The past few weeks have been less than awesome for me career wise. The source of my blues is two fold, not landing a job I can love, and not embracing a project in my spare time that captures my imagination.
I survived a layoff round at the day job, yet I’m no closer to a role in a field that has meaning for me, namely web apps that enhance communication. On the project side, I spent time reading books, blogs, and code on how couchDB and couchapps function. Although I’m now familiar with the parts, I haven’t gotten cozy with the flow of Evently. The directory structures and file breakup feels like web app death by a thousand paper cuts. I prefer starting small with a few files and folders (Sinatra, Sammy.js), the good news is soca is exactly this (Sammy On Couch App).
Looking back on late summer, I expected by now I would have landed a glorious position as a strong lead or hands on grunt in a fresh or rising startup. No such luck. I received a few phone interviews from HR types and job placement people at bigger startups (20+ people) but never got to talk to anyone technical or in lead roles. It was surprising to discover that many small organizations already have strong bureaucratic layers. To me recruitment for startups is the top priority for it’s leadership. One startup founder emailed me a polite rejection, it was a classy move (Chris Dixon of Hunch).
It’s no fault of placement or recruiters, they are guided to hire for specific company needs. From my resume it’s clear I’m no expert at databases, nor a professional designer, yet have experience with both. When it comes to tackling any flavor of problem that startups face, be they business or technical I’m both willing and able. If I don’t earn a role at a rising web startup, it’ll only serve as fuel to my own founder aspirations.