Career stories: Military commander turned Trust & Safety manager
Avery's career in military IT took an unexpected turn when he caught wind of a LinkedIn Trust & Safety (QA) manager opportunity in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. Now charged with keeping our LinkedIn platform safe, he shares his career transition into tech, and how his team has supported him as a dad and U.S. Army National Guard cyber-protection commander.
Pivoting into tech
Prior to LinkedIn, I was a government contractor overseeing information technology (IT), project management, and program management. After joining the U.S. Army, my training brought me down the path of the IT world, where I worked at the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska at the help desk and in IT project management.
My full-time role in the Army positioned me well to join LinkedIn within the engineering umbrella, and I have since transitioned from the Army to the Army National Guard, where I'm part of a cyber protection team that builds training plans for groups and individuals. When I heard about the opportunity to join LinkedIn's Trust & Safety team in its new Omaha, Nebraska office — I was excited to take my leadership skills into the corporate world.
Balancing military life with LinkedIn’s support
When I first joined LinkedIn, I was only a few weeks into training when the Army called and I was placed on orders to join an extensive military exercise, which would require me to deploy and leave my job at LinkedIn for a few months. I immediately called my supervisor and director; they assured me I wouldn't need to worry about anything back at LinkedIn during my mission.
Although I was disconnected from my role at LinkedIn for several months, I still received regular check-ins from my LinkedIn team to make sure I was in a good space and to ask if I needed anything. That spoke volumes that my team still has my best interest in mind, even when I'm not directly involved at LinkedIn.
I’m fortunate to have many people supporting me here at LinkedIn. My manager, director, and mentor are phenomenal; they have been instrumental in easing my transition from the military full-time to the corporate world at LinkedIn. My manager has always stepped in to lead powerful conversations that ensured I understood the business and continued moving in the right direction. Their guidance was critical in helping me transition from a military mindset to the LinkedIn thought process.
LinkedIn’s Trust & Safety team
At LinkedIn, I'm part of Trust & Safety’s Abuse & Content Enforcement (ACE) group, leading a group of six analysts and agents. Our broader Trust & Safety team monitors our platform and safeguards the user experience to ensure a positive experience for our members and customers.
Our global team includes colleagues in Bangalore, Dublin, and Omaha — with professional backgrounds in content moderation, fraud operations, IT operations, legal, quality assurance, or risk management, among others. Some of our roles also include knowledge in programming languages, like Structured Query Language (SQL). In our roles, we often collaborate with colleagues in data, engineering, product, and legal to mitigate ad/jobs fraud, spam, abuse, and Terms of Service violations.
Trust Safety’s ACE group that I’m part of is specifically responsible for upholding the LinkedIn member experience and making sure members continue to feel safe and secure on our platform. If any content violates our community guidelines, our team evaluates and follows the proper processes, depending on the violation. Other Trust & Safety groups — such as our Ads Abuse, Jobs Abuse (see Michaela’s careers story), and Payments Abuse groups — focus on protecting our members from fraudulent ads or job postings on LinkedIn.
Our flexible culture
The culture here is vastly different in a number of ways here compared to my previous experiences. Of course, I've had outstanding leadership throughout my career, even within the contracting world and during my time in the Army. But LinkedIn takes this to another level.
When someone new comes on board, our LinkedIn leaders invest a lot in understanding both your professional and personal goals. My managers were always looking out for me and thinking proactively about how my role impacted the company, as well as my personal life as a dad, and personal interests, such as basketball. You're in a good space here to achieve work-life balance. There have been times when my daughter has been sick and I either needed to pick her up from school or stay home with her. The leadership team has always supported me and covered my responsibilities when I needed to step away to take care of my family and I’m grateful for the support and flexibility.
One similarity between LinkedIn and the Army is that it's a space where all walks of life come together. It's a beautiful thing! At LinkedIn, I can often learn even more about my teammates than in previous roles, because there's more opportunity to spend individual time with them. We're all in this together. I always provide myself as a resource to help my team members be as great as they can be. It’s all about learning the ins and outs of being a leader.
Soft skills are key
It doesn't matter what level you're at; everyone has a piece of each project on the Trust & Safety team. I learned in the Army that you never know whose time it is to step up until a situation arises. My thought process has always been one team, one fight. It takes everyone to get our work done. No matter who's at the tip of the spear, everyone's a part of that spear, so we have to take care of the people around us. On the ACE team, everyone is extremely talented in their own way and we grow together, which created the strong team we have.
My advice to anyone who wants to further their career is that soft skills are everything. If I can't speak to you or you can’t communicate, it doesn't matter how knowledgeable you might be. If you don't have an answer but can communicate well and treat people well, you will eventually get the help you need. Hard skills can be learned, but soft skills can be hard to come by. Soft skills are the key to success, not only in LinkedIn and leadership, but in life in my opinion.
About Avery
Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Avery is a manager on LinkedIn Engineering’s Trust & Safety team, focused on abuse & content enforcement. Before joining LinkedIn, he’s held various analyst and IT project management roles at Prospecta, TEKsystems, McCallie Associates, and the U.S. Army He also continues to serve as a cyber-protection team commander at the U.S. Army National Guide.
Avery holds a bachelor’s in communication from Bellevue University and a master’s in IT management from Webster University. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his 3-year-old daughter, and playing basketball.
Editor’s note: Considering an engineering/tech career at LinkedIn? In this Career Stories series, you’ll hear first-hand from our engineers and technologists about real life at LinkedIn — including our meaningful work, collaborative culture, and transformational growth. For more on tech careers at LinkedIn, visit: lnkd.in/EngCareers.