Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye makes me think of the beginning.

Before Tarte, I was isolated with my work. I was obsessed on getting a new position. I interviewed at dozens of places. Took calls constantly outside at work. I failed so many times. Then, after months of calls, I had a call with another person from a company called Tarte. Nicole, on the other end (I later would find out she was my manager), asked me to come in for an interview. Come in for an interview! 6 months of trying I finally connected with someone.

I had no idea what Tarte did and frankly it didn’t matter. I was throwing darts, blindfolded. I had failed with so many interviews. I wanted to grow my skills, I just needed someone to take a chance on me. It’s important to note, at this point in my career, I was working as a developer for a small company in NYC for 3+ years. It wasn’t my first dev job.

When I was preparing for my first interview. I remember reading the Glassdoor reviews and they mostly seemed negative. A lot of doubt ran through my mind. “What am I doing? Do I even want this job? What is Tarte anyway.” I talked myself out of the negative reviews affecting me. I had tried for too long to have someone else affect my mind about an experience I hadn’t live yet. “It doesn’t matter, just try and see. Everyone has different perspectives.”

A few important life moments from the “negative Glassdoor reviews”.

1. Other peoples negative perceptions (with just words) can affect your perception without you even experiencing anything.

   • This is important to know. If you’re aren’t conscious of this, then you will dislike or not try for something because of someone else. ALWAYS find out for yourself.

2. Two people can live the same event in life, right next to each other, and they will both have different perceptions and explanations of the experience.

   • Happy people have happy memories. Negative people have negative memories. This is it. Each person is different, but we all get to choose what to remember. I choose positive memories.

First perception. The office was on Broadway and 37th street. Ok, awesome location. Unreal location actually. Easy commute from Hoboken, NJ. My interview was on the 8th floor (only later would I find out I worked on the 12th floor). I had a couple interviews the first day, but I only remember the coding interview. I was expecting the worst (I had failed white boarding interviews previous to this). My thought process to the coding test was also “ok, lets hurry up so I can fail this coding test and move on to the next one”. I was surprised that the example Nicole asked me to do was something easy (maybe hard to others). I did it and remember thinking, is that it? What else do I need to do? Turns out nothing.

I talked with other departments, came back for a second in person interview. I connected with everyone I interviewed with. It turns out connecting with your team is more important than knowing a coding problem that you can easily Google.

I got the job in January, 2020. I worked at Tarte, in the office until March, 2020 and then remotely until October 13th, 2022. Saying a beginning and end date means nothing. Everything happened in-between those dates. We laughed, ate fried chicken on lunch, connected, worked really late, worked really early, made it through a pandemic, and released so many features.

The Tarte ecomm team is second to none in hard work, dedication, passion, enthusiasm, and team work. Everyone fit together like a finished puzzle. I’m going to miss Tarte and everyone I worked with, but life is a book and this chapter has come to close.

Thank you Tarte for job, thank you Nicole for the chance you took on me, and thank you everyone at Tarte for the experiences. You’ve changed me in the best way possible.

Now, on to the next chapter.

New Balance.