Taking a moment from my Disney vacation to share a practice that's become meaningful to me both here and at work. Each year when I visit Disney, I bring along small tokens to "pixie dust" cast members – a Disney tradition of surprising people with small gifts or gestures to show appreciation for making your day special. While you can do this through the app, I prefer the personal touch of handing someone a little trinket I've created for the trip. Why? Because saying thank you to people who make your experience better matters. A lot. The same applies at work. We often forget to pause and acknowledge the people who help us out, collaborate across teams, or simply go above and beyond. Unless there's a formal tool in place (shout outs, high fives, praise platforms), gratitude can get lost in the busy day-to-day. So here's my reminder to myself...

After months of job hunting and experiencing the full spectrum of recruitment processes, I can confidently say that joining Percona has been a masterclass in how remote-first companies should welcome new team members. With over 350 employees working remotely, Percona has clearly cracked the code on creating an onboarding experience that’s not just functional but genuinely exceptional.

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve joined Percona as Director of Community! After spending time reflecting on what I wanted from my next role, I knew I was looking for something more than just a job—I wanted to find a place where I could channel my passion for open source and community building into meaningful impact.

A year ago, I joined my local tennis club knowing virtually nothing about the sport. I came from the developer community world – comfortable with Slack channels and GitHub repositories – but completely out of my depth with rackets and courts. I could barely hit the ball over the net, let alone understand club etiquette or ladder systems. I was a nervous newcomer, starting with weekly coaching for the rusty racket and beginners group, then moving to private coaching from the most patient coach James ever! He deals with me swapping from my right handed playing to left handed at times, because why do things you’d expect eh! Each positive interaction made me want to stay, to get more involved, to contribute back to the community that had welcomed me.

Posted 4:51:42 PM. YellowDog (yellowdog.ai) is hiring a Senior Infrastructure Software Engineer to help develop its…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.