If you’ve found this page because you’re debating giving me a job offer and you’d like to understand me a bit more, let’s take a bit of time to talk about some stuff you don’t like about my background.
He Doesn’t Have A Degree
Truth! I got a good job working at the Ahmanson Theatre right out of High School, and decided that working an enterprise position as a Systems Administrator would give me more valuable experience than attending college. Instead of accruing debt, I had the opportunity to make some money and also work in the games industry which has always been a passion. It’s been a long time since any of us were in college and I hope my 20 years of professional experience carry some weight. I’m happy to provide references showing what a smarty-pants I am, if that’s what you’re worried about
Lastly: Google, Apple, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Bank of America, IBM are all companies that have something in common. They all no longer require college degrees from their employees. What do they know that you dont?
He Sure Changes Jobs Often…
Absolutely. As of the writing of this, I’ve had 7 jobs in the last 7 years. The No-Bullshit Primary Motivator here is….
The average cost of living increase is 3-5%. Particularly earlier in my career, but still continuing later, I have found fairly often the opportunity to pursue a more lucrative position resulting in a 10-20% salary increase (or improved benefits/stock/profit sharing/career growth). The primary reason for leaving several of these roles isn’t a lack of loyalty, it’s a lack of compensation.
A few of them have been based on geographic changes. Quite a few of my jobs were the result of former co-workers actively headhunting me to new companies because they understood the capacity for work. I strive for new experiences and new challenges and often find growth opportunities internal to a company considerably less available than externally.
I personally agree deeply with the Netflix Culture here. But of course I do, as a highly effective individual I want to work in places that recognize and reward highly effective contributors. I highly recommend watching this great 3 part series from the LinkedIn Speaker Series by Fred Kaufman titled: Your Job is not Your Job. It’s a bit of a tangent, but it’s also REALLY GOOD
His Experience is Overly Broad
I don’t know if people say this. Man I sure hope they don’t. No matter your company’s size I really hope you hire T-Shaped Employees. I’m still in the process of turning my T into an X, though I’m still not 100% where the X-Shaped Employee comes from…
I Don’t See Much Product Experience Here
If you want to look over my resume and peruse the title and make this kind of generalization, I totally understand. Filtering out people is really obnoxious. I hate it when I’m hiring. I look for any reason not to hire someone and I too start with browsing the job titles to see if this person is worth my time.
BUT HERE IS HOW MY RESUME HAS LOTS OF PRODUCT EXPERIENCE BRO