I had myself a nice break of a couple months after leaving HomeNet — and I really needed that break! — but it’s time to go back to being employed somewhere. I miss having a source of external purpose in my life, and a team to make things with. So I’ve updated my résumé (or CV, for you Brits in the audience), updated my LinkedIn profile, and here we go off on a new adventure —
My résumé, July 2019.
I’m now talking to everybody, any recruiter willing to take my résumé, because I’m hoping that if I cast the net wide enough, I’ll eventually find that place that’s right, whatever it may be. So if you’re a recruiter or hiring manager and you think you have a good opening and you want to say hello, please don’t be shy about calling or e-mailing!
What am I looking for in a new job? I’m looking for three things:
- I want to work with a team of dedicated, smart colleagues, who genuinely care about what they do and who really want to make great things. Don’t tell me you’re “working for the weekend.” It’s quite okay if you work nine-to-five — and you should have a life outside of work — but I want to be with people who when they’re in the office are truly passionate about what they do.
- I want the company to care about quality. Lots of companies will give lip-service to quality work — of course we want to make good things! — but whenever there’s any pressure, quality goes out the door, and we have to ship yesterday. I don’t mind the occasional crunch time, but the intent matters: The company should care about making good products and should be occasionally willing to put their money where their mouth is.
- I want the job to matter. Not just be necessary for the company’s bottom line, but to be meaningful in the world. That doesn’t mean we have to be curing cancer, but it does mean we have to be doing more than just fattening the CEO’s paycheck: In some small way, the company (or at least the role) should be making the world a better place. I need to be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day and say, “You did something important today.”
That’s it. It’s not really about technology: I’ve worked on dozens of technologies and technology stacks in my years, and I’m sure I’ll work on dozens more. Pure tech for the sake of tech doesn’t excite me anymore, if it ever really did. What I’m looking for is something a little bigger than that: It’s about making good things, with good people, for good reasons.
Think that’s something your company offers? Think you have a place for someone who’s a 10x programmer, who speaks dozens of programming languages, who likes writing documentation and unit tests, who likes training and mentoring others, and who thinks fixing bugs is an absolute delight? Feel free to send me an e-mail or call me!
