The Search (2023)
14 June 2023
Been quiet for a few weeks, so I feel overdue for a post. A post I say! So here’s what’s been going on in Rob-world.
Those of you who watch my LinkedIn know that I went public that I’m open-to-work! I stepped away from my job at Slang at the beginning of May and since then I’ve been reading, writing, thinking, and generally enjoying choosing my own pace.
For those eyeing my teacup, wondering about its stability, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you: Slang is great! I did some excellent and interesting work there, and worked with some awesome people. I wish them the best, and thanks to the power of equity I stand to benefit when they succeed.
So why did I leave?
Well, the short version is that, as the company scaled up, I wanted to build the best team of my career. I’ve built a number of teams over the years (not alone of course… this should go without saying!). Small teams, larger teams. Teams that were struggling when I entered and had productive team confidence when I left. And so at Slang, I needed some assurances that I’d have the support from leadership to do those things. After some discussion, it became clear that my vision wasn’t compatible with leadership’s plans. So rather than spend my further time at Slang frustrated and backseat-driving, I decided to step away while things were good.
It was a great experience, and I’m proud of a ton of stuff I did at Slang. The build is probably the best build and deployment process I’ve made in my career - Gradle, Kotlin JVM, Kotlin JS, terraform, and whatever scripting the moment needed. Together we developed and iterated on a Domain-Driven-Design and functional programming inspired command/query architecture - as with all code structures, it got way better the more people contributed to it. I learned how to trick-out Dialogflow, and make conversational AI deliver a successful product. And tons more I probably shouldn’t share: I do have a private list of ‘wins’ though. ;-)
So what’s next?
Well, I still want to build that damn best-team-of-my-career. A team that learns to listen to their users, share responsibility, riff on each other’s ideas, and grow, eventually becoming two teams, then three. I’m not sure quite how to find the right opportunity for it, but it looms large in my subconscious. I know I could run software engineering at a startup.
Meanwhile, going public with my job search is psychically taxing. Not because I’m constantly getting tapped - its quiet out there! I’m probably the only software engineer looking for work because I voluntarily left my previous job. No, its taxing because now I feel an obligation to read about every opportunity that comes up, and that takes a lot of energy. And most of them don’t meet my needs. It’s all very wearying.
Yeah, yeah, I need to shake that off.
It doesn’t help that, on account of the recent air quality problems, I’ve been struggling with sinus headaches the last few weeks. Not the kind that are truly debilitating, but juuuuuust enough that staying focused is difficult. Difficult to even stay focused enough to write a quick blog post like this one!
I know a lot of excellent talent is looking for work right now. Someone with the right funding could put together a true dream-team, and we could crush it. My problem, as my problem has always been, is… I don’t know the money people.
Anyway, that’s the quick update. Still cooking! Hopefully the sinuses let up soon and I can have more for all ya’ll.
Image generated by Bing Image Creator, from the prompt ‘image in the impressionist style for blog post about being tyrannized by a job search and dreaming of starting a new company with a dream team, all while having sinus headaches’.