Today marks the end of 2 weeks at the new gig. It’s been a refreshing career soft-reset.

Finding this new role was an adventure.

The Start

Prevailing wisdom in software development circles is that the hiring cycle has gotten extremely long. I had no idea how true that was. In December of 2024 I started the search by privately reaching out to my network. Referrals generally put your resume at the top of the pile.

Stats

95 companies
163 positions
84 applications unanswered (roughly 50% response rate)
9.3 days: average response from applied to rejected

Workday

Let’s take a moment to talk about how not to create a multi-tenant SaaS solution: Workday.

For whatever reason, their hiring platform requires you to create a new account for every👏single👏company👏 you apply for. I now have 19 new accounts with Workday.

The “Easy Apply” button on LinkedIn is convenient. Too convenient. Jobs are posted and within hours, have hundreds of applicants. I’m not sure how recruiters and hiring managers are managing that quantity of applicants. Automation and AI are likely tools in their arsenal.

Job Boards

The job boards (pick any of them) are riddled with poorly formatted (copy-paste) listings. I don’t have data on it, but most of them were by staffing firms.

LeetCode

I die a little bit inside just saying “LeetCode”. Software development hiring can do better. Playing a game of “stump the chump” proves what? That the candidate has spent countless hours on sites memorizing fringe algorithms that won’t be used in their day-to-day work? How they perform when attempting to solve a problem that they don’t have all the tools or facts to solve?

I complain, but actually enjoyed spending a few days on leetcode.com solving some challenging problems. Swing by there for fun and to try your hand at some brain teasers.

The Result

After countless applications and interviews - the position I ended up taking was an absolute surprise. Via referral, I spoke with the VP of engineering and CTO. The conversation went great. I spoke with the chief architect. That conversation went equally as well.

The follow-up call came.

“What are your thoughts on a management position?”

Leadership

During the job search, I had several conversations with peers about what was coming next. In the back of my mind, there were lingering thoughts of jumping to the other side of the house. How to best leverage 25 years of startup experience, a strong entrepreneurial background, and a joy for helping others do their best work? Management!

Having worked for many great leaders throughout my career, I have great role models to draw from. That being said - I’ve got a lot to learn. Empowering and growing teammates is a very different mindset from an individual contributor role. Instead of having one or a few items to keep track of, the number of tasks to chase almost feels never-ending.

Tech?

Don’t worry - I’m not giving up coding. Not by a mile. You can take the keyboard away from the code monkey, but you can’t take the creativity out of a builder!