When I first found this company, it was because my previous org was looking for a service (a headless CMS) to replace a Drupal site with. We evaluated a bunch of them and actually chose one of the smallest, least famous ones, because they had the best editor UI and they were the most responsive and helpful during the demo/initial sales call. It was a very different experience than our convo with Contentful, for example, who wouldn't even give us the time of day without a NDA signed.

Anyway, we ended up being a customer of this small company for a few years, and I spent a lot of time on their forum, both to ask questions but also answer other ones where I could. They offered me a job, but I was already employed at the time.

Fast forward a few years, I got so tired of Agile that I quit (different company by now) and didn't want to work for another big bureaucracy again. I reached back out to the CMS company and to my surprise they still remembered me. We talked on the phone for half an hour or so, and they offered me a position. No interview or screening or anything. I was lucky to have contributed in the past.

It's only been a few months but I'm still employed. Grateful and very happy with the job. My coworkers are awesome and our customers are great. It's just all so much more human than working for some big faceless corporation that doesn't care about anyone.

It's funny, actually... now I'm working with my old colleagues (from the old company) again, but from the vendor side, supporting the same website I built when I was still with them, lol. I never planned it that way, life just works mysteriously sometimes...