Is This Thing On?
March 2011
Standing in Halcyon (very early in the morning to beat the huge tide of people who flood SXSW) with Dan Rubin having a cup of coffee and talking. It was a nice way to start the day. And then some really tall guy came over to interrupt us. I think his name was Carl Smith.
By this point the place was starting to fill up with a mix of people on their way to work in downtown Austin, TX, and SXSW attendees looking for a non-crowded place to get breakfast. Dan got pulled into a conversation with another person who I’d never met and that left me and Carl just standing there. He was probably the one to say, “So…” first.
Thankfully, we didn’t talk about the web beyond noting what we did for a living. Mostly we talked about our kids. We both have daughters who are about the same age so we had a lot to talk about in that respect. He seemed like a cool guy. Eventually Dan rejoined us and we had a nice time just chatting and caffeinating ourselves up enough to make it to the Ginger Man that night.
Back home, in Boston, MA, at the time, I looked through my bag o’ schwag and started cataloging the business cards. And yes, by cataloging I mean recycling. But I found Carl’s card in the mix and decided to check out the nGen site.
On the team page, I realized I knew a couple of the people who worked at nGen. Also, I noticed that I was on that page.
A call to action, inviting people to submit resumes.
You? Résumés are always welcome. Email yours.
Okay. It wasn’t me. But it could be…
Ten Months Later
I was actually pretty happy at the place I was working prior to joining nGen. But I’d been working at large corporations for 12 years and the idea of working with a small, focused company, with people I know and like? Yes, please.
I jumped in right away working on a massive software and iOS project that’s launching soon, elbowed my way in to a couple of other things that were going on, and generally tried to make myself useful. What I came to realize pretty much right away is that in a company like nGen, being just the UX guy wasn’t going to be enough. Nowhere near enough.
In those 12 years of corporate life, I was as much a Generalist as I could be, but compared to working at nGen, I was definitely a Specialist. In the corporate world, you might get 1.5 hats, if you’re lucky. At nGen, more like seven; mandatory. Which is an aspect of working here that’s made me the happiest.
I get to be a Product Manager for some of the more complex projects. I get to be a User Experience person on projects of all sizes and complexities. I get to help run New Business with Carl. I get to contribute to process discussions and development. I get to act as a consultant on projects that are run by other nGen peeps. I get to start building a local presence of nGen in Portland, OR, where I now live.
Basically, if I see something that needs doin’, I doin’ it. And I am welcomed and thanked for doing so.
Twelve Months Laterer
As I write this, I’m drinking coffee and IMing with Carl, so in some respects nothing has changed in the last almost-two-years. Except, of course, I now work at a place where I feel like I belong. Is life perfect? No. I don’t have a Koenigsegg. That’s probably the worst part of all this. Unless… Hey, Carl? Can I have a really big raise?
This was posted originally on the nGen Works site, but that’s gone so the Wayback version will have to do…
