There are two kinds of people in this world. The employed and the unemployed. The employed wish they had more time, and the unemployed wish they had a job. Unless your The Dude of course, as in, “The Dude abides.” (Speaking of his dudeness, the Lebowski fest is occuring right now if you’re into bowling, bed races, or want to meet the inspiration for Jeff Bridges white russian sipping character). So make that three types.
In any case, I’m happy to say that of those types, I’m a member of the employed persons club. While I had expected I was going to go through an agonizing job search process (collecting EI, sailing all the time, going fishing, going on extended bike trips, etc.) I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. No, I didn’t find bertie’s head in my bed. I was offered a position at SolutionsIQ at their Professional Services Division, leading agile teams over in their Redmond office. How I ended up getting the job is an interesting story.
On a whim, and on Phil my ex-boss’s advice, I went to a professional seminar on TDD in early March, shortly after I was laid off from Metro One. I ended up touring their professional services division, where they practice what they preach to other companies, and do Scrum and XP for real projects. When I saw the floor to ceiling sheets of butcher paper with story cards written on them, monitors showing traffic light style red/green pass/fail status for tests, and the large bays with dual monitors for paired programming, I felt like I had come home. All the things I had been preaching to my organization, with some successes, they had implemented there from the ground up. So I was hooked.
After the tour was over, I talked with my peers, people managing agile teams and those coaching agile in other organizations. I talked about the best way to convince a developers to do TDD with David Wiley and about my experiences leading geographically distributed teams using agile with Bryan Stallings. Then I gathered up my strength to ask if they were hiring, and, yes, they were. Then, “who is the decision maker”. And then “would you mind giving her my resume?”. It was this that got me the job, for a position that I don’t believe was advertised for, yet.
While I had many calls from recruiters for short term gigs, at drugstore.com and at avenue-a-razorfish (yes, that is really their name), positions found, I might add, from the SolutionsIQ staffing division, the best job hunting experience was the one that involved meeting folks before there was an advertised position. I had no competition, and there wasn’t a long and involved decision making process on their end. I guess, sort of the difference between speed dating and the chance romantic encounter. Both can end up in a relationship, but the chance encounter is much more personal.
I start on Monday, March 26th. So I still have some time to play. Thanks to everybody who gave me job advice and tolerated me during this last month. Thanks particularly go to Phil, my boss for pushing me to go to the seminar at SolutionsIQ in the first place, and Kei, for putting up with my manic job hunt this last week.
8 responses to “Accepted a job at SolutionsIQ”
Ed, I didn’t understand half of what you were talking about, but congratulations!
Thanks. Yes, I geeked out with the shop talk there, didn’t I?
Hey, how agile are those teams anyway. Like, pole vaulting agile?
I have a really funny image in my head of a software engineer on a pommel horse.
If you really want to know, agile is a family of software development methodologies. It just means you release working software regularly rather than infrequently, involve the customer throughout the development process instead of heavily at the beginning and then heavily at the end, and lean toward face to face conversation rather than written documentation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
Are you trying to discuss the benefits of agile or SolutionsIQ because I agree that agile is nice, but SolutionsIQ is going down fast. Just a few months ago they laid off many management positions and just a couple weeks ago a large layoff of development staff.
Although the company tries to position itself as a significant leader in the world of agile, the real scoop is that it is struggling to find their place, with layoff a couple times a year and dissatisfied employees, it is only a matter of time before they collapse.
Charlie Rudd, who is one of the owners, should be taking better care of the company, but for some reason, he is either ignorant or clueless.
I think this posting sums things up nicely: http://www.indeed.com/forum/cmp/SolutionsIQ/05390c183c137e1b777b4405
(this posting discusses my oppinion only)
Hi “Rock”,
Thanks for your comment.
I was posting my impressions after interviewing and touring SolutionsIQ last year but before working there. Now that I’ve been there almost exactly a year, I largely stand by my first impressions. While I have obviously learned a lot more about the company, the challenges they face, the good the bad. I am the first to admit, they are not perfect — no company is. Yet the level of transparency, honesty, courage with which they are facing these problems reminds me of a startup I was in many years ago. That’s why I like it.
Granted, it is a professional services organization. If your company is funded by billing hours instead of selling product, you can’t have the same level of waste that a huge company like Microsoft does. I think it is a structural problem. Who knows, I could be wrong.
So, while I was saddened by the layoffs, I am proud that I am a part of a company who takes the agile idea of inspecting and adapting very seriously, from the bottom of the organization all the way up to Charlie, through scrum of scrums, to daily triage meetings with execs where anyone is invited. These are things that make me feel differently than you, that they will survive this rough patch and come out better than before.
I know, I sound like a corporate shill, but I believe it.
Best,
Ed
Hi Ed,
I am going thru the same phase as you have undergone couple of years back i.e. got lay-off and looking for new job.
Would you mind forwarding my resume to hiring managers for positions in Solutions IQ as I have strongly advocated and implemented XP in my current project. I am interested to further explore my XP skills.
Please let me know how should I send my resume to you. My email is mail2bansi at gmail doot com
Hi Bansai,
Sorry it took me a while to get back to you.
I’d be happy to pass your resume along. Projects come in and out at SolutionsIQ, but I know we’re always looking for talented XP programmers.
Ed