I’ve read a lot of job descriptions this month. Sometimes I get a clear sense of who that organization is looking for — their dream candidate–their skills, their philosophy, their values, their qualifications, and their style. These JDs are very helpful to me in measuring my interest and fit.
What I’d like to do today, if only for myself, is articulate what I’m looking for in a company with the pure intent of drawing that special employer into relationship with me.
At my heart, I am a supporter. All my intentions, skills, philosophy, strengths stem from wanting to support organizations in achieving their goals. Can I command? Yes, but that’s not the way I work.
I am seeking a company in which:
- Leadership desires a person of deep experience to serve as a supporting resource in decision-making, planning, and execution. I’ve seen many scenarios play out in my 25 years of engineering–some ending in failure and others leading to success. I have a lot of experience and perspective to offer when it comes to architectural, organizational, resourcing, and managerial decision-making.
- My direct reports are the stars. Although I’m comfortable with the spotlight, I am far more interested in seeing my teams excel and be recognized as the stars.This company measures my effectiveness primarily by the effectiveness of my teams. At this point in my career, what sets me apart is my ability to mentor, inspire, motivate, guide, strategize, build, and support an extraordinary team of engineers, not my individual technical contributions.
- Corporate values are not an afterthought or lip-service, but the drivers and measures of success. I believe in manifesting shared values in every decision I make, every team that I build, and every project I lead. If that brings me into conflict with you, then this isn’t a good fit.
- My team has the autonomy to own their solutions, collaborating with other teams as needed, working directly with Product to meet the requirement, but receiving the trust and power to shine as SMEs in their domain.
- Sees (and perhaps celebrates) the value in my empathic,intuitive, spontaneous, fun-loving, candid, vulnerable, sincere servant nature.
- Has a driving vision that can be actively and clearly expressed in the priorities of every department, team, and individual
- Sales are driven by palpable, enthusiastic belief in existing products, not hype and non-existent products.
- Can move decisively and confidently on the technical recommendations of its engineering.
- Sees that languages and platforms are the tools of disciplined engineering, not the engineering itself. Engineering is an act of imagination and construction. Tools can be used poorly in the hands of an undisciplined engineer. My focus as an engineering manager is in teaching and holding engineers accountable to best-practices in engineering, not just to know how to code in a particular language. Language becomes trivial in the hands of a strong engineer.
- Finally, good hiring requires more than static questions and assessments targeted at a very specific candidate. If we want the full strength of diversity in our organization, we must be in tune with the diversity principle in our hiring process. Is this a rock-star coder who can spit out code fluently in the moment with an audience or are they a deep thinker who needs time and space to craft the most elegant, sustainable solution? Do they thrive in chaos and ambiguity or in predictability and clarity? Are they a written, verbal, or visual communicator? Do they like to work solo or thrive in collaboration? Do they have broad knowledge or deep knowledge? To find truly special engineers, we can’t just go with rock-star coders and expect to meet all our needs no more than we can hire one ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, neural type, or country of origin. My ideal company truly believes and thrives in the power of diversity and inclusion.
Future Employer, I know you are out there searching for me. The hire is already in motion! If what I’ve written reflects who you are and who you are looking for, please reach out to me for a chat.
David Wilson-Burns 