Reflecting on ladders, acquisitions, and personal trajectory after 8 years at Sentry with Ben Vinegar

Ben Vinegar has spent the last 8 years at Sentry in a variety of roles, from Software Engineer to VP of Engineering. Today, Rebecca and Ben discuss non-linear careers, engineering career ladders, acquisitions, and more. Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/ben-vinegar-sentry-reflecting-on-ladders-acquisitions-and-personal-trajectory Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (01:26) Third-Party JavaScript and Sentry (02:33) Ben’s journey to VP of Engineering (03:24) Sentry’s growth (05:08) The ladder: differentiating engineering levels (08:45) How Ben became the Co-VP of Engineering (12:42) A new role focused on innovation (16:40) Building an emerging tech team (19:26) Preserving innovation outside the innovation team (21:37) Lessons from acquisitions (26:11) Leading Syntax.fm (28:34) A company within a company (30:36) Non-linear careers Where to find Ben • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benvinegar/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/bentlegen Where to find Rebecca • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmurphey Links and mentions • Sentry: https://sentry.io/ • Third-Party JavaScript, a book by Ben Vinegar and Anton Kovalyov: https://www.manning.com/books/third-party-javascript • Disqus: https://disqus.com/ • Shape Security (now part of F5): https://www.f5.com/cloud/products/bot-defense • Specto (a Sentry acquisition): https://sentry.io/about/press-releases/sentry-acquires-analytics-firm-specto-to-add-continuous-profiling-to-mobile-application-monitoring/ • Syntax.fm (a recent Sentry acquisition): http://Syntax.fm