Time Flies! One Year at Red Hat
See what exciting email just recently found its way into my inbox:
Me being Grateful
By reading my anniversary email and inspecting my received virtual puck, I kept holding myself back for a moment and started realizing what a hell of a journey my carreer in tech has been so far (in a positive way).
If we know each other or in case we haven’t met yet but you know my blog, you might also know my past with VMware. Leaving VMware wasn’t easy at all for me. Feelings-wise, it was a heavy ride in a rollercoaster.
I shared my gratitude via this LinkedIn post. - “THANK YOU VMWARE”.
Evidence of this was reflected in my extremely low level of activity on social media and unfortunately on my blog as well. The more it was important to feel home again and find back my motivation.
Feel Home Again
Looking back on my first year at Red Hat, I feel genuinely grateful to be part of something that’s not only big in scale, but truly meaningful in impact. Red Hat isn’t just “another tech company” to me! It’s a place where open source, community, and collaboration aren’t slogans on a slide deck, but the way we actually work every day.
From day one, I noticed how deeply the idea of open runs through the company. Red Hat describes itself as an open organization, where collaboration and openness shape how people work together, what we build, and the value we create for customers and the community.
One little but important example for me is my first Red Hat Summit Connect in Germany. This event is a regional (fork) version of the (origin/main) Red Hat Summit, providing localized content, networking, and learning opportunities focused on accelerating digital transformation through open source.
I just joined Red Hat and my well appreciated manager Sebastian Faulhaber wanted me to be part of the event to get to know the team. You should know, that a business purpose needs to exist to attend such events. Otherwise, you can’t hold the balance between partners, customers and Red Hatters.
But there was no need to worry since my dear and brilliant colleague and mentor (during my first year) Robert Bohne had already a plan in place. I joined the team which is responsible for the project Cloud Native Robotz Hackathon and supported the hands-on day pre Summit Connect. This project is providing a comprehensive and intense hands-on workshop experience in which our customers and the community are learning to train DIY Robotz finding a Red Hat Fedora using AI capabilities such as image recognition.
I was very delighted to kick-off the tires quickly and to start helping and contributing to something really, really cool. There are lots of efforts put into this project and the technologies involved are pretty awesome!
Retrospective speaking, this particular Red Hat Summit Connect (2024) was important and special to me…because it made me feel home again.
It’s About Culture
I’ve experienced Red Hat’s cultural pillars in countless moments: from open discussions on mailing lists and chats, to architecture reviews where anyone can ask tough questions, to business units and leaders who share context.
One statement that really resonates with me is Red Hat’s belief that “Open source unlocks potential”.
Over this past year, I’ve seen how seriously the company lives that purpose. The commitment to open source clearly goes beyond technology, it shapes how teams are formed, how ideas are evaluated, and how decisions are made. There’s a genuine effort to include diverse perspectives and to treat good ideas as something that can come from anywhere, regardless of title or role.
Being on the inside, you really feel that connection between upstream communities, customers, and internal teams, it’s a loop of feedback, contribution, and collaboration that keeps things honest and innovative. I’ve been encouraged to speak up, challenge assumptions, and share my ideas even when I’m the “new person in the room”. At the same time, people are incredibly generous with their knowledge. Documentation, internal discussions, and e.g. roadmap content (“What’s Next”) are shared widely, so everyone can learn and understand the bigger picture.
Community is Key
I’m of the opinion that building a broad, healthy and diverse community is very important for almost every tech-company. I was always trying to fullfil the role of being an ambassador for such communities and executed this at my past employers with passion. The more it made me very happy joining the team which is responsible for the OpenShift Anwender community here in Germany.
This community aims to provide users of OpenShift with a platform for knowledge transfer and the exchange of experiences. There is a clear focus on users presenting and discussing practical, solution-oriented topics. The community covers the entire spectrum from introduction and development to operation of an OpenShift platform.
Based on shared information, the OpenShift community was created first 10y ago and luckily others picked up on the great example.
Thank You
Thanks to everyone who keeps our culture grounded in the belief that openness isn’t just the best way to build software, but a powerful way to work and to lead.
Here’s to year one at Red Hat, rooted in open source, powered by community and to many more years of learning, contributing, and helping “Open unlock the World’s Potential”.
Thanks for reading.