content: Discuss job change

Go over a recent role change I have made and my future professional career
direction.

Signed-off-by: Rahul Rameshbabu <[email protected]>

content/posts/job_change/index.org

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+---
+title: "Career Change: From Linux Kernel Networking to Linux Graphics"
+tags: ["work"]
+date: 2024-04-28T21:53:41-07:00
+draft: false
+---
+
+* Changing Jobs
+
+I wanted to announce that I am changing jobs. In my previous role, I worked at
+NVIDIA as a Linux kernel developer specifically focused on netdev changes for
+the [[https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/networking/ethernet-adapters/][ConnectX]] and [[https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/networking/products/data-processing-unit/][BlueField]] products. You can find my relevant work in my
+previous position by [[https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/?q=Rahul+Rameshbabu][searching my name on the netdev mailing list archives]].
+
+I am moving to a new role as part of NVIDIA's Linux Graphics Team. The team's
+work involves DRM/KMS, X11 and Wayland UMD work, as well as OpenGL and Vulkan
+support. Documentation related to the work can be found at
+[[https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/]].
+
+* Why the change?
+
+I enjoyed the work greatly and loved the interactions with the Linux kernel
+netdev team at NVIDIA. The team helped immerse me into the Linux kernel
+development process and gave me a means to actively contribute while being able
+to pay the bills. I learned a lot from the team about networking, the kernel,
+and other related topics. I also got to attend conferences related to the team
+and learn a lot from those experiences. It was very difficult for me to consider
+parting with the team. The team is part of the Network Business Unit (NBU) at
+NVIDIA. This organization consists of companies NVIDIA acquired related to
+networking such as [[https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-mellanox-for-6-9-billion][Mellanox]] and [[https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-acquires-cumulus/][Cumulus]]. The group I worked with was originally
+part of Mellanox. My experience with the team makes me genuinely believe that
+the Mellanox acquisition was probably the greatest decision NVIDIA has made.
+
+I have been with NVIDIA for a total of five years straight out of college, with
+the two of those years being with the Linux netdev team. The truth is that I
+joined NVIDIA due to being a fanboy of our work on Linux graphics. I know this
+is a polarizing view due to mixed sentiment, but I love the NVIDIA Linux
+graphics stack. I first used the NVIDIA Linux graphics drivers back in high
+school. Using the ~.run~ file and see the external modules get built against my
+Linux install made me aware of the Linux kernel, the module system, and the
+existence of userspace display server stack. If the NVIDIA drivers at the time
+were upstream and the distros could just magically package everything, I
+probably would have never gotten interested in the Linux kernel or low-level
+Linux programming.
+
+I always wanted to work on the NVIDIA graphics stack for Linux since I was 16.
+It's something that always pops up in my mind so frequently when I pick up a
+keyboard and do any coding. This comes from the fact that the NVIDIA Linux
+graphics drivers were my inspiration for wanting to code in the first place.
+However, I really did lack the skill to do so for a long time. It was thanks to
+the experiences I gained over the years that I barely managed to land my dream
+role. It came at a cost though. I ended up leaving a great team of talented
+people who were willing to work with me and help me grow in terms of my
+technical expertise. It almost felt like I was betraying them in the process of
+chasing after my dreams. I have taken a scene from my favorite visual novel,
+White Album 2, to try to illustrate what I mean.
+
+#+ATTR_HTML: :width 100%
+[[./wa2_airport_job_change.jpg]]
+
+* Highlights from my previous role
+
+I enjoyed my previous role so much. It was very difficult to decide leaving the
+team. The team culture is amazing, and I learned so much in these last two years
+compared to my first three years at the company.
+
++ Fix isolation of broadcast traffic and unmatched unicast traffic with MACsec
+  offload
+  * [[https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/]]
++ ethtool HW timestamping statistics
+  * [[https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/]]
+  * [[https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/]]
+  * [[https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/[email protected]/]]
++ mlx5e per-queue coalescing
+  * [[https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/[email protected]/]]
++ Contributing to the mlx5 driver implementation of PSP offload as part of the
+  original PSP patchset to the Linux kernel mailing list
+  * [[https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/[email protected]/]]
+  * [[https://github.com/google/psp]]
++ ptp .adjphase cleanups
+  * [[https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/]]
++ sch_htb: Avoid grafting on htb_destroy_class_offload when destroying htb
+  * [[https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/]]
+
+These were some of the more fun/memorable changes I made during my time with
+NVIDIA's Linux netdev team for ConnectX/BlueField. The image below depicts my
+current feelings as I reflect on these extremely meaningful two years.
+
+#+ATTR_HTML: :width 100%
+[[./wa2_airplane_job_change.jpg]]
+
+* What I want to do going forward
+
+I think, from the last section, it should be fairly obvious that my life will
+revolve around Linux graphics. Ideally, this will be the case for the rest of my
+professional career. Now that I have achieved a path where I can do the work
+that I have always dreamed of, it's time to gain mastery in the graphics stack
+and use that for NVIDIA. I have been going through some math primers as well as
+OpenGL and Vulkan references. Hoping to find some material on display servers,
+DRM, and KMS.
+
+* What this means for my blog?
+
+Now that my professional work is more PC-class in nature. This makes it easier
+for me to think in terms of making my blogs relatable for those only with
+PC-class devices. When working on enterprise-related challenges, it was hard for
+me to think about how to scale the debugging techniques I used for PC-class
+developers. I expect this means that I will have a large increase in blog
+content and post enhancements over time.