Sunday 19 November 2023, 13:15PM

For recruiters and hiring managers

An outline of what I'm looking for next, and why I'm looking for a new job

I've really enjoyed my current role, and am proud to have been able to say I did all the things I did (see CV!) for the business, but there are certain limitations to what an ambitious software engineer can do in a company that doesn't prioritize or invest in technology. Also, I've spent the past few years working on all sorts of various things, but they've all been very heavy on JavaScript/TypeScript and web development. As much as I've enjoyed various aspects of that work, I'm also looking to move on to other types of challenges.

If you're reading this, then you should already have my CV. Also, it means I think you seem like a nice and helpful person who will take their time to read this and potentially help me secure my next challenge.

Absolute Minimum Requirements

Six figure salary. Anything less would probably be either a salary cut, or not worth taking the risk moving from what is currently a very stable and relaxed job.
Visa sponsorship required. Unfortunately, I'm a dirty immigrant from a third world country.
Flexible working. And no, 1 fixed day per week WFH is not flexible.

What I'm not interested in

Full-time frontend, mobile or full-stack web development.
Anything JavaScript/TypeScript heavy.
5-day-a-week-in-office roles.
A dress code. Feels a bit strange that I still have to mention this in 2023 for tech jobs, but there you have it.
Heavy C#/.NET, Go, Python (for web) or legacy JVM (i.e. v8) environments. I don't think there's anything wrong with these , but I've tried all of them and am personally not interested in spending more than 80% of my time in any of these.
Founding engineer roles for super-early stage startups. A significant part of my career has been these, so I'm looking for something else now. I still do enjoy working closely with product and wearing many hats, so I still love the culture at startups - just not the chaos and lack of organization in extreme early stage ones. This also includes companies with no recurring revenue.
Roles in companies where technology is considered a side note, and secondary or tertiary to whatever the main business is.
Any company with significant crunch and grinding mentality. I work hard when the work is interesting, but I'd also like to have a life outside of work.
Environments where I have to fight tooth and nail to be able to allocate time to making engineering improvements and tackle tech debt.
A long interview process where I am not being convinced why the company is great, or not given the chance to ask questions about the work and culture. Interviews should be a two way conversation. Similarly, an interview process where I'm being asked to solve arbitrary algorithmic problems that were lifted off LeetCode or HackerRank and have no relation to the actual job. I'm looking at you, all those startups founded by ex-Meta/Google/Palantir etc.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and perhaps given the right role and company (and compensation), I'd be willing to overlook some of the above. But in general, these are pretty good guidelines on what to avoid.

What I am interested in

Friendly, welcoming culture and highly skilled colleagues.
Flexible/hybrid working - I highly enjoy working in the office in person with colleagues, especially when pair programming or having collaborative technical discussions, but I also appreciate the flexibility of WFH and being able to own my own schedule. A hybrid 2 or 3 day in office per week flexible work policy would be the bare minimum, but greater choice would be preferred.
Exposure to the following:
- I think Rust is great, and would love to work with it more. Maybe there's some fintech or hedge fund out there that is picking Rust over C++...
- Machine learning and data. A significant part of my higher education did consist of this, so I'd love to revisit the topic, especially now that it's become so hot.
- Platform/DevOps/Kubernetes. I've already worked significantly on this on every role I've ever been in, but I certainly wouldn't mind doing more of it and having the ability to actually prioritize it.
Being able to work in a team that has more junior members and mentor them. I've benefited significantly from great mentors which has drastically accelerated my career, and enjoy paying it forwards. Some of the most fulfilling experiences in my professional career so far has been upskilling others and watching them grow.
Being given autonomy (both as a team, and individual) to prioritize work that benefits the company.
Being able to work with, talk to and have discussions with people outside the engineering team. I love collaborating both vertically and horizontally to build things and solve problems.

Similarly to the list of things I'd like to avoid, I'd be willing to overlook the lack of some of these for the right role, company and compensation.

Other nice-to-haves

Dog friendly office. I'm going to get a dog soon, hopefully.
Good holiday allowance. Unlimited holidays would be great. On the other hand, 25 days is pretty much standard these days so I don't really see that as a "benefit".
The usual tech company benefits, e.g. snacks, socials, (occasional) free meals, you get the idea.
Personal budget for equipment, or courses/training certificates.

Final notes

Yes, I'm picky. If you think I'm too picky, then don't feel the need to find me a role - you owe me nothing. Also, if you don't think you've got anything that matches the above - then also don't worry. I'm not in a rush to find a role, and would certainly appreciate the honesty and would be more likely to work with you in the long term or in the future.

Also, you might be tempted to look through the rest of this blog, or send it off to hiring managers. That is perfectly fine, but please only do so if you think that will help with an application. I've tried to keep the topics as balanced as possible, but audiences always tend to gravitate towards the frontend stuff for some reason, and I do not want to be bucketed as a frontend developer. The same goes for my GitHub - the public stuff is a representation of what I can be bothered to do in the small amount of free time I have, not what I can actually do in a professional capacity.

Lastly, if you've read this and would still like to have a chat over the phone or via video, then we can certainly do that. But please go into it having read and understood this page already.

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