What I'm Looking For
Introduction
After spending 10+ years hiring engineers and the last 2 years learning to code, I'm looking for an opportunity to join an engineering team.
I started coding with Visual Basic in elementary school, quickly moved on to Flash and Actionscript, and for much of my tech recruiting career, would noodle with Python and JS. When I could build for my org, it was mostly building tools for recruiters with Excel/Google Sheets scripting - think Offer Generators, Offer Comparison tools, Market Analysis sheets, etc.
Core Principles and Values
My main focus right now is shipping things. I don't care if that's bug fixes, UI tweaks, docs, features, or services. I want a real codebase and a stake in its success. I want to write clean and performant code that solves problems for the business and meets requirements.
If I had my way, my new workplace would be:
- Collaborative
- Low Overhead
- Innovative
- Growing
I want to learn and see how others do things. Ideally, I don't have to spend most of my time in meetings. When I was in Recruiting, I was lucky to get 1-2 hours a day to put my head down and do deeper work. I want to work with modern technology and ideally the company or product is finding success.
Roles I'm Targeting
Full Stack
Full stack web might be the sweet spot. I enjoy it and I'm comfortable building almost anything I can think of, at least for my portfolio projects,
Frontend
Frontend greatly interests me and I have (sometimes strong) opinions about UI, UX, and information design. I enjoy design but I wouldn't call myself a designer. I've hired and seen what truly great designers can do and I don't think I'm strong in that way. I am good at taking designs, having opinions about them, and recreating them in code- pixel-perfect and responsive.
Backend
I've got a lot of experience with Typescript and some experience with Golang so I think I'd thrive in this space, depending on the role. I'm probably not the guy (right now) to architect a super large scale system, but I might be the guy to build you an API that devs love, or to help improve your CI/CD system, or figure out a faster/cheaper way to deploy and run Some of my most interesting projects were entirely backend focused - building a load balancer, my dinky little compiler, building a log monitoring system, and a kafka clone.
Skills
I worked at Datadog, Etsy, and Blue Apron. All were growing quickly. I'm comfortable with ambiguity and being mostly autonomous. I'm an excellent cross-functional communicator and consensus-builder, though I know when I can build on my own. I know how to manage a calendar, respond to emails, and stay on top of DMs. I do not post on slack all day.
I'm an excellent learner - fast and smart. I don't just take notes, but also use spaced repetition, active recall, feynman technique, mind-mapping, and others to learn.
Languages, Libraries, Frameworks: Javascript, Typescript, Golang, React, Next, Node, Django, Express, Jest, react-testing-library, Mocha, Storybook, shadcn/ui, Tailwind, HTML/CSS, Zod, MDX, Babel, SQL, clsx, bcrypt, use-debounce, Vitest
Cloud: AWS (Lambda, EC2, SSM, SDK, API Gateway, S3, EventBridge, VPC Cloudwatch), DigitalOcean (Droplet VPS), Vercel, Supabase, GCP (Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, BigQuery, GKE, Cloud Run)
Other: git/Github, Postgres, SQLite, MongoDB, Prisma, OpenAPI, zsh/Bash, REST API, CI/CD, Web Sockets, VSCode, Docker
What I Want In My Next Team
I want exposure to a live codebase. I'm sharp, I work hard, I learn quickly. I want to build of course, but I'm just as happy taking tickets and fixing bugs. I have no ego about this. Ideally, I get mentorship and straight feedback from my team but it's a balance.
Ideal Work Conditions
Remote vs On-Site
In-office is ideal for me. I much prefer the structure that it provides to my day and I believe in-person collaboration is more effective. Right now, I'm paying for a desk at WeWork to ensure I have a place to go and focus on getting things done.
I'm open to Flexible or Hybrid situations but I'll try to come in as often as I'm allowed.
Remote is also fine - I do have a desk at a WeWork.
Benefits
I'm less motivated by benefits beyond health insurance and PTO but would love to see 401k match or child care benefits.
How to get in touch
You can see all my contact info in my Contact page. Please reach out!