Here's to New Beginnings...
Today I started a new chapter in my life. Today was my first day as a Senior Software Engineer for Mediafly in Chicago, IL!
I don’t believe I’m at liberty to discuss details of the underlying architecture out of my respect to my colleagues, but in short I will be working on a C# content distribution system that allows users to receive audio & video content anywhere (there are mobile applications for almost every major phone platform, among others).
Mediafly is exactly the type of shop that I wanted to go to after my time spent behind a corporate firewall. Even in the one day I’ve spent in their office I realized just how stuck in time my previous employer really is. The atmosphere in the office is full of vibrant life and enthusiasm, instead of the vapid sense of dread accompanying many days in the cubicle jungle. The amount of discussion and collaboration was –UNSEEN– in any of my previous work environments. These 7 other individuals seem like they are as passionate for making a great product as I am. Awesome.
It’s only been one day so far, but I’m already getting a vibe that this is a move I should have made a long time ago. About a year ago I was told by my (now former) boss that I’d be getting a promotion if I wanted, but no monetary compensation. I (somewhat) politely declined, citing that, more or less, I “don’t do mroe work for same money”. Sorry. The joke was on me, though, in that I kept working, and ended up getting more responsibility piled on top of me anyway. So I was essentially devaluing myself, since I was doing more work for the same money. I should have been happy to at least have a job (which I was…and definitely still am, considering the times we live in) but being a rabidly passionate developer made me question whether I was in the right spot. I knew I wasn’t. It just took a little push to get me in the right direction.
That push was the news that our department at (former employer) was in jeopardy of being outsourced. Great. So I put in a year of work, only to now have –zero– chance for my promised “promotion”. That was the last straw. Nevermind the fact I was working on software that –nobody– cared about, not even the client. Nevermind I was doing more than I should have been. My job was going overseas. Time to act.
And I did. The day I found out about that (the morning, actually…) I had my updated resume in my Google Docs account ready to go. The feed for jobs.stackoverflow.com is in my reader, and I caught a listing from Mediafly. I filled out the form to the best of my abilities and linked to my Stack Overflow Careers public CV, and had an email back later that evening. The rest is history.
It’s such a refreshing breath of air to be associated with a group of people dedicated to creating a quality product throughout, from initial data model to finished end result. Despite the fact that things seemed busy today there were no undertones of apathy. There were no signs of any wasted effort. Just a clean, efficient machine working towards a common goal.
It’s only been one day so far, but I’m already proud to be a member of the Mediafly family. I’m so excited to dive into kickstarting my development skills and working towards the same common goal my colleagues so passionately strived for today.
Today I put together a Galant IKEA desk that went pretty smoothly. When I was done, I had a dime-sized blister on my hand…I’ll refrain from sharing a snapshot of that to save your lunches. That’s what happens when a software developer uses his hands for something other than tickling a keyboard. Hah!
After that I began setting up my temporary development machine. I’m using a Dell XPS desktop for the time being until my laptop, keyboard, & mouse arrive (I’ll update with details when the hardware arrives). It’s kind of a double benefit, as the box I’m setting up will be a backup machine in the event of an emergency.
By the end of the day I was able to check out the codebase for the public facing website and explore some of the major assemblies.
Thanks for the warm welcome, guys!