A Wanted Man
Suddenly, I'm a very popular boy amongst the software giants. I've always had regular contact from various recruiters, mostly it's clueless headhunters spamming me with vague job descriptions and I just ignore them.
But very recently, I'm getting lots of calls from "clued-in" recruiters who have a brain and conduct themselves professionally and have jobs that are actually good matches for me. In the past few weeks I've had Apple, Microsoft, Google and just yesterday Oracle contact me for positions. With the exception of Apple (who really needs to go back to recruiting 101: Don't Mislead the Candidates), they all already had my resume and had specific positions in mind for me. Hotdiggity, I'm the cool popular kid! (Yahoo, where are you? You're missing Damienfest '06)
While it’s great to be wanted and popular, I'm just not looking for a job. I'm very focused on Couch and unless you are interested in helping me build it, I'm not interested in working for you. Well, actually, that's not completely true, at some level I am interested in these jobs, and that's kind of the problem: All this is turning into is just distractions.
So in each case, I've politely told the recruiter I'm focused only on building Couch, and if they want to talk to me about Couch they are welcome. But otherwise, I'm just not interested at this time. Now I have to give Google credit, when I told them this, they immediately asked for more information about Couch, maybe they're interested. I really don’t know that much about what Google is really like, but from this encounter I get the impression at least they aren't just staffing-up to build the things that that complete (or protect) their world domination, they are actually interested in getting creative people and letting them build cool things. But I digress.
Whether or not any of this turns into anything besides distractions, I can't say. But I am wondering though, why the very sudden attention from the big boys? Now it's not like I think I don't deserve it (any company would be lucky to have me building software for them), but why are they all of a sudden so hot on me? It’s probably just coincidence, but its odd how 3 tech giants contacted me out of the blue within a week.
So while I'm trying not to think about it too much and just focus on Couch, so far it has been a big distraction. I need to get back into my groove where every day is just about me writing software.
Posted March 3, 2006 2:58 PM
Comments
You created a Purple Cow, yo:
http://www.sethgodin.com/purple/
Jeff Atwood, March 3, 2006 4:03 PM
Oooh, that Google nibble sounds both interesting and frightening at the same time. Given that they're headed for world domination (but not the evil kind, you understand), can you imagine what they'd make of a Web 2.0-skinned, Ajaxified version of something not entirely unlike Notes (with mail and Sametime -- er, Google Talk -- integration)?
I'd take them at least as seriously as they're taking you.
Stan Rogers, March 3, 2006 5:59 PM
Yeah, that's part of why all this stuff is so distracting to me. There are very good reasons for these companies to get involved with Couch, and not just technical reasons, any company that wants in on the enterprise groupware market really should talk to me, I have connections and insights into the groupware community that you can't find anywhere else. I understand why Notes document model is successful and how it can be better.
But really, I don't expect that any of these companies are going get it just yet, at least not without much effort on my part. (ever try explaining a product like Notes to someone? It's hard enough even when it actually exists!) I had been planning to start promoting this stuff in a few more months when I get it demoable, which is why I'm trying to not get distracted right now and just focus on actually completing my milestones.
Damien, March 3, 2006 7:02 PM
Hey Damien,
Send some of those big boys this way ;-) I make really good coffee.
btw if you know the guy who implemented the NotesCSEventOwnerDocument object in the CSEventClass of the Notes Mail file can you punch him in the nose for me (j/j). Damn making me work the weekend ... enjoy yours
Michael Stone, March 4, 2006 12:37 AM
Aha, I was reading something about this on Joel :)
Villi, March 4, 2006 3:06 AM
I'm not a geek, at least not in the figurative sense, but I just came back from an ESRI Federal user's conference and boy howdy do they seem like a swell company. Steak for lunch, reception at the Library of Congress, oh and some new program to compete with Google Earth.
For us non-geeks, we see the software companies as magical places with beer in the water cooler, tetherball courts and everyone gets a pony. So, excuse me if I seem naive, but don’t some of these companies allow you to work on your own projects on the company dime? Of course, they probably own whatever it is you make.
Ronnie, March 4, 2006 9:57 AM
Google does let you work on your own projects (as the recuiter made sure I knew), but I just don't think that will work for me and Couch. For one, I'm obsessive about my work, and I have a hard time not working on the stuff I'm obsessing on (that blank staring into space I do when I'm away from the computer is usually me thinking about code. Or tacos). So it just wouldn't work for me. Besides, I get to work on it full time anyway, why would I ever want to go somewhere that only lets me work on it 1 day a week?
I'll just stick to my guns and keep coding. I have a plan and so far it's going better than expected.
Damien, March 4, 2006 12:44 PM
Lucky swine! It's good to know that there are some decent recruiters out there. Maybe one day I'll encounter one ;o)
Ben Poole, March 5, 2006 3:38 PM
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