Reflecting on 2021: Adam Sroka, Head of Machine Learning Engineering at Origami

This month in The Data Lab Community, we're looking back on the year that's been, as we take a bit of time to reflect on 2021. We've asked our members to share their highs and lows, the challenges they've faced, and what they've learned along the way. From career changes to graduations, relocations to complete rethinks, 2021 has been one for the books. And that's before we even mention the ever-present spectre of covid, and all that that entails. 

First up to share his reflections on the second weirdest year in living memory is community member Adam Sroka, Head of Machine Learning Engineering at Origami.

2021 then, eh? Some year...

It's been a huge year for me, that's for sure. I started collecting my thoughts for writing this post and it hit me - I've been through a lot this past 12 months. New job, new city, new industry, new house, first baby!

New job

In January I stepped away from an incredible job at Incremental Group, a company I love, to move on to something quite different as Head of Machine Learning Engineering at Origami Energy. This was a big change for me in several ways that didn't quite hit me at the time. I had been a part of Incremental for about three years and was fully submerged in all the inner workings of delivering professional services for data and AI customers. My role was broad-reaching, doing everything from technical/architecture work for customers through to sales, marketing, HR, finance and the other 'running the business' stuff.

As a product company, Origami is a very different beast. The time horizon for delivering value extends much further. In professional services, you're always looking to get the best solutions into the hands of the customer as early as possible and can spend plenty of time tweaking and adjusting things to fit their specific needs. When building products you're it's super important to work with your customers to build the right things, but you're constantly balancing their needs against a more generally useful solution - something that'll work for everyone, not just them. There's also plenty of temptation to future-proof everything to the n^th degree. I think this can be especially bad for machine learning and data practitioners (or maybe it's just me), there's always something more you can be doing with the data or some future use-case you're considering that might never actually come.

I'm still learning and finding how best to use my voice and expertise here but it's been great fun.

One of the hardest things when leaving a job you love is changing teams. I was leading a large team at Incremental and had a lot of direct reports. You go through a lot with these people and they become a big part of your life. What's that quote about being the average of the five people you spend the most time with? The team at Origami are incredible - there's something about the cleverness of the solution and the positive, green impact that attracts great people. It's been good getting stuck into the new team and 'starting again' in a way. Although I'm still in touch with many of the team there still get the odd bit of heartache when I scroll across a post from Incremental and see what they're up to.

The other big change for me was going into just one industry. As a consultant, especially in data, you can have an impact on many industries without requiring a super-deep knowledge of how it works. I enjoyed how you could take solutions and patterns from one industry and use them to bring innovative ideas to an entirely different one. Now it's Energy, Energy, Energy for me! And the energy industry is huge. There's so much to learn and many of the folks I'm meeting have been focused on this for years. There's so much potential and I'm excited about building my knowledge and understanding over the years to come.

Not sure what else to say really, I very much feel like I've been in a transitionary phase as I've stepped into this new role. I'm eager to get stuck in and apply myself but it can be daunting when it's all-new. Luckily, I've had great people around me that have made it easier.

If you're considering a move and don't quite know what to do, reach out to the wider community - there are plenty of folks that have been through it and getting a different perspective can be gold.

New places

As part of the change in jobs, I've gone from a Glasgow office to a Cambridge one!

I'm now a full-time home worker, a transition many people are going through. Having the flexibility is great and I think all organisations are going to need to offer this going forwards if they want to capture the best talent. It also allows organisations to seek out more specialist talent - there just might not be many people with the specific skills you’re seeking in the local area.

There's certainly challenges for many organisations, information security springs to mind - I imagine that can be a real headache in some industries.

I wouldn't say it's all great WFH either. I'm not sure I'd even say it's better actually. Just different.

I don't miss the commuting and greatly appreciate that extra time in the mornings and evenings to be present at home or catch up with hobbies. I love being able to cook and get small bits of 'house stuff' done throughout the day. I also couldn't imagine not being at home to catch those precious moments with my baby daughter - being able to see her when I get a coffee or steal a quick minute here and there is just the norm for me (I'm aware how very fortunate this makes me).

I do miss the office though. There's just something special about being in a good office environment that works for me. I find I'm more switched on and get into that flow state much easier when I'm not at home. I'm actually writing this from the hotel I'm staying at in Cambridge as part of my regular office visits. I come down for a few days every fortnight to get my office fix. This has been a good balance for me. Building relationships with colleagues is a lot more difficult through Teams/Zoom/Whatever. You can't earwig people's conversations about the games they're currently playing or jump feet first into a heated argument about some film/band/sport.

The foundation of every relationship as a manager is trust. It's hard to cultivate and easy to lose. I strongly believe that all the peripheral stuff, stuff like games/sports/music, that isn't directly related to the work plays a huge role in building trust. You don't even have to agree but getting to know the texture of a person's life outside of work (and allowing them to know yours) goes a long way to developing trust in a relationship. I often think of things like willpower and trust are like a savings account - you have to actively put into them over time so that when things get tough you can draw upon them without getting into debt. When it's crunch time and you get slammed with a load of extra work or you get a tough critique on something you've done, it's much harder when it comes from someone you only talk shop with versus that person you had a spirited discussion with about some shared interest last week.

Other than work and getting to learn Cambridge I also moved to a new village towards Edinburgh. Being a Londoner once-upon-a-time it's still jarring for me when everyone is mega-friendly and Scottish about it all - where I grew up anything other than a growl on The Tube was unacceptable. There are some parallels with the work stuff and a new team but the move was all for a good reason...

New Baby

The absolute highlight of the year (and my life to be fair) has been welcoming my baby daughter into the world. She's 15 weeks old as of the day I'm writing this. She's just started laughing and it's nothing quite like anything I've felt before. I won't say much other than I'm excited to see what this new life with her will bring.

There's a lot of change in this post and I couldn't have managed any of it without my wife. She's been an absolute star. I've been difficult to support at times and all the change with work took a lot of late-night discussions. It's easy to think about your career as an individual effort at times, but honestly, I think having someone that knows you deeply to keep you honest is a major advantage.

I've had a great (but busy) year. I hope you've had the chance to make positive changes, learn, and grow as I have. And if you want any advice - don't plan a house move for six weeks after you've had a baby.

Big thanks to Adam for his reflection on 2021, what a way to get us started! We wish you all the luck in the world for your new(ish) role, move, and in particular your new baby, in 2022 and beyond.

If you'd like to be contribute your reflections on the year, just get in touch via [email protected] or drop our community manager Paul a DM, we'd love to hear from you!