Almost 10 years ago I came to Silicon Valley because "if you want to build unicorns, you have to be where the unicorns are". That means if you see a unicorn, you gotta jump on it.
After a wonderful 4 year ride at Tia that included the biggest women-led series B ever and even a splash on that famous Nasdaq screen, I start a new gig on Monday. Exciting, a little scary, no idea what I'm walking into.
Take the job that scares you a little.
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) August 1, 2024
Below is more on where I'm going, why, and what the process looked like in this tough market.
Where I'm going
After digging deep I decided that I have at least one more startup startup in me. Meaning a company that's hockeysticking, messy, and not at all figured out yet. Where the big challenge is building the company, not just writing the code.
Like I said in a recent talk – coding is the easy part.
I'm joining Plasmidsaurus to build the web-based UX for their gene sequencing product. The deep tech they've built blows my mind and I'll be one of the dumbest people in a room full of PhD's and postdocs. ✌️
Why quit a job you love
Four years ago I wrote what if engineers were paid like athletes and that's how I think about it. You sign a contract for 4 years, the typical vesting period, set goals you want to achieve, and get to work.
My goals when joining Tia were:
- rebuild patient UX in React + TypeScript ✅
- get to Series C ✅
- learn how things change when the engineering team grows into an engineering org ✅
- verify my weird ideas about software design work in practice ✅
- learn how to hold and nurture a long-term technical vision ✅
All that has been achieved. It's time to move on. Like Reid Hoffman, founder of linkedin, likes to say: You join for a tour of duty and then you move on.
Across 69,000 lines of React code we have 58 useEffects.
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) August 8, 2024
Mostly in old code.
calling this a tech lead win
When to quit
When you start to feel like your tour of duty is done and a unicorn runs by, you gotta hop on. Screw being comfortable, let's go.
I say unicorn because Plasmidsaurus's growth trajectory is insane. Numbers I've never heard of before. And not just users! Cold hard revenue!
And yes in terms of "paid like an athlete", the package is nice. Around $1.6mil over 4 years at current valuations 😛
My main clue it's time was when coworkers started saying they love the job because it's comfortable, not because it fuels their big ambitions.
What's it like out there in the market
The market feels tougher than it used to, but it is thawing. Recruiter outreach in my inbox has picked up in the past 2 or 3 months and even my salary negotiation friend says he's starting to feel busy again.
If you've been waiting for the market to turn, now's a good time to start looking.
My search was casual-ish. I focused on interesting opportunities that landed in my inbox and didn't try to search job boards or apply anywhere through the front door. That's a super tough filter to get through.
When an opportunity looked interesting I replied to the email, had a recruiter screen, then they'd connect me with a company or two, and there were more screens and interviews. Everyone I talked to had a pretty standard process that amounts to a few hours of interviews with several people in the company.
All in all I spent around 40 hours on all this, talked to ~6 companies, and got 2 offers. The rest didn't feel like a fit and we kinda rejected each other.
I now have tips on interviewing as a senior. But that's an email for another day :)
Cheers,
~Swizec
PS: here's a cool podcast interview about why I came to silicon valley
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