tecznotes

I started my new gig this week, chief-technology-officering for Code For America. People have said nice things on Twitter, and I feel deeply welcomed.

I’ll write more about the actual thing soon, but for now I’m just basking in the weirdness of being in an office again. I have a desk and a calendar and colleagues and blooming, buzzing confusion. The code I’ve written this week is more angry, productive birds than TileStache or Extractotron, and that’s a funny feeling. There’s a shower at work, so I can ride my bike in and not offend people. The office is in SOMA, so I’ve started bringing my lunch. No one knew me when I was 25 (well, almost) and the organization is young, so the potential feels sky-high.

Soon, I will wear my new track jacket:

I’ve known Jen, Abhi, Meghan and the CfA team for many years, but I also spent most of April doing a big, serious grown-up job search. This was an entirely new experience for me, and very educational. I learned that recruiting is a real job for actual smart people at companies looking for talent, and that some people are mediocre at it while others are amazing. I learned that I enjoy technical interviews, the ones with whiteboards or pair-coding machines and one hour to solve a technical problem. Every single one that I did was fun, as long as I remembered to narrate my process and say “I don’t actually know what I’m doing here” where appropriate. I talked to some of the smartest, most interesting people I’ve ever dealt with and got to spend a whole month playing what-if with a variety of employers. I don’t know if this kind of abundance is something I’ll ever experience again, so I tried to savor it as much as possible.