<p><strong>This is no longer an active post. I accepted a job offer and am no longer
looking for work. I am leaving the post up for archival purposes</strong></p>
<p>For a limited time only, I am on the market for a new job. Last time I was
looking for work,
<a href="/blog/2015/04/23/for-a-limited-time-only-looking-for-work/">I wrote a sort of reverse job posting</a>
that helped me reflect on what I was looking for and communicate it to people
who might want to work with me. It was pretty successful, so I am trying it
again. Please take a look and get in touch if you think I would be a good fit
for your organization and vice versa.</p>
<p><em>P.S. I can't believe it's been five years since the last time I did this. Time
is an illusion!</em></p>
<p><em>Last updated on 2020-07-05.</em></p>
<h2 id="-when"><i class="far fa-calendar"></i> When<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-when"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h2>
<p>Soon! I am happy to start conversations and interviews now. I am giving myself a
little time off to recharge, so I am aiming for a start date in August or
September.</p>
<h2 id="--where"> <i class="fas fa-globe-americas"></i> Where<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#--where"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h2>
<p>I am currently based in Portland, OR and plan to stay. I am exclusively looking
for jobs that will allow me to work remotely with zero travel for the
foreseeable future. I will consider going into an office or occasionally
traveling for work again when the global health situation is dramatically
improved (timeline unknown).</p>
<p><em>Real talk: why are so many companies still requiring people to relocate right
now? Make the best of this bad situation and learn to support remote work!</em></p>
<h2 id="--about-me"> <i class="fas fa-user"></i> About me<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#--about-me"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h2>
<p>Check out my <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliepagano/">LinkedIn</a> or
<a href="/resume">resume</a> for an overview of my work experience, education, and more.</p>
<p>I am a software engineer with over 13 years of experience that specializes in
frontend web development. My depth in frontend is complemented by a breadth of
experience throughout the stack and non-technical skills that multiply my impact
through communication, collaboration, and leveling up the people around me.</p>
<p>Frontend web development excites me because I get to consider a lot of different
problems (design, UX, performance, accessibility, and so much more) while
getting to write code and fight for a great experience for users. I am
comfortable diving deeper into the stack as part of my job, but frontend is my
happy place. My next job does not need to be 100% frontend, but I want it to be
something I regularly work on.</p>
<p>I spent the last five years focused on React development in ES6, but I am very
open to learning and working with other frontend technologies. My backend
experience includes a smattering of Node, Ruby on Rails, and Java. I have many
years of experience shipping large, complex, cross-team projects. I am known for
my pragmatism, and people that work with me trust me to make good decisions that
balance technical quality and business needs.</p>
<p>In addition to my strong technical skills, I bring a wealth of non-technical
skills to the table that I developed over my years as an architect, tech lead,
mentor, and contributor to the tech community. I am known for my writing and
public speaking. I spearheaded mentoring, coaching, and training in my
workplaces and tech communities.</p>
<p>My most recent role was as a principal engineer and architect. While I enjoyed
my time as an architect helping teams make good technical choices and succeed, I
am hoping for my next role to take me closer to writing code and delivering
features to users again.</p>
<h2 id="-what-im-looking-for"><i class="fas fa-briefcase"></i> What I'm looking for<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-what-im-looking-for"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h2>
<p>The main things I am looking for right now are:</p>
<ul class="fa-ul">
  <li>
    <span class="fa-li"><i class="fas fa-users"></i></span> <strong>Good people</strong> — The people you work with and the culture of the organization are critical. None of the other things matter without them.
  </li>
  <li>
    <span class="fa-li"><i class="fas fa-puzzle-piece"></i></span> <strong>Interesting problems</strong> — I enjoy a challenge, so I can continue to learn and grow. These could be interesting customer needs, technical problems, engineering practices, or some combination thereof.
  </li>
  <li>
    <span class="fa-li"><i class="fas fa-balance-scale"></i></span> <strong>Work/life balance</strong> — We are all living in unprecedented times that are putting an additional strain on our lives. I want to work somewhere that is understanding of this and helping employees find a sustainable balance.
  </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="-location"><i class="fas fa-globe-americas"></i> Location<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-location"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h3>
I am primarily looking for organizations within three time zones of my location in Portland, OR (Pacific time) for reasonable work hour overlap. You do not have to be based in the US, but you do have to be set up to support remote employees based there (e.g. health insurance).
<h3 id="-size"><i class="fas fa-tachometer-alt"></i> Size<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-size"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h3>
I am primarily looking for a small to midsize organization. I've found that the extremes of giant corporations (e.g. IBM, Google) and tiny, early stage startups are less likely to be a good fit for me. That said, I'm open to hearing from you if you think your giant/tiny workplace is an exception that fits what I'm looking for.
<h3 id="-type-of-work"><i class="fas fa-laptop-code"></i> Type of work<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-type-of-work"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h3>
<em>Section added on 2020-07-05 to clarify a bunch of questions I was getting in emails.</em>
<p>As noted in the "about me" section, I am looking for more of a hands-on
individual contributor engineering role right now. I am happy for this to
include some leadership responsibilities (e.g. tech lead, organizing
frontend-focused communities of practice), as long as I am still spending a
reasonable amount of time coding. I am very interested in helping mentor, coach,
and otherwise level up those around me. However, I am not interested in formal
people management responsilities at this time.</p>
<p>Teams that build product for users tend to be the best fit for my experience,
skills, and passion. A team that works on internal tools or other
internal-facing projects may excite me if they are solving some interesting
problems and engage with their internal users to build solid experiences.</p>
<h3 id="-culture"><i class="fas fa-heartbeat"></i> Culture<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-culture"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h3>
The following are some of the things that are important to me in the culture where I work.
<ul>
  <li><strong>Communication &#x26; collaboration</strong> — People work together to solve problems. They share knowledge and collaborate with people from other roles to build the best solutions for users. People err on the side of writing things down to share information with others, which is critical for remote workplaces.</li>
  <li><strong>Emotional intelligence</strong> — People are encouraged to identify, evaluate, control, and express emotions in a healthy way at work and bring empathy to how they interact with others. This is reflected in how people treat one another. Yelling at or belittling others would be out of place and a cause for concern. </li>
  <li><strong>Work/life balance</strong> — You prefer to work smart at a sustainable pace, so you are successful with a low risk of burnout. People work about ~40 hours a week or less and accomplish a lot because of focus and alignment. Working on weekends only happens in extreme situations. When people leave work at the end of the day or go on vacation, they are able to disconnect.</li>
  <li><strong>Continuous delivery</strong> — Teams deploy code and ship features to users regularly. They prefer to deliver value to users in smaller chunks and then iterate (instead of delivering huge features rarely).</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="-pros"><i class="fas fa-thumbs-up"></i> Pros<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-pros"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h3>
<p>The following things will excite me about your organization. Think of them as
bonus points!</p>
<ul>
<li>Flexible work schedule. I tend to work 9:30am-5:30pm PT, but appreciate
flexibility when I need to adjust.</li>
<li>20+ days of paid vacation.
<ul>
<li>If you have unlimited vacation, expect to "show your work." I suggest
information about recommended minimums and the average amount of time off
employees take in a year.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Unlimited sick leave.</li>
<li>401k match.</li>
<li>Support for employees using company time for things like professional
development, open source contributions, and community outreach.</li>
<li>No on call outside work hours. I know this is relatively rare these days, but
I can dream!</li>
<li>Budget for home office setup and recurring home office costs (e.g. internet).</li>
<li>Your organization actively helps people or otherwise does good in the world.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="-cons"><i class="fas fa-thumbs-down"></i> Cons<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-cons"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h3>
<p>The following things will make me less excited about your organization. They're
not dealbreakers, but I will expect to be paid more if some of these practices
are present at your company.</p>
<ul>
<li>Combined vacation &#x26; sick leave (unless you have a very large amount of leave).
This tends to punish employees who get sick, which people rarely have control
over.</li>
<li>Policies that limit what employees can do with their free time (e.g. banning
open source contributions or side projects unrelated to the business).</li>
<li>On call outside work hours. I know this is very common for modern tech jobs,
and I am ok with it as a job requirement at reasonable levels. I just expect
to be paid more to do it.
<ul>
<li>Expect to let me know how often I will be on call (e.g. 1 week every 6
weeks) and how frequently your team tends to get paged outside of business
hours.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Support for very old browsers. I can do it and have for many years, but it
makes me sad.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="-dealbreakers"><i class="fas fa-trash"></i> Dealbreakers<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-dealbreakers"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h3>
<p>The following are dealbreakers. Your organization is not going to be a good fit.</p>
<ul>
<li>Required to work in the office. I'm not going in an office any time soon.</li>
<li>Required to travel. I'm not going in an airplane any time soon.</li>
<li>Heavy on call requirements outside work hours. For example:
<ul>
<li>On call more frequently than 1 week per month.</li>
<li>Very frequent after hour pages for a significant period of time (i.e. your
team likely isn't being allowed to fix underlying issues).</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Your company has zero women employees. I don't want to be a "first" right now.</li>
<li>Your company has zero people of color employees. <em>Why?!</em></li>
<li>Your company sells to ICE and/or CBP.</li>
<li>Low quality or non-existent health care coverage.</li>
<li>Heavy drinking culture. None of us are getting together any time soon, but if
this was a part of your culture before covid, it still worries me.</li>
<li>You don't have HR. Exceptions may be made for early stage startups, but I will
expect the founders to be able to demonstrate an ability to handle HR-related
issues without them.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="--contact-me"> <i class="fas fa-envelope"></i> Contact me<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#--contact-me"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h2>
<p><strong>See note at the top of the post. I am no longer considering any additional
companies right now.</strong></p>
<p>Does all of this sound interesting to you? Awesome! You should contact me if you
meet all of the following criteria.</p>
<ul>
<li>You work for the organization you are contacting me about. Ideally you are a
hiring manager, software engineer, or someone who works closely with the team
(e.g. designer, QA, PM).</li>
<li>You read the post and think your organization would be a good fit for me and
vice versa.</li>
<li>Your organization is hiring now or in the near future.</li>
<li>You are hiring for a role that will be remote for the forseeable future.</li>
</ul>
<p>Please contact me via email at
<a href="mailto:julie.pagano+jobs@gmail.com">julie.pagano+jobs@gmail.com</a> and include
the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>The name of the organization you are contacting me about.</li>
<li>Where the organization is based.</li>
<li>What kind of organization it is (e.g. private/public company, non-profit,
government).</li>
<li>Information about the organization's remote work policies.</li>
<li>A brief description of why the organization would be a good fit for me and
vice versa.</li>
<li>Information about the position(s) and/or a link to relevant job postings.</li>
<li>Any other information you think is useful. For example, I'd love to hear how
you are handling working during covid.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="-faqs"><i class="fa fa-question-circle"></i> FAQs<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#-faqs"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h2>
<h3 id="why-are-you-only-looking-for-remote-jobs">Why are you only looking for remote jobs?<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#why-are-you-only-looking-for-remote-jobs"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h3>
<p>I WANT TO LIVE! No, seriously, this whole covid thing is a lot. Until there is a
clear light at the end of the tunnel (e.g. a vaccine that has been widely
implemented), I will be prioritizing my health over a job that requires working
in an office or traveling. Remote work can be awesome if you care about doing it
right, and I am excited to work somewhere that is making that investment!</p>
<h3 id="why-did-you-leave-your-last-job">Why did you leave your last job?<a aria-hidden tabindex="-1" class="anchor before" href="#why-did-you-leave-your-last-job"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a></h3>
<p>Working at New Relic for over four years has been incredibly valuable for my
growth as a software engineer and as a person. I learned a lot, expanded my
skills, tried out architecture as a role, and finally earned the coveted
"principal" title. I am grateful for the kind and talented people I worked with
during my tenure there. The people and the culture were really what made New
Relic such a great place.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the culture has changed significantly, and it is no longer a good
fit for me. They would not pass the rubric in this post. In particular, the
work/life balance became incredibly challenging during covid with a regular
pressure to work nights and weekends for months on end. I am hoping to find a
more stable and sustainable workplace.</p>

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INACTIVE POST – For a Limited Time Only: Looking for Work (2020 edition)