Thank you, Pivotal

As one of Pivotal Labs Singapore’s first hires, I was fortunate to have been there since the days of desks in a co-working space. I first met Carl at a coffeehouse outside hackerspace, only to end up interviewing for the position a week later in his apartment.

Before I joined Pivotal, I had both started a startup and worked at one too. Pivotal gave me a great chance to double down technically, while keeping touching distance from startups, albeit from a different angle.

And sadly, my journey at Pivotal Labs has come to end, for now. I’ll be stepping back to the startup side.

I’ve had a fantastic time at Pivotal. There’s probably no better place to learn the art of software engineering, while changing the world one project at the time. My perspective of engineering surely has changed for the better.

Method to the madness

Process can make a difference between good execution, and great execution. Agile, pair programming, TDD, may just be buzzwords to most. But they are just concepts. And it’s not the concept that matters, but execution of the concept that counts. I’ve experienced how Pivotal takes all that and makes it work so effectively, no matter the size of the client. When everything clicks, it’s pretty amazing.

The people

Cultural fit is just as crucial as talent and potential, and Pivotal clearly takes that into account. It just creates a wonderful atmosphere. Nothing beats being surrounded by some of the nicest, most helpful and most talented people - from management to co-workers to clients. This is the biggest part of Pivotal I’ll miss.

Building it up

Pivotal’s Singapore office is like a startup in it’s own way. There’s always the challenge of proving our value proposition.

The attitude towards engineering in Asia is very different from the US. We are talking about a market dominated by legacy stalwarts, and where great engineering work is undervalued. That makes it tricky, even for a company like Pivotal.

We have had to continuously build up the practice’s reputation through community marketing, business development and most importantly, solid work. Pivotal Singapore has had a great start in that respect.

In fact, the arrival of Pivotal Labs in Singapore could be considered a landmark in the evolution of the local tech scene. We needed such a company to shake things up.


I’m just glad to have been a part of it. Thank you guys.

Update: Pivotal Labs Singapore was sold to Digital Garage’s {new context} in January 2012.

 
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