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I find it interesting that the author doesn't mention anything about the product as priority during his job search. No mention of tech stack, product-market-fit

I find it interesting that the author doesn't mention anything about the product as priority during his job search. No mention of tech stack, product-market-fit, growth potential, or being convinced that a product is filling a genuine need. These are the things that I would prioritize when considering a job search. The author mentions as a priority responsiveness of the recruiter. Also: - How nice are the employees? - What’s the vibe in the office? Noisy? Quiet? - Do employees look happy? - How’s the food? - and so on and so on… Is this typical?

wayn3 10y ago
The author was a consultant before. Its usually our job to deal with the circumstances and to actively change them. We are not "good employees". We call bullshit and we get to call bullshit. We are not hired to help our bosses achieve things, we are hired to save their asses. We are hired because someone goofed up. We are hired because something went wrong and its our job to patch it up. We come in with the expectation of getting things back on track. We are meant to blend in with the "regular employees" but we never will, because we are free agents. We can walk away from this job and we WILL walk away if what had been promised does not happen. We will walk away unscathed because we have other gigs in the pipeline anyway. We do not conform. We come in with a plan, which we communicate in pretty clear terms - with the expectation that the person who hires us will, to some extent, play by our rules. Because that's what they brought us in for. That's the mindset. In some way, we are mercenaries. What remains is whether the people and amenities are nice. At my current gig, I'm fixing telecommunications software - highly concurrent stuff. Etching out another 20% of performance is actually important here. Today I've had an email about working for someone who wants to set up a new crypto currency and from someone who needs to port their badly engineered python code to awesome pretty shiny new Elixir code. They all know my rate and its certainly not cheap, but I'm going to reject most of them anyway. The average gig is 9 months but there won't be a week during which I don't have some kind of request in my inbox. And its all done remote. Most of my clients haven't even seen my face. Whether they've got product market fit is simply irrelevant. I pick the jobs that are intellectually challenging, because that's what I want to work on. Their business logic is irrelevant to me. Their stack is irrelevant to me. If their stack sucks, I'll tell them to switch technologies or I won't be available anyway. Sometimes I entertain the idea of working for some startup. Getting involved. But the reality is: 40 hour salary with a 60 hour expectation - no interesting work (we need to get this frontend thing fixed so heres your react native good luck not dying of boredom) - cramped office space; and I don't mean "crappy" office space, I mean cramped. Where you can't have a thought without someone being an idiot right next to you for no particular reason, etc. It just doesn't make any sense to be an employee in 2016.
- haldean 10y ago
  This is the path I've just started to take; I'm currently on my first 6mo contract and it's great so far. This post really captures all of my reasons for contracting beautifully, thank you! A question, if you don't mind my asking: I'm a little hesitant to start filling the pipeline before close to the end of my current gig. Do you find people are planning months out, or do you have to wait until a few weeks before you're free to start engaging with potential new clients?
  - wayn3 10y ago
    If you know for sure when your gig ends, you take every "meeting" (emails, calls, however you acquire "leads"), discuss what they're looking for and let them know when you'll be available. Right now. Just be up front. You're no longer an employee, you are running a business. You no longer have bosses, you have customers. Let them know your terms. Since this is your first one, you should be aware that the companies you work with will want to play this gambit with you where they make it seem like they want to extend your contract and then never actually do it right up until the point where you depend on it. And then they try to gouge you. You need to have options and they need to know that if they want to continue working with you, they have to pay market rate - and market rate is going up the longer they wait. You engage with clients all the time. Doesn't matter whether you can'T sell any time right now. You are a business. Engage with your customers.
    - haldean 10y ago
      Thanks for the advice, and thanks again for that great post. I'll get on it.
- scsilver 10y ago
  What did you do that lead you into your kind of position. You are hitting every thing I want out of a career and as I take a corporate job in the city to validate my self taught skills, I'd like to be able to do what I can to work back out to being a contractor. I assume networking, excelling amongst your peers, and constant learning. Am I missing anything?
kellysutton 10y ago
Author here. I didn't mention those things because they were a baseline during my search. Product-market fit, growth potential, and solving a genuine problem are table stakes for me. The bulleted list was everything to worry about after those foundational goals are met. I've got an unpublished blog post of 100+ questions to ask before joining a company, and the points you brought up are definitely in there.
- sushid 10y ago
  Hey, Kelly. Enjoyed the article but it seems like someone edited over your Google Doc. Do you think you could restore it to the original version?
  - kellysutton 10y ago
    Hi sushid, What I posted is a sanitized copy of the doc with dummy information. Out of respect for the companies, I won't be posting my copy of it.
- rdoherty 10y ago
  I would love to read those questions, any chance you could publish them somewhere?
- sambrand 10y ago
  Gotcha! I figured that might be the case. I'd be very happy to hear more about those table stakes. 100 stakes is a lot tho =)
- FT_intern 10y ago
  What's interesting is that the satisfaction of those factors are evaluated in a binary way. From my experience and the experience of people I've spoken with, utility increases as those factors increase even after the factors reach a baseline requirement.

wayn3 10y ago

The author was a consultant before. Its usually our job to deal with the circumstances and to actively change them. We are not "good employees". We call bullshit and we get to call bullshit. We are not hired to help our bosses achieve things, we are hired to save their asses. We are hired because someone goofed up. We are hired because something went wrong and its our job to patch it up. We come in with the expectation of getting things back on track. We are meant to blend in with the "regular employees" but we never will, because we are free agents. We can walk away from this job and we WILL walk away if what had been promised does not happen. We will walk away unscathed because we have other gigs in the pipeline anyway. We do not conform. We come in with a plan, which we communicate in pretty clear terms - with the expectation that the person who hires us will, to some extent, play by our rules. Because that's what they brought us in for. That's the mindset. In some way, we are mercenaries. What remains is whether the people and amenities are nice. At my current gig, I'm fixing telecommunications software - highly concurrent stuff. Etching out another 20% of performance is actually important here. Today I've had an email about working for someone who wants to set up a new crypto currency and from someone who needs to port their badly engineered python code to awesome pretty shiny new Elixir code. They all know my rate and its certainly not cheap, but I'm going to reject most of them anyway. The average gig is 9 months but there won't be a week during which I don't have some kind of request in my inbox. And its all done remote. Most of my clients haven't even seen my face. Whether they've got product market fit is simply irrelevant. I pick the jobs that are intellectually challenging, because that's what I want to work on. Their business logic is irrelevant to me. Their stack is irrelevant to me. If their stack sucks, I'll tell them to switch technologies or I won't be available anyway. Sometimes I entertain the idea of working for some startup. Getting involved. But the reality is: 40 hour salary with a 60 hour expectation - no interesting work (we need to get this frontend thing fixed so heres your react native good luck not dying of boredom) - cramped office space; and I don't mean "crappy" office space, I mean cramped. Where you can't have a thought without someone being an idiot right next to you for no particular reason, etc. It just doesn't make any sense to be an employee in 2016.

haldean 10y ago
This is the path I've just started to take; I'm currently on my first 6mo contract and it's great so far. This post really captures all of my reasons for contracting beautifully, thank you! A question, if you don't mind my asking: I'm a little hesitant to start filling the pipeline before close to the end of my current gig. Do you find people are planning months out, or do you have to wait until a few weeks before you're free to start engaging with potential new clients?
- wayn3 10y ago
  If you know for sure when your gig ends, you take every "meeting" (emails, calls, however you acquire "leads"), discuss what they're looking for and let them know when you'll be available. Right now. Just be up front. You're no longer an employee, you are running a business. You no longer have bosses, you have customers. Let them know your terms. Since this is your first one, you should be aware that the companies you work with will want to play this gambit with you where they make it seem like they want to extend your contract and then never actually do it right up until the point where you depend on it. And then they try to gouge you. You need to have options and they need to know that if they want to continue working with you, they have to pay market rate - and market rate is going up the longer they wait. You engage with clients all the time. Doesn't matter whether you can'T sell any time right now. You are a business. Engage with your customers.
  - haldean 10y ago
    Thanks for the advice, and thanks again for that great post. I'll get on it.
scsilver 10y ago
What did you do that lead you into your kind of position. You are hitting every thing I want out of a career and as I take a corporate job in the city to validate my self taught skills, I'd like to be able to do what I can to work back out to being a contractor. I assume networking, excelling amongst your peers, and constant learning. Am I missing anything?

kellysutton 10y ago

Author here. I didn't mention those things because they were a baseline during my search. Product-market fit, growth potential, and solving a genuine problem are table stakes for me. The bulleted list was everything to worry about after those foundational goals are met. I've got an unpublished blog post of 100+ questions to ask before joining a company, and the points you brought up are definitely in there.

sushid 10y ago
Hey, Kelly. Enjoyed the article but it seems like someone edited over your Google Doc. Do you think you could restore it to the original version?
- kellysutton 10y ago
  Hi sushid, What I posted is a sanitized copy of the doc with dummy information. Out of respect for the companies, I won't be posting my copy of it.
rdoherty 10y ago
I would love to read those questions, any chance you could publish them somewhere?
sambrand 10y ago
Gotcha! I figured that might be the case. I'd be very happy to hear more about those table stakes. 100 stakes is a lot tho =)
FT_intern 10y ago
What's interesting is that the satisfaction of those factors are evaluated in a binary way. From my experience and the experience of people I've spoken with, utility increases as those factors increase even after the factors reach a baseline requirement.