Sarah Walker

👋 Hi, I'm Sarah — Senior SRE on the Production Engineering team. Originally from New Zealand 🥝 now based in Montreal 🍁

I use they/them pronouns, (iel with feminine agreements in French).

This page is intended to help others understand what it might be like to work with me, especially people who haven't worked with me before.

Working with me ✨

What motivates me

I like to know how things work, so I will spend time trying to figure out how puzzle pieces fit together. I love sharing things I know well, I'm a big advocate for Transparency and Open Source, so please never hesitate to ask me anything!

Workstyle

I'm async-first and work non-linear hours, which means my schedule is flexible, you can check my Google Calendar for a rough sense of when I'm around.

However, I'm not a morning person, so I will not be at my best during regular early meetings.

I work better with a change of scenery, so you may often find me at a coworking space or cafe.

Collaboration

• I like to have the whole picture, please give me the context and not just the ticket. I'll often look at what other teams are working on too, I find maintenance and operational work especially helps me understand how everything fits together.
• I'm goal-driven, so clear direction goes a long way. Tell me what we're trying to achieve and I can figure out the path, and run full speed toward the solution.
• I enjoy pairing — working through something together, whiteboarding, that kind of thing. That said, it's draining, so I often have to manage my time and energy levels around sync time. ☕

How to reach me

Please tag me in a GitLab issue @sarahwalker. Writing is where I express myself best, and it creates a record everyone can refer back to.

Slack is fine for casual stuff. I can do Zoom when it's needed, but I'd rather we default to async and written where possible (especially in a distributed team like GitLab's).

Feedback

Please just say it directly. I don't need things softened, direct is better. I sometimes miss hints or things left implied, so if you have something to tell me, tell me. I also prefer when things are written, as it allows me to gather my thoughts and express myself best.

Strengths and Growth areas 🌱

What I'm good at

• I can hold a very detailed picture of a complex system in my head — tracking versions, changes, potential pitfalls — while keeping the big-picture direction in view at the same time.
• I'm goal-driven and good at executing; once something needs to happen, I make it happen.
• The combination of these makes me good at managing projects and co-ordinating with multiple teams and stakeholders.

What I'm working on

• Advocacy, i.e. getting better at pushing for changes I think are important and bringing people along.
• And I'm constantly working on empathy; being more deliberate about understanding where others are coming from.

Outside of work

• I play a lot of board games — ask me about my library!
• I like making things with my hands, and am always baking, sewing, leatherworkin, or building Lego.
• I like to be involved in the community, and so I volunteer for mentoring programs, tech conferences, and women in tech groups.
• I also love music and dancing, though talent hasn't caught up with enthusiasm yet!