Why I joined Airlift…

I recently moved back to Pakistan after living and working in the US for 15+ years. This was one of the bigger decisions for me and my family in recent times and we took our time to deliberate, chalk out the what-ifs and work through the tradeoffs. Change is hard and there are limits to what one can forecast and plan. Pivoting on optimism and putting the risks and fears in our back pocket, we took the leap of faith.

Besides multiple personal drivers for this decision, one important career driver for me was to participate in and contribute to the evolving technology landscape in Pakistan. I wanted a fulfilling opportunity to get out of my comfort zone, learn and expand my horizon while being a part of something bigger than myself. Coupled with my excitement were anxiety and doubts about finding the right work culture… one that is deep rooted in transparency, accountability, empathy and empowerment, while allowing for broad opportunities of learning around engineering, business and life in general.

Iterating through my options, Airlift emerged as an obvious choice for me. It has been a little over a month since I started my new gig at Airlift and I couldn’t be happier with my decision.

In recent months, I’ve been asked multiple times why I opted for Airlift. This post captures some of the things that I considered. Like most decisions, making a career move is a personalized choice, since it’s influenced not only by the opportunity, but also about how it ties with your personal philosophy, aspirations and broader life goals.

Making an Impact for Pakistan

One of the key drivers for my decision to relocate was to find an opportunity that has a profound impact for Pakistan and its people. Airlift is a company based in Pakistan, and it stands for Pakistan since one of their core missions is to make a transformational impact on the local landscape. From positively impacting the life of the common people by creating jobs, to conditioning their minds about how technology can transform their day-to-day life around transportation and quick commerce, the mission at Airlift appealed to me at a personal level, and not just at the professional level.

Secondly, when I moved to US more than a decade ago, Amazon was starting to gain momentum as an online retailer. There still were apprehensions about online shopping. Over the years, I witnessed how Amazon transformed the life of Americans to become a household name with high metrics around customer satisfaction and trust. A similar transformation is happening in Pakistan and Airlift can lead it, driven by their customer-first mind frame.

Work Culture

Culture is what defines a company. For me, it was one of the most important considerations when looking for my next gig. Having worked in progressive work cultures at the heart of the technology industry in US, I had a high bar around culture fundamentals.

My interactions with Airlift started back in 2019 when I started toying with the idea of relocation. They were a brand new startup that had just launched a bus service. At that time, I wasn’t even sure if my plans will ever materialize because of a myriad of personal unknowns. I was impressed with their empathy towards my doubts and apprehensions, as well as their genuine interest and proactive reach-outs to provide information and support to help with my personal decision. My confidence in their culture increased with every interaction over the next several months. I could see multiple examples of customer obsession, transparency, open communication and accountability at all levels. It truly reflected of a no-privilege culture where focus is on what’s being said, and not on who’s saying it. Finally, the passion and drive reflected in every conversation I had with folks across different disciplines sealed the deal for me.

Being at Airlift for a month has reinforced those observations. As the company expands beyond Pakistan to other geographies, one of their key focus area continues to be the torchbearers of a progressive work culture that invests in every member of the Airlift family… by empowering them to challenge the status quo, take risks, accept failures and learn from them, and push the boundaries of possibility.

Personal Aspirations & Skill Alignment

I’m an engineer at heart and a decent chunk of my career was spent solving engineering problems in the infrastructure and enterprise space. It was in due time that I developed the desire to look beyond… looking at engineering as a means and not the target. This pushed me to obsess over the consumer perspective and understand the business drivers. Thanks to some excellent mentors and managers, I developed a deeper appreciation and understanding of leadership, real life tradeoffs and running a business.

In the next chapter in my career, I was craving an opportunity in the consumer space that impacts the lives of end-users around me. In addition, I was looking for a role that builds on engineering and extends into the business space. The opportunity at Airlift aligned nicely with these aspirations. To top it off, I felt that I could leverage my recent experience and learnings of scaling the team, infrastructure and processes at Oracle Cloud, since that aligned squarely with one of the core requirements of my role at Airlift.

Connecting the Dots

Lastly, it was all about timing and how things played out over the last couple of years. My family and I went back and forth on the feasibility of the move. There were times when we were on the the verge of abandoning the idea. COVID hit and changed the landscape around kids education and work. Eventually, as we came close to committing to relocate last spring, I started sifting through various career options to align with our move. I had an extended round of discussions with Airlift about the role and opportunity and it just clicked. I felt compelled to trust my instinct with this opportunity, and I’m glad that I did!

This reminds me of one of my favorite pieces of inspiration… a speech from Steve Jobs at Stanford where he talked about connecting the dots, and trusting your instincts. I highly recommend watching the full recording to anyone who has read this far. Thanks for taking the time.