Remote: Hybrid in the LA area (especially south bay or OC), remote is fine too.
Willing to relocate: Generally no, might consider Denver or Portland for the right position.
Technologies: Lately Ruby/Rails. Python/Flask before that. Some React sprinkled in there. Standard suite of supporting tech: postgres, some dynamo, redis, memcached, observability tooling, etc. I’m not too picky about tech stack – I've switched a few times and I'll probably be able to pick yours up.
Resume: on request
Email: audible.cleats-07@icloud.com
I'm a value-minded backend engineer, currently in a staff+ role at a successful ecomm company. 16ish YoE, most of that in backend roles at startups. I’m value/business oriented, pragmatic when it comes to tech choices (I can work well in codebases I didn’t write, err on the side of incremental improvements rather than ground-up rewrites, and know where/how to compromise technical perfection for other concerns), collaborate well, and enjoy learning about business/customers/etc. I’ve been with my current employer for several years, currently lead engineering on a critical business system (supporting 10-15 ICs) and support the broader org on some infrastructure/system QoL projects.
I’m targeting senior/staff backend IC roles with a hands-on focus. I like engineering teams that are value/business driven, pragmatic, collaborate well both internally and with folks outside of engineering, supportive and have a good variety of backgrounds/experience levels (I’d love to not be the most senior person in the room for a change). Prefer companies that are mature/established enough to not have a crazy work/life balance. Plus points for being related to health, fitness, the environment, logistics/shipping. US citizen, if it matters.
I had this happen with an iPad that I received as an exchange when I sent one in for a repair. I booted the new unit up and was prompted to enroll the device in MDM for a school district in Florida. Kind of a frustrating experience, but Apple support was eventually able to get it unenrolled after enough escalations ("yes, I bought it from you", "no, I'm not going to sign in to an MDM-enrolled device with my personal Apple ID", "no, I've never heard of this school district and don't know anyone in IT there who could unenroll the device", "yes, I'm quite sure I didn't buy it off a truck").
Do you have a stake in the company – options, RSUs, golden handcuffs that you'd be walking away from, or whose value these decisions may be jeopardizing? If not, what are you getting out of staying?
It sounds like you're not aligned with leadership or the business on technical direction/prioritization, and the process of coming to the current technical direction has left you feeling underappreciated and judged for prior choices. It sounds like you're also an IC not in leadership and not embedded with the in group, so not likely to change much (especially if the business views this work as successful). I can't tell whether I'd agree with you on which direction would have made sense here, but it seems like you're just setting yourself up for frustration or worse by staying.
Remote: Open to remote anywhere or hybrid in the LA area
Willing to relocate: Leaning toward no
Technologies: Lately Ruby/Rails. Python/Flask before that. Some React sprinkled in there. I'm not too picky about tech stack – I've switched a few times and I'll probably be able to pick yours up.
Resume: on request
Role: targeting senior/staff backend IC. Not interested in director, EM, or heavy leadership type roles – I want to stay hands on.
Email: audible.cleats-07@icloud.com
I'm a value-minded backend engineer, currently in a staff+ role at a successful ecomm company. 15ish YoE, most of that in startups, most of those backend roles. My main strengths are:
- Pragmatism: doing what's right for the company/business rather than what seems cool in terms of tech.
- Aptitude for understanding complex legacy systems & working productively within them (I'm not going to say "this sucks! we need to stop everything and rewrite it!" a week after joining)
- Curiosity/interest in learning about the business and customers impacted by my work (so I can do a better job of building). Learning new domains and new business areas is one of the things I like most about changing jobs.
- Willingness to color outside the lines when needed to make the company successful (e.g., putting on my PM hat to fill in gaps where needed). I think of this as a "fixer" mindset.
I'm passively looking for my next role. Main priorities are:
- Sustainable pace, and good work/life balance. I don't want an org that encourages – explicitly or implicitly – folks to work themselves to burnout.
- Financially solid/healthy company (for obvious reasons in this economy)
- Diverse team (in age, seniority, past experience, etc). I want different perspectives to learn from.
- Collegial, friendly, supportive team dynamic.
- Collaborative and open product/eng relationship.
Open on tech stack – I'm a quick learner and not snobby about them. Pretty open on industry/company focus. I specialize in logistics now & would love to continue learning about that, but not a requirement. I'm in LA and like it here, but would consider relocating to the SF Bay Area or NYC for a really awesome fit (and a really strong offer).
I have a year of living expenses in cash, several more in low-risk investments. I've been practicing interview skills (but I was doing that anyway). Making sure I have local copies of any personal creds from my work machine – 401(k) login, Carta, health plan, etc. Holding off on some home improvements – I'd probably like to have the money if I lose my job in a downturn, and I might get a better deal on labor in a downturn if I don't (or be able to snap up cheap assets or whatever). I chose to keep living in a HCOL tech hub even after everything went remote because I wanted exposure to both local and remote jobs – that's helpful in a good economy, and could be the difference between a job and no job in a bad one.
A lot of prep is done years ahead of time. Live within your means, save for retirement and for emergencies. Don't buy the most expensive house or car you possibly can – something that's technically affordable on a bubbly senior SWE salary is likely very not affordable on unemployment. With luck and discipline you can end up with enough of a nest egg that you don't have to stress too much about this stuff.
I graduated into the great financial crisis, and lucked into a couple of dead end jobs. A mistake I made was internalizing that the economy is bad, clinging to those jobs out of fear even after the worst of the crisis had passed, and losing out on some years of high earning after things started to get better.
I've been this in jobs, and am one of these people in my current job, so I can relate to what you wrote here.
There's a lot that goes into switching jobs, so it's hard to offer as general advice – it's much easier to do for some people than others. Switching into any new job is a reset switch for a lot of what you experience in your current role. You come in with no/minimal reputation, domain knowledge, relationships, knowledge of the code, etc, and you'll have to work to build all that – by itself, that's probably a refreshing change. If you switch into a company with a high talent bar, you'll get all that and also be nearly guaranteed of never being the smartest/most effective person in your area. This can be a big ego check, but also means that there's plenty of folks around to learn from.
I'm primarily a startup guy, and I'm good enough that I usually end up being a key person. I spent some time at a prestigious, trendy company filled with really smart people. I didn't like a lot of things about that place, but I _loved_ the caliber of my teammates. Everyone was above average, everyone pulled their weight, followed along in fast-moving discussions, politely/professionally challenged each other's ideas, etc. Definitely not lonely, and definitely a dynamic I miss in my current team.
Remote: Hybrid in the LA area (especially south bay or OC), remote is fine too.
Willing to relocate: Generally no, might consider Denver or Portland for the right position.
Technologies: Lately Ruby/Rails. Python/Flask before that. Some React sprinkled in there. Standard suite of supporting tech: postgres, some dynamo, redis, memcached, observability tooling, etc. I’m not too picky about tech stack – I've switched a few times and I'll probably be able to pick yours up.
Resume: on request
Email: audible.cleats-07@icloud.com
I'm a value-minded backend engineer, currently in a staff+ role at a successful ecomm company. 16ish YoE, most of that in backend roles at startups. I’m value/business oriented, pragmatic when it comes to tech choices (I can work well in codebases I didn’t write, err on the side of incremental improvements rather than ground-up rewrites, and know where/how to compromise technical perfection for other concerns), collaborate well, and enjoy learning about business/customers/etc. I’ve been with my current employer for several years, currently lead engineering on a critical business system (supporting 10-15 ICs) and support the broader org on some infrastructure/system QoL projects.
I’m targeting senior/staff backend IC roles with a hands-on focus. I like engineering teams that are value/business driven, pragmatic, collaborate well both internally and with folks outside of engineering, supportive and have a good variety of backgrounds/experience levels (I’d love to not be the most senior person in the room for a change). Prefer companies that are mature/established enough to not have a crazy work/life balance. Plus points for being related to health, fitness, the environment, logistics/shipping. US citizen, if it matters.