I’m currently looking for a great job that I can stay at for years to come. For those who’ve asked what I’m looking for, here’s a synopsis. I’m writing this for people who can help me find a job, prospective employers who want to know more about me, and in order to clarify my own thinking. Overall, I’m flexible.
Basics
- Qualifications: My résumé. (I’d be grateful if you could proofread it / give me feedback / constructive criticism / suggestions.)
- Position: Full time, permanent position. Willing to work part-time if compensation (see below) works out.
- Location: Boston area, preferably within the 128 circle. Not looking to relocate but would consider it for a job with enough compensation or prestige.
- Company: I tend to like working in small to medium size companies: it’s easier to make an impact and get things done. They tend not to be burdened with bureaucracy (not to be confused with process). That said, I’m willing to work at a large company if I can get things done within it.
- Compensation: Made up of money (salary, bonus, restricted shares), lottery tickets (options), and quality of life. I’m flexible in the trade-offs along these three axes. I’m willing to work longer and harder for more money. I’m willing to take less money for a shorter or more flexible schedule that lets me spend more time with Alex. As for lottery tickets, EV is less important than a higher probability of a pay off.
- Environment: I enjoy working with fun, intelligent people I can learn from. I enjoy working with what I call small-p process, where there is structure in the development environment. I dislike big-P Process where the company switches to the current process fad every 3 months. It’s great to work at companies that score high on the Joel Test or who are willing to let me improve their score. Generally, I’m a Microsoft .Net developer. I’m more than willing to learn other languages, OSes, and environments if a company is willing to let me learn.
Type Of Work
- Desktop UI: I enjoy writing flexible, aesthetically pleasing desktop applications that optimize for user efficiency, either in user input or display to the user. If you want someone to write you a beautifully slick interface for something, I’ll need help from a graphics designer. If you want someone who can write an interface usable by the one-time user, casual user, and dedicated user, all in one, I’m your guy.
- Web UI: Pretty much the same spiel as for desktop UIs. I won’t write the latest Flash-based ad-site for your whiz-bang product. I will ensure that the interface is usable, will work on most browsers, and you’ll have less user drop-out once I’m done. My AJAX experience is light, but I’m interested in the promise of this emerging technology.
- Middle Tier: I like wrapping my brain around complex business logic and problems. If you want simple middle tier components that take data from the database and massage it a bit before passing it to the UI, I’m not really interested. If you want someone who can retain, understand, and manage complex state with a lot of corner-cases, I’m your guy. One of the reasons I like financial programming is it’s really challenging in the ways mentioned above.
- Developer Productivity Tools: I hesitate to list this here because it tends to be something that I do on the side, and not normally a dedicated role. That said, I enjoy doing things that help me become a better and more efficient developer, and propagating those changes to the rest of the development staff in order to save everyone time and effort and increase product quality.
- Project Management: I’m looking to transition into software project management.