After being an early engineer at Twitch and watching it grow from a small startup to a large Amazon subsidiary, I asked myself the same question I had asked over the course of my life: “What’s the most important thing you could be working on in the world right now, and if you’re not, why not?”
It was clear to me that after working at Twitch for nearly 6 years, Twitch was not the most important thing I could be working on. Sure, working there had been a dream; watching esports and video game streaming go from something fringe to the mainstream made me know that my work had been impactful. But, after 6 years of being there – 6 years of caring about the gaming communities I was involved in – I knew that something more important existed outside.
Asking myself that question led me to work on organizing software for the 2020 election. If there ever was a time where a technologist could have an impact — where I could work on the most important thing — the election was it. And the work paid off.
After the election, I contemplated what I wanted to do next. Sure, I could go back and work for a large tech company. Sure, I could go back to a startup. But were those really the most important things in the world that I could work on?
When I was at Twitch, I spearheaded Twitch’s response to the Net Neutrality Day of Action. I was able to build consensus with C-suite executives, lawyers, and policy groups on an issue that Amazon hadn’t taken a public stance on. I used my position at Twitch to make a difference in the larger world of policy – something that was out of the lane of a typical engineer.
So, when the opportunity came around to apply to and join TechCongress, I knew that this was the opportunity. I want to dedicate my life to having a more direct impact on social change. From my experience in the Net Neutrality fight, I knew what it was like to change the minds of one company on one issue; what excites me about working in Congress is the ability to have more of a profound impact. My fellowship is just beginning, but I’m incredibly excited about the work I’ll do over the course of this year.