Build a software career with meaning: a playbook

Even with 20 fingers and toes, I barely have enough digits to count how many times during my 9-5 career I thought, “Wow, I feel frustrated/stuck/alone/hungry, maybe I should look for a new job.” A new job holds the allure of allowing you to let go of all your negative emotions (especially hunger) and start over.

There are plenty of reasons to switch jobs, particularly when advocating for fairer compensation or a less-toxic environment. But if you're like me and looking to build a meaningful software career, where you can use your brain to its fullest and maybe do a bit of good, job hopping is more like a salve on a wound than a complete fix.

With this in mind, I’m excited to announce my new email course: Build a Software Career with Meaning. While under development, I called this “How I went from ‘Hello World!’ to ‘How can I help?’ in just 19 years,” which is clearly a cheeky title but captures the work-in-progress feel of my career.

Did I mention it’s free? Over the course of 5 (business) days, you’ll receive a brief email with a piece of wisdom, along with an actionable thought experiment you can test on your career.

I also want to be transparent: in email marketing speak, this is called a “lead magnet.” I learned this term from reading (does YouTube still exist?), so I can only assume this is referring to the element from the periodic table with the symbol Pb (you know, the one pronounced ‘led’). And here I thought lead wasn't magnetic!

I'm offering the course for free because I want to share how I think about things. At the end of 5 (business) days, perhaps you’ll feel like you know a bit more about my values and want to work with me. If you don’t, that’s more than okay! You are welcome to stay on the list indefinitely, and the option to unsubscribe will always be at the bottom. There are no tricks here, just a marketing playbook I’ve been learning in between implementing my Markdown blog and nested functions in Python bytecode.

If you’ve ever felt stuck or disillusioned in your software career, I hope this course gives you a new perspective. If nothing else, it’ll be five (business) days of me popping into your email client with career advice just a tad more nuanced than “Quit your job!”

---

P.S. If you’re interested in reading the story about how my 9-5 career crashed-and-burned—and how I built something better from the wreckage—I have the complete account over on From Scratch dot org. I’d love to hear if any of my experiences and catatonic thought loops (the kind where you forget to eat) mirror your own!

---

Build [With Me]

I mentor software engineers to navigate technical challenges and career growth in a supportive, sometimes silly environment. If you’re interested, you can explore my mentorship programs.

Elsewhere [From Scratch]

In addition to mentoring, I also write about neurodivergence and self-employment. Less code and the same number of jokes.

• Lake Effect Coffee, Chapter 4 - From Scratch dot org