Why I’ve Joined Udacity

A year ago, I took a class by William Kerr and Chris Stanton on the “Future of Work”. The premise of the class was that the nature of work is rapidly changing and that business leaders, policymakers, educators, and workforce development institutions need to be preparing for this. It is not news that technology is completely changing the nature of education and work as we know it, and that Covid has accelerated the adoption of technology globally. As someone who cares about education and economic development, these challenges resonate deeply with me.

Three weeks ago, I was honored to join Udacity, a company that is at the forefront of addressing these very challenges. As I was exploring different opportunities, I sat down and tried to be honest and clear with myself about my own career goals and the kind of impact that I want to create in the world. I came up with the following list:

• Team and culture: I value working with smart, hard-working, and kind people. As a people person, I find that I’m much happier and more productive when I work with people who are aligned on values and who are not only smart but also kind.
• Impact: I know that for me to stay motivated, I need to believe in the value of the work that I’m doing. Every company nowadays claims to be “making an impact” that it has become a bit of a cliche. But it was important for me to work at a company that is actually addressing a societal issue at both a systemic and a personal level.
• Growth: I want to solve hard and interesting problems and to be able to learn and grow. I also like fast-paced and entrepreneurial environments where I feel that I have skin in the game. I understood that joining a fast-growing company would be more exciting for me.
• Global: I see myself as a very global person having lived/worked in 7 cities in 5 countries. I find myself naturally comparing and contrasting how things would work in different local contexts, languages, and cultures.
• Strategic and hands-on: I really wanted to be given the opportunity to think strategically but also build and execute.

Why Udacity?

I received 4 different offers and was in the final rounds with 2 more, but Udacity was a clear choice for me. Udacity hit each of the criteria on the list.

First, Udacity is rapidly scaling globally and is going through an inflection point. Second, I really enjoyed my conversations with the team and believed that I would find ample mentorship and growth opportunities. What was particularly exciting for me was that Udacity’s work is not just touching consumers and enterprises, but also governments — including that of my home country Egypt — that aim to upskill and reskill their residents.

Before accepting Udacity’s offer, I also reached out to a few friends who completed Udacity’s Nanodegree and basically interviewed them about their experience. A friend who completed Udacity’s Nanodegree in Data Analytics and who takes a ton of online courses said that it was “the best course” he’d taken. Today I got an email from a recent Harvard alum who said “Udacity genuinely changed my life 9 years ago when I signed up for the seminal Stanford AI Class with Thrun and Norvig. I have since built and sold my own MOOC platform and started a VR/AR learning NGO in Myanmar”.

Education, career advancement, and workforce development are very complex and important issues on a societal and personal level. I see it in myself and my friends who strive to get a better job and advance in our careers. It is also critical for organizations and countries that are wondering what skills their workforce will need, how to assess their key gaps, and how to meaningfully provide people with the opportunities to learn these skills. Tech skills are also a supercritical component to building a thriving entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem.

I am honored to join the product team on this mission.

Udacity is hiring across different roles. See here.