Bye IBM! Thanks for all

Today was my last day with IBM after 11 years as I decided to go for a new adventure! I’ll be sharing news on my future here later, but for the time I’m writing as a way to acknowledge the journey I’ve been with Big Blue.

I joined IBM as an intern in 2010 to help on system support activities for LA. I didn’t know anything about IT at the time, but I was motivated to learn and find my place. Soon enough I was assigned to help on projects (to this day not sure if because I had the energy or because I was quite annoying asking to participate LoL) and as a result I got involved with different people and parts of the IGF CIO LA, which gave me a basic understanding of the various IT flavors. 

In July 2011 I was still green, had not yet graduated from my university, but was hired as an IBM regular to work on a global application named GARS SAP. On my first month as a regular I was sent to Raleigh-NC to get some training from senior members of the team, and as you might imagine: I was amazed!

I was hunger to learn and kept getting new activities over the subsequent years both on my global team and local team in Brazil CIO (main ones as backup to GARS SAP tech focal and co-coordinator to business continuity test). During this process I met some great people and got mentors from different countries and backgrounds. 

By 2016 I was already with a few seasons on GARS SAP and definitely no longer a rookie. One of my most impacting mentors had retired and I was assigned to fill in his shoes by being the PM and Tech Lead for CIO team – that meant that for every project on my system and every sev1 I was not just involved, but also was responsible for it! As my mom always says, “knowledge is acquired though unconventional routes” and I definitely got very knowledgeable with this! 

2016 was also the year I got involved with IBM.org and volunteer work for the company. That allowed me to share my knowledge, help NGOs and students, acquire new skills and have a different perspective of IBM.

Talking about different perspectives on IBM, 2018 was the year everything changed for me as 2 things happened: 

1. I went to Think 2018 in Las Vegas and after 8 years I finally understood how awesome and important IBM is for the World! – yeah, I had a feeling and I thought I knew it, but when you are part of a 30k+ people crowd that are there just to see the CEO of the company you work talk for an hour, having as guests CEOs from other Fortune 100 companies that were there to thank your company, you get new lenses.
2. In 2018 I became a People Manager at IBM – Always wanted to make an impact on other people careers and seemed more than ever I had the tools to do so + you get a different range of information and has the responsibility of thinking about the strategy a bit more to help it reach others. An example of impact is the Early Talent talks that I shared about before on my LinkedIn articles. 

A bit later (2019) I became a global manager (backfilling another very impactful mentor I had), being the owner for GARS SAP and Remark applications + leading several people from multiple countries. Being a manager for the past years was very rewarding experience that allowed me to impact people’s career. 

 As I look back on these 11 years, I can only be thankful to IBM for the wonderful people who I had the pleasure of meeting and working with. Grateful to all managers, mentors, mentees and people who worked with me on the various projects. PS: Not listing names because I know I might forget someone, and feelings will be hurt. =) 

My purpose is still aligned with the company (be essential) and over the years big blue always kept nurturing my ambitions and hunger for knowledge. I end this chapter of my life feeling very happy and knowing IBM will be a part of me wherever I go. 

Looking forward my next adventure that starts on Monday on a startup, but again, will share more later. For now will be just enjoying all my memories from Pasteur, RTP, GARS, CIO, Cubik, Early Talents, Impact Grants, RTEs, …