greg jorgensenSo a few weeks ago I was clicking around the Cloudflare Blog and found a cool section called “Life at Cloudflare.”
I was immediately interested by all of the high-level executives and VPs who had written amazing stories avbout why they came to work at Cloudflare and why they left companies like Google, and Salesforce to come to this amazing life-changing company.
Sounds like a great LinkedIn post for new starters, right?
But I realised all of these leaders joining Cloudflare were, well, already leaders in their field with a long history working at some of the most well-known companies of the last 10 years.
And I’ve never managed anyone, and I’ve never really worked for a big company.
Hence, my idea for my own “Life at Cloudflare”, but for a normal guy who’s nearly in his thirties and not in any sort of executive C-suite role.
To show you what I mean, take a look at John Graham-Cumming’s post. He used to be the CTO here. His post is particularly interesting, but there are tons of other posts like it too.
He literally chose his own title when he joined in 2012. He helped launch Universal SSL, which basically doubled the size of the encrypted web overnight. When he was CTO here he ran…well, almost everything. And now he’s on the Board of Directors.
Some might say John and I have had quite a different impact on the world of cyber security.
He was the first employee outside of the US, and I joined as number 4,139. He wrote his very own open source ML model for email, and I prompt AI when vibe coding. Basically the same person, right?
But just because I don’t have quite as cool of a resume doesn’t mean I can’t write my own post!
If anything, someone with a story like mine might help inspire other currently-more-normal people that they too, can make an impact working somewhere they believe in.
Section 1: A Look Back at My Extremely Impressive and Storied Career
My journey began not at Harvard, UoT or Oxford. In fact, I didn’t even go to university. I actually got kicked out of college.
Eighteen-year-old Greg wasn’t really into school, more into hanging out with friends and going to the pub. Those activities don’t really go hand in hand with studying.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life until one day my dad sat me down and asked me just that.
I had always liked computers, just like him. He helped me build my first computer when I was 10, and there were always routers and firewalls lying about the house. Maybe he was trying to subconsciously plant ideas in my head.
I thought about my entire future for probably about 10 seconds before saying “huh I guess I’ll give IT a go?” and that’s what I’ve been obsessed with ever since.
My first job was as an apprentice in Networking and Systems Administration, getting paid next to nothing for work experience and the ability to study. From there I did another apprenticeship in Cyber Security.
A few years later I got my first job in the big city, London, with a secure web gateway company. This was when I got my Certified Information Systems Security Professional certification (CISSP).
I then went on to work as a contractor, which was great money, but it’s quite isolating compared to working in a close-knit team like I was used to.
After that I worked as a Senior Consultant for a managed service provider. It was a great role and I had a great manager, but I wanted to do something bigger.
I wanted to work somewhere that was actually doing things that could potentially change the way companies worked, and even had the opportunity to affect how people use the entire internet.
Section 2: The Action Plan
The exec posts (Life at Cloudflare) talk about being courted by multiple tech giants before soul-searching on the beach and finally deciding to work for Cloudflare. My story is a bit different. I’ve not worked at Nvidia or AWS. You’ve probably never heard of the companies I’ve worked for.
I decided I had to make a list of companies I thought were pushing the industry forward. Companies that were really making a difference.
I wanted to work for a company I could fully get behind. So I made a list of my top choices, a few companies that stood out to me, and for over six months I applied ONLY to those companies.
Cloudflare was at the top of my list but there were a few others, cato networks, dope security to name a few.
Section 3: Why Cloudflare?
I already knew of Cloudflare. I used them for my own website and watched them move into the security and dev space.
- They have a ton of free, enterprise-grade features that anyone can use, in fact, it’s a bit of a joke but at Cloudflare they say their biggest competitor is their free tier.
- They release products that make it easier for companies to adopt Zero Trust architecture, and even give companies 50 free seats
- They make it as easy as possible to do the not-so-fun security stuff like upgrading cryptography or handling certs
- The dashboard is super in-depth and doesn’t only focus on a single technology like web apps or Zero Trust or Dev tools, they’re a big company and they have a lot of products
- They don’t charge you extra if you’re under attack and need help to protect against a DDoS or Layer 7 attack
- Fighting for content creators that use the internet to make money, (for example they might run ads or have paid links on their travel blog) to be paid fairly by AI companies
- The list goes on
Something else that piqued my interest was called Project Galileo. It’s Cloudflare’s way of protecting vulnerable groups like social activists from cyber attacks, for free.
And as someone who’s likes to think he cares more about digital privacy than the average person, this stood out to me.
So after MONTHS of trying, I finally got an interview.
The process was pretty tough and lengthy, I think it was like 6 stages? and the whole thing took about 4 months, but after it was finished I got the call!
And they told me that they were going with another candidate…
I was gutted, but I knew I still really wanted to work there.
I was convinced Cloudflare was the place for me and so I didn’t let it stop me.
I kept a bunch of their blog posts bookmarked and just kept learning about the products for my own projects.
A few weeks go by and I messaged the recruiter again, and followed up with the interviewers to thank them for their time and to let them know I was still going to continue exploring their products.
Then, out of the blue, a few weeks later, my phone rang.
It was Cloudflare again.
The role had reopened, and because I’d shown so much interest, they wanted to offer it to me.
My role now is a Threat Advisory Solutions Engineer.
Our team mostly helps organisations who are under attack from bad actors and botnets. We get their systems and applications back up and running securely behind our network.
We also talk to customers and help them understand what products could help them and how they work, present information to meet ups and other tech events, and also do research about new and common threats that Cloudflare customers might be facing.
If you didn’t know, we have a hotline for people to get assistance with attacks like ransomware etc. (Orange button top right)
Section 4: What’s Next?
So I don’t have a crazy 90 day plan to break into a new market or double the size of a new sales team like the other people writing “my life at” articles.
I’m just focused on learning as much as I can from the people around me and contributing to projects I believe in.
My story is a bit different from the ones written by the VPs and CTOs.
It has a college dropout, no degree, and a no that turned into a yes.
If your career path has been a bit messy like mine, I hope this shows you that it’s fine. More than fine, really.
You don’t need to have a perfect resume to end up working on things you’re passionate about.
Thanks for reading my non-executive version.
If you want to connect, please reach out directly on LinkedIn or take a look at my youtube, or if you’re curious about Cloudflare, email me at gregj@cloudflare.com.
