“Onboarding to a startup is a wild ride.” “Get ready to figure out things on your own.” “This will not be like onboarding in the large, well-organized companies you are accustomed to.” These are a few quotes from friends and former colleagues once I let them know I was taking the next step in my career and joining the Customer Success team at Cribl. While this may be true for many startups, it could not have been further from reality at Cribl.

I had followed Cribl since 2018, when I met founder and CEO Clint Sharp for sushi. He listened to our pain points: increased customer demands for data volumes, routing to multiple on-prem and cloud systems, sensitive data on the wire, and a budget that was not keeping up. I was enthralled when he explained how Cribl solved for these and had my mind blown when a week or two later, he showed me a demo. I couldn’t believe there was not already something out there doing what Cribl does. I set a goal for myself right then and there to make it a priority to make my company, customers, friends, and colleagues have wild success in their observability journey using Cribl. Not long after, a friend and former colleague began working for Cribl. He shared my passion for success in observability and talked about the incredible culture, fun work, and amazing customers. I spent about a year looking at job postings at Cribl until the perfect fit came up: Customer Success Manager.

Hiring Process

My journey to Cribl, like many, started with speaking to a recruiter. They made it a point to give me every resource to succeed in the upcoming interview process. They taught me all about the equity options offered as part of my employment package – which was new to me. The interview process was not overwrought with numerous, lengthy interviews. I met with an interview panel, followed by the hiring manager. A day or two later, I had a terrific offer that needed no negotiation as they offered precisely what the recruiter stated up-front they would. It was the most effortless signature of my life. In the following days, I received an email containing the contact information of my team, HR, and a dedicated onboarding representative that would be there for any questions and to facilitate whatever I needed for a positive experience.

Day One at Cribl

Two weeks later, I began day one. I started day one by meeting with the dedicated onboarding representative (who I would later discover was primarily responsible for such a positive first month at Cribl) and a representative from the IT service desk. The service desk representative was not what I expected. They were a very experienced engineer who could expertly handle any issues with getting set up with all things at Cribl. I am still amazed after a month at how skilled our service desk is. Day-1 and I had everything I needed set up—no waiting weeks for access. Day one continued with a meeting with my onboarding buddy for a couple of hours. My onboarding buddy was a long-time friend and former colleague who I enjoyed reuniting with on the same team as me. They walked me through day-in-the-life items, pointed me toward relevant documentation, introduced me to the rest of the organization, and closed my day’s schedule on a high note. After my scheduled activities finished for the day, I was able to switch focus to the onboarding checklist. This checklist left no stone unturned. It pointed me to all sorts of resources and told me in which order I should consume them. I learned about the history of Cribl, in-depth about our values, thriving in a high-growth startup, not to mention all of the exceptional training at Cribl University (more on that coming soon).

Week One and Beyond

Week one continued with our dedicated onboarding representative facilitating meetings with various teams to learn more about Cribl, answering my questions quickly and accurately. I have never had a go-to person with all answers and ties to all groups that can facilitate whatever is needed. Every company needs to take this as a model for new hires. The week culminated with a large group of Criblanians playing “Two Truths and a Lie” with the new hires. I think I tricked about half the group with my lie. Let me tell you; it is challenging lying to a former federal prosecutor.

In week two, I achieved my first Cribl certification, CCOE-User. It was an excellent curriculum that I recommend (more coming soon). Cribl wants to make sure you’ve got plenty of Cribl-themed attire, so a $250 Cribl Store credit arrived in my inbox with detailed instructions on how to use it.

In weeks three and four, I met members of Cribl leadership from each organization and received a terrific presentation about their teams, people, and missions. These weeks were when I started feeling like I was beginning to contribute to the team. I began joining customer calls, providing input as a former Cribl customer, and creating helpful content.

I have just completed week four and am still excited to wake up and begin work each day. I am impressed daily with the transparency from the executive team, the remote-first mentality with tooling to facilitate, each individual being “top talent,” very few silos, and the encouragement for department fluidity in your career.

Cribl rocks. Criblanians rock. Let’s GOAT! Join us! If you have any questions about Cribl, connect with me on LinkedIn!