Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
I’ve written a lot on this blog about the software development career. I’ve had blogs about the 6 traits of a software developer, as well as about how every developer has 2 full time jobs. The first is your day job, the second is to stay on top of technology. Today the time has come for me to put my money where my blog is, or as they say in the buzzwords of startups, it’s time for me to “dog food it.”
Today the company I work for notified us that they will be closing their doors. All work has stopped and so it’s time for each of us to move on. As I left the meeting, I was not in a panic. This is in part to knowing that I have the next 2 paychecks covered, as well as some money in savings. Obviously, I’d prefer to not dip into savings, but that’s what it’s there for. Additionally, now seems to be a good time to be looking for a job in Omaha, the market seems to have more jobs than developers.
So why is it now time to “eat my own dog food”? Or to put my money where my mouth is? Because for a while now, I’ve had an idea of an “Oh No! list.” Basically this list was largely in my mind, and was a group of people that I would contact should the unthinkable happen. Some people on the list are recruiters, some are other developers, some are just people that always seem to know someone. So when I walked out of my meeting today, I called the top person on my list, asked if I could swing by his office for a few minutes, he agreed. So before I ever made it home, I had already started the ball rolling.
When I got home, I reached out to a couple more developers, had a quick Skype chat with one and a phone call with another one. Then later in the night, I touched base with a 3rd developer, and two recruiters who have stayed in touch. By 9pm tonight, I had talked to 3 people in the development industry in Omaha, and sent resumes to 3 other people.
It’s not a fun process to go through, by any stretch of the imagination. However, having a mental check list of what I needed to do has already aided me greatly. I’ll let you know how it works out.