Amazon + Grubhub

There’s been a secret project at work for some time now, nicknamed “Project Amber.” I wasn’t involved with any of it, but just heard rumors swirling here and there.
There’s been a secret project at work for some time now, nicknamed “Project Amber.” I wasn’t involved with any of it, but just heard rumors swirling here and there.
Still really weird to be back. And to experience waves of nostalgia and memories of a place that is still very much in the present tense, but also in the past tense in some respects.
A lot of fun stories, and I had some genuinely good, deep laughs that I haven’t had in a work setting in a super long time. Really nice to catch up with everyone in person, and to raise a few glasses getting to know one another again. And in some cases, for the first time.
Weird day for me today. I’ve been fully remote since March of 2020, and since that time… I’ve not been back to the office.
We’ve had some messages from work, encouraging people to come back. But I’ve still been very… apprehensive. I’ve still opted to remain home, and to work remotely.
Excited to announce that I’ve been promoted to Senior Software Engineer at Grubhub. I joined the company back in 2018 (with a title of “Software Engineer II”), and I’ve learned and grown an incredibly amount since then.
Gave a big demo/presentation of a project at work. It was the culmination of 2.5+ months of development (and a bit more beyond that, for planning). This was a project I was given to lead, and got to help shepherd from start to finish.
This was my first visit downtown again in… a year and a half. I snapped this photo right before walking across the street, and looked up to see this guy standing a few steps into the intersection, yelling “Hey!” loudly and repeatedly.
About a year ago, there were plans for Grubhub (my employer) to be acquired by Amsterdam-based Just Eat Takeaway.
I’m super bummed to see Shyamal leave, as he’s one of those rare devs that kicks out a tremendous amount of code, and it’s all high quality stuff. He’s also got a savvy ability to see things at the 10,000 foot level, and has a good sense for not just project deliverables but the whole project overall.
I was getting burned out a bit on some of our staple go-to options, and decided to splurge on something a bit different. I was looking up Chinese restaurants in the area, and happened randomly across Qing Xiang Yuan Dumplings.
Anticipating a decline in people patronizing local restaurants, Grubhub has decided to forego all marketing fees to restaurants for the foreseeable future, up to $100M. The thinking behind this being that, during the Coronavirus epidemic, smaller, local restaurants are going to be struggling more – and this action would result in more money remaining in the hands of local businesses, during this time.
Earlier this year, Grubhub had its first Hackathon. Our group (Team Braveheart) ended up placign second, which was an awesome thing to have happened. And part of placing second involved a significant cash award – which we used to fund a celebratory night out at The Aviary. Because why not?
Tonight made me think back to my Emmis Interactive days. I’ve had the good fortune to be a part of teams where everyone enjoys each others’ company, and folks genuinely like hanging out with one another – even after our work responsibilities end.
Today, I met up with Luis outside his hotel pretty early in the morning. We talked about getting him a Ventra card (for the CTA) and touring a few neighborhoods along the Blue Line.
This is about as far as I got with mine. My joke was that Sajit’s last gesture before he left was to leave all of us with a small bit of work that was impossible to finish.