when I knew the technology I built may not be fielded for decades, if ever — and that it would be a bad day in history if it were ever used at all.

Meanwhile, centered around Silicon Valley, the most powerful applications were going online, mobile apps were putting the world’s knowledge in your pocket, DevOps was accelerating the pace of change, and elastic cloud computing was making massive scale analytics practical. All of this ran orthogonal to the standard practices in the defense world — isolated networks, classified accesses, risk-aversion, and the system engineering V-Model.

As a young engineer determined to advance technology and innovate, it was a challenge. I wanted to be part of the revolution being led by the West Coast. But, I wanted to apply it on the East Coast and solve an entirely new set of challenges for industries that need transformation the most, including healthcare.

I knew making a change from a big defense institution to a small healthcare startup was going to be an adjustment. These are the reasons that compelled me to take the risk and bet my career on Protenus.

1. Community Impact. As anyone in the technology field with a few good keywords on their social media profile knows, there are dozens of recruiters looking to swipe you from your old job. As a leader in my charity, Camp Opportunity, I was impressed and compelled to meet Nick, CEO of Protenus, who also helps lead the 6th Branch. I figured I could network with him for the mutual benefit of our charities, but it eventually led to me joining the company as well. Since joining the team, I’ve been amazed how many co-workers are also actively engaged in high impact charities like Thread and sos4cancer and Digital Harbor. Today, I work side by side with people who have the heart and compulsion to roll up their sleeves to help a suffering families, individuals, and children, and that passion comes through in their work.
2. Culture. Culture is like a tree: new growth can spread in other directions, but it will always be anchored to the old growth. There is only so far from the trunk that a branch can lean, and each new twig is fragile and unlikely to shape the tree in any substantial way for decades. At Protenus, the startup I joined in August as a senior data engineer, our tree is growing fast. New ideas and opportunities are shaping it every day, and so are the incredibly talented people who have joined the team. Right from the beginning, I’ve had the opportunity to lead, serving as scrum master of the engineering team, and help root our tree solidly in the ground.
3. Trust. This is a big one. While big companies do lots of little things to undermine trust, small startups do everything to build it. Look down. If you’re wearing a badge with your picture on it, that means somebody in your company doesn’t know you and therefore, doesn’t trust you. I’ve probably had to suffer through more of this than most in Defense: background checks, psychological and physiological tests, endless training, and financial disclosures. In national security, those precautions are necessary. At Protenus, it feels good to be trusted to use technology to everyone’s benefit, without compromising security — not having Facebook or Google chat blocked, and being encouraged to represent your company in, say, a harmless web blog.
4. Benefits. In the Defense and Intelligence businesses, you get compensated for the ability to earn and retain stringent clearances, and there are more jobs than people who are able do them well. So, I’ve been cautious about jumping, knowing that the only companies that meet my expectations were those who compete for talent with Silicon Valley. Smart startups in the region understand this as well. At Protenus, I didn’t just find a great salary, but also benefits I’ve learned to love: Unlimited time off, a beautiful office, and the freedom to work from anywhere in the world, including at home. When your company trusts you to do your job, they get your trust back, and can rely on you to get things done when needed.
5. Productivity. I’m a tech nerd and if you’re like me, you geek out about mastering your craft. At Protenus, we make good code decisions. Our tech stack is awesome. We do agile right: We track issues the way you’re supposed to, we review code, we automate our builds. We use our smartphones with slick apps. We secure our IT infrastructure in a way that’s streamlined and reliable. Our HR apps don’t suck. We use Google Apps. We have an awesome coffee maker. It’s possible to be secure without sacrificing productivity, and it makes a big difference.
6. Mission. None of the above would matter if it we didn’t have a good problem to solve, one that actually helped real people make a real difference in real lives. I find joy in making things at Protenus that I can get in the hands of customers who have real, difficult jobs to do, and are themselves enabled to be more effective by the product I’ve helped create.

Every day, I come to work and solve big problems. I work side by side with smart, committed people who give back to their community, and who like what they do. I’m trusted by my leadership, and I get to be a leader myself. I create awesome technology every day that helps real people.

If you’ve been feeling that same itch I felt — and need an outlet for your creativity and drive, consider leaving your badge behind, too. Taking the first step is intimidating, but it’s worth it.