Meet Damien Dunn, Verkada Software Engineer New Grad
At a glance
Sub-team within Engineering: Firmware Engineer
Date joined Verkada: March 2019
Previous companies: Qualcomm, Point Global Marketing
University: University of Michigan
What’s different about working at Verkada?
From the very beginning, I noticed there was a great, almost innate desire to teach. During my initial phone screening, somebody gave me pointers on how I could improve certain aspects of a project I was talking about — and it’s no different now that I’m here. Anytime I have a problem, instead of just sitting down and trying to solve it all on my own, I can go to someone, express my thoughts, and they’ll give me feedback or suggestions. I’ve learned more in six months at Verkada than I did in four years of college.
I also really appreciate that we take time to recognize when someone goes above and beyond. Our pace is very, very fast. We set aggressive deadlines because we want to deliver as much value to the customer as quickly as possible, and it’d be easy to get caught up and forget to appreciate the people who make it happen. But we don’t. During our monthly engineering all-hands, we do shout-outs to colleagues that helped us out, or who worked especially hard on a certain project. Just last month, one of the hardware engineers called me out for my work to get a board up and running as fast as I could. It’s very encouraging to know the work you’re doing is actually making an impact, and getting noticed.
“I’ve learned more in six months at Verkada than I did in four years of college.”
What’s the hardest problem you recently solved? Who else was involved?
When I first started, there was a bug that was causing some cameras to spontaneously reboot, which is obviously not a very good user experience. So some of the senior engineers took a stab at trying to fix it and asked me to join them. I was overwhelmed at first because it was hard to track the problem — as a new grad, it was the first time I was working on such a large code base that I hadn’t created myself. But I knew that I would learn a lot, and I had great trust in the team because they were so eager to teach me, so I just jumped in. It was difficult, don’t get me wrong, but talking to everyone who worked on the code base taught me a lot. And in the end, we figured it out, so that felt really good.
Tell me about a big decision you made recently on your own
For one of my recent projects, I was tasked with evaluating different boards for their potential to be used in a new product. The hardware team had been giving me different ones to try, but I decided that to move as fast as possible, I would source boards myself and test their capabilities. That way, I could give the hardware team feedback so they could talk to vendors more efficiently and identify the board that would work best. Everyone appreciated that I took the initiative to do that, which felt good. I didn’t have to wait around; the trust was there for me to just do what needed to be done. That’s how it is here. You’re given a lot of autonomy, even as a new hire, because of that trust.
“I didn’t have to wait around; the trust was there for me to just do what needed to be done”
Who at Verkada has taken a special interest in your success or development?
My mentor Dennis. He was the person giving pointers on my initial screening call, and he ended up being the direct senior firmware engineer that I first worked under. From our very first conversation, it was clear he had a genuine interest in my development. He holds me to a high standard, and he expects me to make responsible decisions. I guess I would say Dennis is kind of like my conscience, because sometimes, when the need to move fast nearly overshadows the need to do things properly, Dennis’ voice will come into my head, like, “Hey, Damien, you probably shouldn’t do it this way. You should probably do it the correct way instead of doing it fast just to get it done.” I don’t even work on his team anymore, but he still puts a weekly one-on-one on my calendar. He didn’t have to make the time to do that, but he did.
“From our very first conversation, it was clear he had a genuine interest in my development”
I guess that kind of mentorship makes me feel like I made the right decision. Out of all the companies that interviewed me, I felt like Verkada got to know me the most. And in knowing me, they can give me the best advice to improve. If the culture of support wasn’t what it is, I wouldn’t be as successful as I am right now.
Interested in joining the Verkada team?
Check out open roles or email questions to recruiting@verkada.com
