A bit of personal news: I’m starting on 10/15 as a Principal Software Engineer with StitchFix! I am going to be helping build up a newer function within the company which touches on many aspects of the business, including data science, marketing and warehousing, so I am very excited. I’ll be partnered with great folks running the business side of things, while helping build up a strong engineering team. It’s also fully remote. It’s a win, from my perspective, and I hope it is from theirs, too!
I have so many thoughts about my recent, four-month-long job search and career things that I would like to write about, such as how much longer it takes to find the right fit when you’re mid-career; career progression and sustainability; career hedges and ageism in tech; how the industry treats job applicants; interviewing well; title inflation and how to deal with it; the distributed worker trend among big tech startups; how interviewing practices affect diverse applications differently; the decision to move back to IC work after management; and what it looks like when companies understand high-level IC work. Whew! That is a lot, and if I wait until I can parse out my thoughts on all that, I’ll never get this announcement out. But for now, what I will say is that StitchFix had by far the most thoughtful, well put together interview process of any company I interviewed with. The problems stemmed from their real work, and the people were kind and genuine. They were the only company where every single interview had me coming away feeling better from the last, rather than beaten down. I’m still on the outside looking in, but I think they have created a truly awesome culture. And that’s what makes me so, so excited to be joining their team.