Wednesday, 14 October 2020

Rockstar? Nope, tone deaf.

Despite the whole pandemic thing, the entire recruitment thing seems to be kicking off once again on LinkedIn. This frenzy is fun and all - it's always nice to be wanted after all - but it's still nice to be wanted long term, maybe have a kiss and a cuddle afterwards - some respect at least. I know the process recruiters have to go through, and it must be disheartening being ignored - but I never forget you. If you spend the time getting in touch, then I'll reply once I have time, most usually after researching the company and thinking long and hard about whether or not I meet the requirements. Even then, once I do reply, it'd be nice to get an acknowledgement and a request to keep in touch in the future. Makes sense, no?

I don't want to leave my friends and colleagues to go somewhere where I'll fail in the first 5 minutes because I'm no fan of Angular (and don't get me started on TypeScript. OK, you can get me started, but first go and get yourself a nice cup of tea and maybe a biscuit, this might take a while). Neither do I want to sit in a stuffy office, even if there are hot and cold drinks on tap and the environment is just so lovely, and there are regular social gatherings. I like my home, I've lived here for years now, and I have my own choice of hot or cold beverage - I even get the company of a couple of yappy dogs when I can stand it. As a corollary, I also get regular exercise taking said yappy dogs for regular walks. I have an office all set up so that, after my allotted 7.5 hours, I can shut the door on work and go and do something else without checking emails or anything like that - it's bliss!

But this post isn't about being ignored the next morning and some recruiters slipping out like thieves in the night, oh no, this post is about rockstars!

Yesterday I was approached about a Rockstar front-end developer role that I was - apparently - perfect for, needless to say, I got all excited - not so much by the job, but by the term. I remember sitting in my mate's bedroom as a callow youth listening to him practise and play the guitar and being upset with myself that I didn't have a musical bone in my body. My Dad can play the guitar, and I can't even sing (well, I can, but I don't in front of other people, they don't like it)! I did look at the requirements, and it asked for someone opinionated, and I thought, "Hey, I'm opinionated, that might be good for me!". I fit in with the other requirements also.

Then I realised that while opinionated I'm also really fickle and change my mind, and opinions, quite frequently. I guess that's rockstar-like. I could decide that my rider should include copious quantities of Bombay Mix and decent coffee in the morning. Perhaps lovely spring water in the afternoon, interspersed with Punk AF? (I just realised that you might not know what a rider is, this is from Wikipedia: "a rider is a set of requests or demands that a performer sets as criteria for performance").

I got chatting to my mate about it all - as I was excited - and she asked what a Rockstar Developer is, so I went searching for a definition. Quora is still a thing, so we had a look there. After reading it, her conclusion was, "so a bit of a knob".

Can't argue with that, can you?

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