Tel Aviv and Change
It looks like the last time I wrote I was changing jobs! Well guess what?! I’ve changed jobs again, but this time rather unexpectedly. But first, let me rewind.
Our time in Paris was coming to a close after four years (which should have been three) after an extensionn to my wife’s diplomatic posting due to Covid-19. We had numerous discussions about what our top choices for her next posting would be, and we finally decided on:
- Tel Aviv
- Tokyo
- Kuala Lumpur
- Hanoi
- Budapest
My wife, being the boss that she is, received interviews to our two top choices. After many spreadsheets and research we decided on the sun and beaches of Tel Aviv 🏖.
Towards the end of our Paris stay my wife also became pregnant with our second child, which would make this move a bit more daunting.
Additionally, we officially found out that our oldest daughter is deaf – a suspicion we had for a long time but had only now confirmed. That was a difficult pill to swallow for us and so we embarked on the road to get her to learn how to hear via first hearing aids and then cochlear implants whenever we could arrange her surgery. These factors also played a significant role in our decision to move to Tel Aviv, where the technology and medical care are top-notch. We found an excellent hospital to perform her surgery and could schedule it quite quickly. Unfortunately, her diagnosis of being deaf came rather late, so ideally, she would need cochlear implant surgery ASAP.
In August 2022, our journey took us to Tel Aviv via Oslo (to visit family) and we did our best to settle in, initially with temporary housing and no daycare for Sophia until a month later. We were fortunate enough to get her into an exceptional daycare at the last minute.
Tel Aviv is markedly different from Paris. It feels like a beach town with a very laid-back, bohemian vibe. Leaving the political backdrop aside, it feels like a very western city with what I think is an underrated and fantastic restaurant scene. I’ve heard it described as Brooklyn but on the beach and that’s actuslly a decent description. Sophia loved the huge playgrounds and was overjoyed that there was always one seemingly right around the corner.
In February our second daughter was born, and I started my paternity leave soon after. I had heard that having two children versus one was a game changer but that didn’t prepare me for the amount of adjustments and juggling required to keep the household running.
Near the end of my leave in April I learned that I would be laid off from my job. This came as a shock to me as I was eagerly prepping to get back to work. I tried my best to take it in stride and began looking for engineering roles. I was on LinkedIn and randomly saw a post from a father of a child who was in the daycare with our oldest daughter in France. We had met for coffee a few times as we bonded over working in tech so when I saw the post that he was looking for a founding engineer I reached out right away.
We had a conversation that same day, and the next thing I knew I was spinning up my IDE to start a one week trial. So many pieces felt right that even though I was deep in the process with some other companies the opportunity with Nango leaped ahead of all the rest.
After working at a early/mid stage (Series A) startup I knew that I would prefer an earlier stage company where I could help shape the culture and work on a bit more greenfield codebase. The fact that everything was open source with an active and supportive community made the decision to join almost a no-brainer. I felt very fortunate to be able to find a new job so quickly and turn what could have been a devastating surprise to a very positive outcome.
I’d like to write more about Nango and some of the technical work we have been doing. API integrations are ubiquitous, challenging, and interesting work. We’ll see if I get another moment between taking care of my two daughters to write some more!