Above and Beyond

There were a handful of folks that I talked to who were developers and were having issues getting past the code challenges that most companies use as an intial barrier to weed out candidates; exactly the stuff that fat was talking about. While I can code, no one has given me repo access in quite a while and I didn’t feel like I was able to provide much in regards to the questions I was being asked. So I reached out to my friend and co-worker Chris Winn who is in charge of hiring new devs at Creative Market and asked if he would be willing to share his thoughts on what he looks for in candidates. Chris was gracious enough to open his calendar and with a quick email intro I passed 3 people over to Chris for some Out of Office Hours. Big thanks to Chris for jumping in to help!

Next Steps

Mentorship is something that everyone wants, but no one wants to actually do. It’s hard work, and it’s a lot of time. For example: I gave up multiple hours this last week (a week of vacation for me and my family) to talk to everyone. I’m not saying that to toot my own horn, but to point out that in order to mentor or serve others, it requires sacrifices. It is rewarding? Yes, of course. It’s rewarding on a deeper level of connecting with others and hearing stories of their journeys and the paths that have lead them to where they are today. I’ve told everyone I spoke with that my door (that’s like codeword for email or DM) is open anytime and I hope to keep in touch with everyone.

Thank You

First and foremost thank you to Dustin for taking action on an idea. Secondly, and equally as important, thank you to everyone who signed up to talk with me. The initiative you showed to make an appointment with a total stranger in order to grow in your profession is admirable and in my mind puts you well on your way to success.

I plan to open up more Office Hours in the future and I would encourage you that if you’ve got something that you can share with others (you may think you don’t, but trust me you do) that you sign up at Out of Office Hours yourself.

If you’re curious to read more, Harold Emsheimer shares his thoughts on his experience here and Noah Levin shares his thoughts here.