Before recently taking on my current two contracts, I flirted briefly with a position as an employee. In the end, I decided not to take the job on the grounds that they didn’t want to hire me and it made me feel better about myself to assume that everyone there is just a bunch of big jerks and I wouldn’t have liked it anyway. As a hint for you job seekers out there: when they fly you in for a three-hour technical interview, you really should bone up on your basics.

What made this a blog-worthy journey was the thought process I went through while I was still a potential candidate. After six years as a consultant, was I ready for employee-hood?

It seems like a no-brainer on the surface. As a consultant, I enjoy considerable freedom, especially with my free time which, as I age, becomes more and more important to me. Prior to my current contract, I hadn’t worked full-time in a year and a half. Mind you, that implies I’m working full-time on my current ones but between new babies, sick older children, spousal holidays, and Xmas, that’s not accurate either. But again, the fact that I have that freedom is why I love consulting.

And because all my contracts are remote these days, I’m usually even flexible with when I work. This depends on the contract but for many of them, as long as I’m available for meetings, the rest of the work can be done whenever I want. Furthermore, I can take time off for conferences or vacation almost whenever I want. I say almost to account for times when the client really needs me but alas, I haven’t been quite that indispensable yet.

“So,” sez you, “why give up all that and more to become an employee working 9-5 on a lower salary with 2 weeks vacation?”

“Don’t interrupt!” sez I, “I’m getting to that.”

There’s a certain fallacy to consulting that we don’t like to talk about. It’s the Hear No Evil syndrome. If we don’t talk about it, it won’t happen to us. It’s related to the “I decide when I want to take a contract” argument. In my experience, this argument is true only about half the time. Because the fact is, when a contract ends, there’s often some level of panic involved. No matter how much money you have squirrelled away to allow for this eventuality, there is always a sense of “what if I can’t find a contract when I’m ready?” Depending on how much panic you feel, you might just end up taking a contract you don’t like. This is especially true these days when the money isn’t flowing like water so much as it is oozing like pus.

Naysayers will argue that employee-ship is no more secure than consultancy. Those people are liars and, very likely, smelly. Employees can be let go, yes, but in my experience, they aren’t the first to go. At my last contract, when the hammer fell, the contractors felt the brunt, not the employees. (Well, at least not directly. The rumour mill suggests that there is a “let’s see how many quit after we introduce THIS policy” program going on there these days.) The contract before that, there was also a mass layoff. I believe a few employees were included in that but again, the rumour mill claims it was pruning talent just as much as cost.

The upshot of this is that in most cases, contractors will get booted before employees. Maybe it’s just a brief respite since laying off all your contractors is rarely a sign of growth but it’s a respite nonetheless. Anecdotal evidence aside, contracts are generally shorter than employee terms and in the end, it’s just plain stressful looking for them. Especially ones that allow you to work remotely 100% of the time. So the prospect of being relatively secure (judging from the effort put into hiring process, the company was one that put a lot of value in its talent) in a position that promised interesting work and still allowed me to work remotely did hold some appeal. Maybe it’s a false sense of security but there’s a reason we still don’t know how placebos work. Perception is a powerful thing.

That said, I’d by lying if I said I didn’t feel a sense of relief when they said they weren’t interested. As much as I freak out when work isn’t handed to me, I’ve been eerily lucky in my consulting career. Even when lengthy involuntary breaks do come (the longest to-date being four months), it ends up leading to more interesting work in the long run because of what I work on and blog about in the interim. As a case in point, one of the contracts I’ve grabbed now is a direct result of my involvement with Sharp Architecture, which, in turn, followed from my delving into MVC two years ago when I was “between contracts”.

I’ve been careful not to explicitly say “being a consultant is better” because I’m almost positive the roundabout way I’ve arrived at the current point in my career is atypical. But here I am and all I can say is that after going through the reflective exercise, I have to conclude that luck was once again on my side when the employee-ship opportunity passed me by. Maybe I’m on borrowed time because I do know a couple of excellent consultants who are actively searching for work (ping me if interested) and in markets that have traditionally been very lucrative, both with the type of work and in the compensation. But until then, it’s time to stop yakking and get back to billable work.

Kyle the Unemployee

This post is over a week in the making. I attended AltNetBeers #9 last week in London which is making a quick rise in my list of top developer-related events, big or small. And that’s not just because I got one of the best compliments ever from someone who claims his non-IT friend reads a single IT-related blog (take that, Hanselman!). Anyway, it’s nice to know I’m reaching my target audience.

The event was not altogether removed from what Sebastien outlined at the one I attended last year which shows a degree of vision to which I only aspire. We spent a couple of hours talking on a topic of choice (as voted by attendees), then socialized until the place closed down at the unreasonable hour of 11pm. I’m told much merriment ensued afterward but, after posing for a picture, I made my way back to the hotel.

The topic at hand, and I’m paraphrasing: How do we become better developers today, and how do we create them tomorrow? Nice and subjectively vague, just how I like my open spaces. The runner up topic, brownfield applications, seemed suspiciously planted so I threw my weight behind the one we eventually chose.

Kinda concerned at how often this image is relevant to my posts

Conversation ran the usual gamut from apprenticeship programs (and thanks to Neil for the extensive historical thesis into the concept) to showing passion to defining professions to just going out there and doing it. My position through most of it was to focus more on the non-technical skillz, to the point where I think I pooh-poohed actual book learning more than I should have. If you decided, based on my advice, to drop out of university, I’d advise you to politely grovel to your dean to get back in. It’s still important. But take a psyche course or two when you go back.

Alas, we didn’t offer as much practical advice to the first part of the question as I would have liked so I’m expanding on the closing comment I made. It was essentially: Follow your instincts.

Now, there’s a danger with throwing out a broad statement like this because I made it in a very specific context. Namely, in a crowd of people who had taken time out of their lives to come to an IT-related event (albiet, one with more social activities than your average code camp; it *is* held in a pub after all). These are people who, at some level, have made a conscious decision to improve themselves on their own time. They could have had much better things to do but their instincts told them that this was an event that was more important than attending the new West End show, Deliverance: The Musical. (Side note: I know I just made that up now but MAN, the Duellin’ Banjoes scene would rock live; I suspect they’d lose a lot of people at intermission though.)

A lot of people have questions like, well, how do I make myself a better developer. The fact that they are asking those questions is the first step. The next step is to trust that they can muddle their way through their own answer. Because as we proved last Wednesday night, the same answer may not work for everybody. Me? I’m not much of a book learner. Nor, ironically, do I get much out of scanning blog posts (other than creating my own internal Google index so I know where to look later when the topic becomes relevant to me).

It’s dead simple to make yourself a better developer nowadays. Resources are plentiful and mostly free. And the ones you pay for, like conferences and training courses, are easy enough to rank with a little research (e.g. JP’s Nothin’ But .NET, Oredev, NDC). All it takes is a focused effort to make yourself better and to put some thought into how you go about it. You alone know which bloggers out there speak the same language you do. And you alone know which technologies will help you in your daily life and which ones interest you. Yes, SharePoint developers are in high demand but is it a product you want to learn and spend eight hours a day working with? (That’s not meant to be facetious actually, stop laughing.)

There will be much second-guessing and wondering which way you should go. And that’s fine. I won’t pretend I’ve made the right decisions all the time but like the software we’re supposed to be writing, most decisions are reversible. Humming or hawing about a contract in Dubai? Go for it. If you don’t like it, go home when it’s done. Worried about being away from your family that long? Well, you have some soul-searching to do but once you’ve made the decision, move on to the next one.

Was it the right decision? In my experience, unless you have direct and obvious evidence to the contrary, the answer is always yes.

Like I said, the topic is generic enough that pretty much everyone’s opinion will be valid, likely because it has worked for them personally. The underlying message I want to get across isn’t so much how to improve yourself (because you already know how to do it), but rather, if you’re in the London area, AltNetBeers is not to be missed. Many thanks to Neil, Toby, Scott, Andrew, Chris (both of them), Paul, Christian, and Lorenzo for the conversations and, of course, to the incredibly humble and reticent Sebastien Lambla for organizing and chairing the event, and also to Neil Robbins for the geek lunch two days later.

Kyle the Well-Shod

Got a question today from someone asking how I managed to achieve the lifestyle I did and asking for tips on having to do the same. In order to impart this wisdom, I am deeming it necessary to brag a little.

As many of you probably know, I live in the Bahamas and work from home. I’ll throw tact out the window and add that my condo is about 100 feet from a private beach and also has a pool and tennis courts. At night, my wife and I sit on the balcony reading to the sound of the ocean. Thanks to a side burner, we barbecue almost everything year-round, even pancakes. When I can get away with it (which is more often you might think, you’d be surprised what you can get away with by asking), I like to work only 3 days a week. Last weekend, my daughter and I jumped into the canal off the ocean with some neighbours’ kids for a while and when that got boring, we played baseball on the beach.

It’s probably a coincidence that I’ve just started reading The 4-Hour Workweek because this kind of sounds like something from the opening chapter. But the difference is: Tim Ferriss put some thought in achieving his lifestyle. As much as I would like to translate my own experience into a multi-million dollar empire, I came by my good fortune mostly by accident.

How it happened

Before moving here, my family and I lived in Calgary and I worked as an employee for a consulting company. My wife works for an international consultant and he decided to move to the Bahamas for whatever reason. We basically came along because he asked us if we wanted to. The decision was harder than you might imagine primarily because our daughter was three at the time and moving her away from family to a country where we knew little about the education system was a big unknown. I was also worried about the work situation.

But we did it and I, of course, had to quit my job. For the next two or three years, my career was very much in flux. I found contracts in the US but they required me to be onsite (i.e. away from my family). A couple of them paid room and board but for the ones that didn't, I had to rent a place on my own and live a college life, except that I couldn't date anyone. For the first two years alone, I was away from home for 13-14 months. I also tried a couple of permanent positions locally but that didn't take very well. I'll leave it at that and just say it'll be a long, long time before I accept a permanent position locally.

Really, it's only been in the last two or three years that I've been able to get some stability in my career to the point where I don't automatically panic when a contract ends. But having said that, it's a *LOT* of work trying to find a contract where they will let you work remotely. Chances are, I'll have to travel for work again in the future. In the meantime, the main reason I started blogging and speaking at user groups and attending conferences was self-serving. I need my name out there so people have at least some idea who they're talking to on the phone in the Bahamas. And even then, they're still leery. I feel like I have to be twice as productive just to prove myself. Which isn't too hard given that at most places, they're half as productive as they could be anyway.

So that was my master plan for living such a life: I said yes. And I don’t mind admitting that those first two or three years were tough and involved a lot of soul searching, to the point where we actually went house-hunting back in Calgary. Maybe it would have been different if we consciously decided to move here and follow our dream. But instead, the opportunity arose and we took it. So anytime something inconvenient happened, it was easy for us to say, “We didn’t have to deal with this back home.” And the fact that we still considered Calgary home at the time did not go unnoticed.

But gradually, we worked out the kinks. We learned the ins and outs of our new home and, most importantly, took stock of what was important. Only after doing that did we really start to realize that we were wasting a whole lot of time and energy on the wrong things. Since then, we’ve re-prioritized to take advantage of what we gained from our move (more sporting climate, proximity to beaches and other islands, more relaxed lifestyle) rather than focusing on what we lost (regular access to Multi-Grain Cheerios).

Planning it out

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything useful to say on the subject. I can help to avoid the same pitfalls I ran into. While the first couple of years had their challenges, I suspect people might be underestimating how easy it is to accomplish it. You’d be surprised at what you can accomplish through trial by fire. And if you put more thought and planning into it than we did, it’ll go that much smoother. Besides, it’s not like moving to another country is an irreversible decision (unless you’re dream is to visit the front lines in Iraq).

One of the most important things you will need is a safety net. You don’t want to have to worry about money so as much as you can secure a regular source of it, do it. Make sure you have a good list of contacts for people who could potentially hire you or help you find a job. Like I said, that’s what I went into blogging and community work. And it should be noted that I do love doing it. If you don’t, find another way to get your name out there because you won’t help anyone by faking interest in community work.

Also, start planting the seeds of working remotely now. Work from home a day or two a week if you can and try to increase it. If you can keep your current job when you move, that's gold. We were kind of okay because my wife had a pretty good job but it was a bit of a struggle with me being away all the time while she had to learn the ropes of a new country. Even if you do find a job working remotely, expect to have to leave home for work on occasion. Hopefully, you won't have to but it helps to prepare just in case.

When you do move, scope the place out first. Find expats who can give you the lay of the land for things like finding decent tradespeople. Splurge a little on the place where you’re living. It may be easy to say you’ll just start out in a small apartment next to the main road but you’ll be robbing yourself. What you want is some place where you can kick back at night with a malt-based beverage and say, “Now, THIS is more like it.”

Finally, realize that while your career is important and it's easy to get caught up in it, don't forget the reasons why you move. Even now, I still suffer from “just one more test, honey!” syndrome. Yes, by all means, be dedicated and good at your job and work on OSS projects and that side project that will get you on the cover of Time. But make sure you treat them for what they are: hobbies. You didn’t move to make yourself rich, you moved so you wouldn’t have to make yourself rich.

In short, if you’re already living your dream, don’t waste your time and effort pursuing it.

Kyle the Coached

A couple of things have got protectionism on my mind. It comes up surprisingly often because the Bahamas seems to be, by and large, a protectionism nation. That is based solely on personal observation, not on any sort of fact-checking. So I'll assume everyone out there knows the difference between valid journalism and wild blog-induced accusations based on rumours.

Protectionism is the restriction of trade and industries by imposing regulations and tariffs to protect local companies and local interests. A few industries are already protected here. Lawyers, for example, must be Bahamian as do real estate agents, I think. And rumour has it, the IT industry is under consideration for the same treatment.

Some of this is understandable, given the country's small population, proximity to the US, and political history. And with the recent economic downturn, it gets even harder to discuss the issue without emotions running high.

In any case, whether or not that's true is not something I can talk intelligently about. I am, after all, a foreigner here myself so I don't know that I could be an unbiased judge. I take some comfort in the fact that I am living and spending money here, but working for companies in the US and Canada.

In any case, one of my goals with the BahaNET user group, which is my current outlet for organizing the software development industry here, is in direct response to this protectionist opinion and it applies anywhere, not just here.

To wit: If you want to make sure your job doesn't go to anyone else (local or foreign**), then be better at it than anyone else. Don't give the company a reason to look elsewhere and they won't do it.

This seems to be lost on many people. The natural inclination when someone else gets a job you were after (or that you had) is that they did something underhanded to get it. Instead of thinking, "Maybe I need to upgrade my skills," it's easier to assume that someone has ulterior motives and is working against you so that you can maintain the status quo.

The decision to hire someone is usually pretty easy when comparing two people. The basic metric is: which one has more skill than the other? If the difference is obvious, then so is the decision. It's only when the candidates are relatively equal in skill level that other factors come into play.

It's naive to assume this is always the case, of course. Some companies are more political than others. But it certainly tips the odds in your favour if you are good at what you do.

That's why it's encouraging to see the same people coming out month after month to the BahaNET meetings to see what else is out there and to connect with other developers. Regardless of their actual skill level, it tells me that these people are willing to put some effort into making themselves better. So that when it comes to hiring them versus, say, a Canadian with similar skill level for which you'd need to buy an annual work permit, it's a no-brainer.

** Keep in mind that when I refer to a local or foreigner, I'm talking about status, not physical proximity. The "local vs. remote" thing is a whole different issue which I mention to pre-empt any accusations of hypocrisy based on previous posts on working remotely.

Kyle the Unprotected

Having backed out of the alt.net conference this weekend (for reasons I can make up if you care enough), my travel schedule focuses instead on DevTeach next month. And having typed that sentence out, I can't help wondering if my priorities are a little skewed but lesson learned for next fall I guess.

One of the e-mails I got updating me on DevTeach had a link on the top ten ways to convince your boss to let you go. I got pretty excited when I saw the title but was quickly dismayed. The industry is evolving too fast? Networking opportunities? Wireless access to stay in touch? How are these going to help me convince my boss?

Then it dawned on me. These are ways to convince your boss *at work* to let you go. And as a consultant, that's often a no-brainer for me. I tell them I'm taking the week off and usually they're happy they don't have to pay and/or deal with me.

But that doesn't mean I don't have some challenges to overcome in order to go. I'm not exactly a sole proprietor when it comes to taking a week off work with no pay to hang out in Toronto.

So without further ado (and with thanks to Derik Whittaker):

The Top Ten Ways To Convince Your *REAL* Boss To Let You Go To DevTeach

1. I have too much free time on my hands
2. You're just jealous 'cause I'll be learning about ASP.NET MVC and you won't
3. I promise I'll turn my cell phone on this time
4. I'll bring you back something nice. Like a P&P mug
5. "Party with Palermo" is just a code name. For...uhhh....Pinochle with Palermo
6. I bet that broken washing machine *will* fix itself while I'm gone
7. If I don't go, all the other developers will laugh at me!
8. I...uhhh....kinda need to leave the country for a while
9. Where else am I going to get the social interaction and stimulating conversation that is missing from my life?
10. At least I'm not going "fishing" like they did in Brokeback Mountain

And if none of those work, it's time to bring out the heavy artillery:

• You wouldn't deny me a face-to-face meeting with Justice Gray, would you?

Feel free to add your own. Anything to help spread the word. I don't want anyone to miss out because "My wife/husband/significant other/eight-year-old daughter with a surprisingly stern voice said I couldn't go".

Kyle the Convinced

In response to numerous enquiries, I present: the reality of working the Bahamas. The part on living here will come maybe tomorrow but more likely next week.

Before I start though, some background that will almost certainly break the mystique I've somehow built up of a software developer working in the tropics who calls himself Hillbilly.

I didn't come here to escape the hustle and bustle and spiteful climate of urban Canada. My wife works for a fellow whose clientele is approximately 5% Canadian and he's on site in whatever country he's working in about ten to eleven months out of the year. He decided to move to the Bahamas because it didn't make sense for him to pay tax in Canada when he didn't live or work there for the most part. We came along for the ride not really knowing how I'd manage my career.

So there you have it. I'm trying to figure things out as I go, just like you are. Apologies if I've shattered any images you have of me. I don't do "role model" very well.

So now, with confidence and expectations reset, let's carry on...

I won't sugar coat this. There are few if any career opportunities for software developers here, especially in an intermediate or senior capacity. I worked for two months for one development shop and eight months at another. Both on commercial software and both for about half my going rate outside the country. And both were very small places where you are responsible for not only development, but maintaining the company network and providing technical support. To my knowledge, these two places account for two thirds of the places that actively hire software developers as part of their core business (and I can't confirm that one of them is even still in business). The third is a fellow who, I've heard, has a team of people building databases and applications specifically to manage and increase his wealth.

The overwhelmingly main industry is tourism. The biggest hotel is Atlantis which is actually based here and does hire software developers. In fact, I notice that they've got a recent opening for a systems analyst if you're willing to work 45 hours a week which doesn't mesh with my plan to take Fridays off.

The rest of the tourism industry consists mostly of: a) chains where IT solutions are mandated from above, or b) small hotels/family run activities where technology generally runs counter to the image they're trying to portray.

The next big industry is banking. Again, much of the banks have their head office elsewhere. Two of the more popular consumer banks are, in fact, Royal Bank of Canada and ScotiaBank - both based in Canada. I know for a fact that the online banking software the Royal Bank uses is at least ten years old compared to what they use in Canada.

There is also a big insurance contingent which is somewhat more promising. I interviewed with a company that was going to hire me for a position created specifically for my skillset as a software developer with an actuarial background. Starting salary: $37k/year. (Side note: Don't let anyone try to justify salaries here by saying, "But it's tax-free". Nothing, and I do mean *nothing*, is tax free.)

My experience is that in most cases, there simply isn't the base level knowledge of what IT solutions can provide or even that the current process can be improved. When there is recognition of problems, the mentality is to hire a couple of junior developers out of college to patch something together rather than plan it out as a project.

This is why I find contracts working remotely. Not because I've got it all figured out. But because historically, I've have to if we want to continue living here. Which is a decision that changed daily in the beginning but nowadays fluctuates less frequently, changing more with the seasons.

And this is why I'm turning my focus on developing the industry here. Both in terms of generating demand locally for quality software as well as creating the infrastructure, network, and processes that will enable remote workers to live here and work elsewhere. After almost five years, I finally have a decent enough handle on things here that now is a good time to start helping the country realize its potential.

Admittedly, the main impetus for this was born out of my own frustrations and I have some not-so-altruistic reasons for it. But by the same token, there are benefits to be had by all. Myself, the country, other developers, companies willing to step outside the typical mindset.

Now there is a caveat here. At one point, someone did have a go at building a software consulting company here. Not long ago in fact. His experience was that the demand existed but that he couldn't get people to do the work. He ended up having to hire a consulting company in the U.S. to finish the project he started, took a bit of a bath (fixed bid...brrrrr....), and got back to the business he had before which was, and is, still going strong.

This doesn't jive with my own experience but it is encouraging. My fear is that by "get people to do the work", he meant that he couldn't get high-quality people to do the work for a pittance. In any case, I've spoken with him a couple of times and am overdue to do so again shortly.

So for those of you already packing their shorts and thongs in response to my penultimate post, hang tight unless you have an alternate source of income. And even then, you'll want to wait until my next post on non-work life down here. As a primer for that, I'll remind you that this *is* a third world country...

Kyle the Developer

There's no getting around it. I live in the Bahamas and it's about time I start accepting that fact. And one of the items that's been on my to do list for a while now, nestled between "Lose ten pounds" and "Fix the hole in the drywall" is "Drag this country into the 21st century."

There is no software development industry in the Bahamas. And there should be one. It's criminal the opportunity the country is wasting by not trying to create one. Not only do they have reliable high speed internet (I've heard tell they have a direct line to some main Internet thing-y in Miami via a big cable along the ocean floor), but there are at least three US cities that are less than an hour and a half from here by plane (although admittedly, they're all in Florida). And there are other regular direct flights to New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Washington, Calgary, Toronto, and London, which are the cities I know off the top of my head.

These are only the advantages for companies that might be interested in investing in remote workers based in the Bahamas. For the worker himself/herself, I don't think I need to dwell too much on why you should consider it. For the government, it means an influx of young professionals with lots of disposable income who won't be stealing jobs from locals but will be spending money locally.

So, after getting a bit of a kick-start from someone who will remain nameless because the power cut out during our conversation before I asked permission to name-drop him, the wheels are in motion. The goal: work with the government to encourage IT professionals to move to the Bahamas to work remotely and to encourage companies to invest in said IT professionals.

What that entails, I'm not quite sure. I didn't do that well in the "IT industry planning for third-world countries" course in university. Perhaps it means first upgrading the government's systems (or, in some cases, installing them since a lot of them are still paper-based). Maybe it means streamlining the process for getting residency permits. Or setting up a network to help people get accustomed to a place where Starbucks closes at eight. Or creating a registry of qualified tradespeople that haven't screwed people over in the past. Don't rightly know, just thinking out loud.

Now to be sure, there are many reasons why the fantasy of living and working in the Bahamas is different than the reality. But given what I've seen of the weather in western Canada in the last two days, I have a feeling any arguments I make against working here will fall on deaf and/or frozen ears. If, after reading this post, you want to help me on my quest, contact me directly and I'll give you an honest run-down.

In any case, a prospecting e-mail has been sent to the deputy prime minister who I'm fully expecting will ignore it. It's more of a courtesy because I have a back-up plan that is more direct and more likely to get results. (Hint: The adage "it's not what you know, it's who you know" is practically baked into the constitution here.)

In the meantime, my task for each of you is to give a long, hard look at where you are living and working.

Take your time...

Kyle the Patient

The Hillbilly turns 36 today and for my birthday, each and every one of you is going to give me a present by listenin' to a little story of when I was but a wee developer fresh out of codin' skool. (Unless you're on the ASP.NET MVC team, in which case you could offer me a job since one of the criteria for working on the team seems to be having Garnet as your birthstone).

Eight years ago, I was hired for what was essentially my first full-time development job. I had dabbled with Visual Basic on and off for a year or so and  Y2K tested Delphi for a company that didn't trust Borland's public statements (no, seriously) but that's it. This was a job with a small company that sold an ASP-based learning management system with a twenty-year-old C component and some Word VBA templates. And when I say small, I mean that when I came on board, I doubled the size of the development team. At that point, I had never laid eyes on a single line of ASP code.

Now, before the interview, I had actually lost the ad (it was posted in the newspaper) so I had no idea what it was about or even what the company was named (it was run out of an office in a local technical college). Note the foreshadowing...

Interviewer: Did you look up anything about the company?
Coding Hillbilly: Oh yes, of course
Interviewer (pleasantly surprised): Really? What did you find?
Coding Hillbilly: That you're...ummm...based out of...<school name>...and you build...stuff?

...

Interviewer: So I don't see any ASP in your resume. Do you know much about it?
CH: Oh yeah, I've been studying it in my free time
Interviewer: What can you tell me about it?
CH: ...err....that it stands for Active....Server....Programming? And you can...build....stuff?

...

Interviewer: There was another website in the job ad. Did you get a chance to take a look at it?
CH: For sure, dude!
Interviewer (clearly skeptical by this point): What colours are in the logo?
CH: .... fuchsia and mauve?
Interviewer: Lucky guess. What do they do?
CH: They...build...stuff?

...

Interviewer: It's very clear to me that you have not done any research on this company or this position. Can you tell me why I should bother to take this any further and consider you?

At this point, I came clean, admitted I lost the advertisement, had no idea who they were or what they did, and that I had no practical coding experience. I politely grovelled at his feet and promised to kick my own ass out of the building.

The offer came a couple of days later. No, seriously. They called me back and offered me the position. And that's not even the point of this story. But give me a minute, I do have a point.

By that time, I had decided to stay where I was. The missus was pregnant with what we later determined was my child and moving from a big oil company with banked holidays to a near-startup that could go under at anytime didn't seem prudent. So after a prolonged stunned silence at even being offered, I politely declined.

Two days later, he calls back. What will it take for me to join them? At that point, I had had feelings of regret at turning it down and my wife and I agreed that I would have taken it if they upped the offer by another $5k a year plus a week of holidays. I told him that and he says "Done". (Later, I learned that the only reason my wife agreed to those terms was because she thought there was no hope in purgatory that they would have called back.)

By this time, curiosity gets the better of me and I ask the burning question: "Dude! I totally blew chunks at the interview. Why you trippin' to get me?"

My eventual boss for whom I gained a tremendous respect replied: To be honest, you weren't the strongest technical candidate by a long shot. But out of all the people we interviewed, you have the best attitude and would fit in with our team. And I've been an educator for many years and have a hunch you're a quick one.

Back to the present wherein you probably see where this is going.

This fellow took a tremendous risk on me. At the time, I didn't recognize how big a chance it was. The chance was that I had the team skills and the personality fit for the company and that the technical skills would come. Bless him for being able to recognize that and for placing such a high priority on them but my experience is that he's the exception rather than the rule.

There have been a number of discussions on interview questions of late in blogs and discussion groups. I'll single out Jeff Atwood's list because...I dunno... it was probably the last blog I read on the topic. I don't have a lot of pride so I don't mind admitting I'd probably flunk his test. And I write code for a living. Worst-case insertion performance of a hashtable? No idea. How do you test if the high-order bit is set? My answer would probably be eleventeen. Even the one on reading integers from a text file I'd probably falter on if I didn't have an IDE with IntelliSense.

On a side note, this is probably a dangerous line of thinking coming on the heels of Ray Lewallen questioning the money being spent on mediocrity. But in Ray's post, Dave Laribee comments that the winning attitude and the winning skillz should be rewarded. I.E. Not just the talent and not just the attitude.

And even then, what's the definition of "talent"? The ability to recite from a computer science manual? Or someone who knows how to transform business requirements into reasonably designed software and who can figure out the technical problems as they arise.

Ideally, you'd want someone that lies somewhere along that spectrum that makes sense to your organization. (Not to imply the two are mutually exclusive, either.) For a research position, business requirements may not be so ambiguous and you need someone who is acutely aware of how to unroll a for loop into assembly. For your average business application, maybe someone nearer the other end.

Now, let's not get all crazy and start assumin' I don't care if you are capable of finding all the prime numbers between 1 and 4. You do need to have some base level of knowledge in whatever technology is required. Nor am I suggesting you break out a Rorschach test during the interview. But there needs to be at least some emphasis on the candidate's personality. And maybe I'm overly optimistic/naive, but I have a feeling that if you gear your interview toward determining those less objective traits, you'll be able to determine their level of expertise anyway.

By the way, if you're looking for closure on the story, I stayed with them for a year, learned ASP, XSL, DHTML, and VB, then bolted to a consulting company. It sounds rather mercenary and when I think back on it, it was, even if I didn't mean it to be. It was a good move for me career-wise but has always left a bad taste in my mouth. Damn conscience...

Kyle the Aged

Suppose I should have waited before pimping myself out yesterday because there actually is a decent post in this. And one that wouldn't have required me to walk that awkward line 'twixt soliciting the readers and trying not to appear desperate. Sometimes self-awareness isn't all it's cracked up to be.

As it turns out, the Hillbilly was part of a healthy purge at the IS department of his most recent Past Experience entry. They are ten-less strong today than they were yesterday. That includes someone who was going to be leaving in three days anyway which makes me wonder how much value the company places on goodwill.

And goodwill will be one of the topics of the day. A good chunk of yesterday's biopsy were employees. And did you know that in Alberta, employees that have worked 'twixt three and twenty-four months are entitled to a grand total of one weeks' notice. Or pay in lieu of.

Here's where the goodwill comes in. One of the victims told me that little tidbit. And as a general rule, when your recently laid-off employees are looking up labour laws right afterward, you probably haven't handled things in the best possible way.

As a contractor, I got nothing and I'm fine with that. It's in my contract so there's hardly anyone I can blame. I was hoping my VPN access would have lasted long enough after the "can we chat" conversation to at least check in the test I was working on but that's the nature of most companies. Granting access requires three signatures and just as many weeks. Revoking it requires a phone call and it's done before you hear the dial tone.

Justice has a good post on job security vs. career security (which is not the same as employee vs. contractor). Yesterday was a textbook proof of his theory that job security is a myth. There are some interesting comments in the post (and then there are the ones talking about the Mad Mexican rolling over for Sam Gentile). I particularly like Bil's comment that, whether employee or contractor, you have to be prepared for just the scenario described here.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm cautiously optimistic about my own future. Such is my nature in general but in this instance, it's backed up a little by confidence but mostly with past experience when looking for jobs. (Man, I wish I was that subtle yesterday.) That's because I'm secure in my career, not in my job. Yes, it may not play out the way I want it to but my worst-case scenario, which I will leave to your fertile imaginations, is still pretty good.

And there are worse fates than being unemployed in the Bahamas.

Kyle the Silver-Lined