Joe Laws on how his experience as an infantry officer helps him lead his team at Dropbox — and his young kids at home
Tags: Us Army, Diversity, Dropbox, Veterans, Diversity In Tech

Joe Laws on how his experience as an infantry officer helps him lead his team at Dropbox — and his young kids at home Dropbox Follow Nov 17, 2020 · 5 min read

At Dropbox, we believe in celebrating our veterans all year long. And every November, in recognition of Veteran’s Day, we put a special emphasis on honoring their service to their country and learning about their unique journeys to Dropbox with our Veteran’s Appreciation Month. Joe Laws shared how his leadership experience from the U.S. Army has helped him become a more effective leader at Dropbox, and what keeps him motivated as he juggles parenthood with working from home.

How long have you been working at Dropbox?

I’ve been working at Dropbox for a little over a year and a half as a staff software engineer.

Where are you located?

New York City.

Can you tell us a little about your military service?

I was in the U.S. Army for a little over four years. I was not in a computer speciality, I was an infantry officer, so completely unrelated to what I’m doing now besides the leadership aspect! I led an infantry platoon, eventually up to running training and operations for a battalion (which is about 800 soldiers) in preparation for going to Afghanistan.

How have you seen your military experience support the skills you’ve needed to succeed at Dropbox?

One thing the Army trains you on is being able to make decisions quickly and execute on them rather than wait for a perfect solution. A 90% solution right now is better than a perfect solution a week from now, and most decisions can be reversible. Not making decisions can plague you, but the difficulty is in balancing it against the consensus, and as a leader, not ruling by fiat — empowering the people you’re working with instead of saying “just do this.” It’s balancing that with helping people grow and giving them the tools they need, then making those quick decisions when someone is blocked and they can’t make forward progress.

Another thing I learned is that, in the Infantry, you are taught to lead from the front. Rangers lead the way, all the way. This means doing the right thing and providing an example for others. In tech, this often means tackling the harder, less glorious tasks that need to be done, but no one wants to do. As an engineering leader, you should provide the example for others to follow and do things the right way. This means not taking shortcuts in your designs and implementation, and going out of your way to fix bugs and pay down tech debt.

How did you end up in tech?

I actually have a Bachelor’s and Master’s in computer engineering. I worked as an engineer before the military, but they didn’t start up the cyber division until I was leaving. When I was in the army in Afghanistan, I had an android phone and no internet on our base, but I did have books from Amazon. In my free time, which you have a lot of in an isolated base in the middle of nowhere, I would hack on mobile apps just for fun. So when I left the Army, I started a startup as a co-founder and wrote some apps.

What’s your favorite thing about the Vets@ ERG?

How proactive and supportive the community is. We’re always trying to give back to the wider vets community, not just within Dropbox. We get together to figure out how we can contribute to other non-profits, not just through donations but time but other initiatives, such as helping to hire veterans — providing interview advice and guidance, especially for veterans looking to get into tech. That community we have and the desire from the community to help veterans in general is a very inclusive feeling that’s great to be part of.

What’s your go-to WFH lunch?

It’s either based on leftovers or what I’m making the kids. Most of the time, I just don’t have time between meetings and home life, so my go-to lunch is no lunch — just a bar and a cup of cold brew coffee!

What’s your favorite thing about Virtual First work?

I love seeing my family so much more and being that much more involved in everything they’re doing. If I have a stressful morning, I can go out to get a drink and have my kids run in my arms and smile at me, so the other things that seem so troublesome don’t seem like as big of a deal anymore.

Are there any new hobbies you’ve been exploring during quarantine?

The kids are basically my hobby. I’ve been teaching my oldest to ride bikes, and I taught my two oldest how to swim over the summer. So it’s all about what new skills I can teach them — we also bought a bunch of kid-friendly snap together circuits, and a new physics kit.

Where’s the first place you want to travel when quarantine is over?

Someplace warm. The last big trip we made was to the Galapagos Islands, so I’d say some place memorable like that.

Why do you think other military veterans should apply to Dropbox?

One of the big reasons that I personally applied to Dropbox was because I knew how supportive of a community it was toward veterans. Some other tech companies have certain ideological beliefs that mean that they don’t care why you were in the military or what you were doing. It can feel like a very negative thing other places, whereas here, you feel like part of the family.

Our ERGs are the backbone of our culture at Dropbox. You can learn more about how they support Dropboxers of all backgrounds here.