richter

After 26 years of life, I finally love my job! Last week I was talking to co-workers, drinking a Yahoo!-made Lemon Drop, and thinking about all the things I love about it here (besides obviously loving doing web development):

1. Flexible Schedule

   I usually come in around 10am. I usually leave around 7pm. But nobody asks and nobody seems to care. When I initially asked my boss what my schedule would be, he replied, “Our core hours are 10 to 5. Those are usually when meetings are.” Outside of that, my job is just to get my work done.

   I take lunch when I’m hungry, I answer my cell when it rings, and I play foos when invited. I meet my deadlines and everyone’s happy. Hours/scheduling is not an issue, and it’s amazing how much stress that eliminates.

2. Cool Product

   I basically work on toys. Admittedly, not many people I’ve spoken to have heard of Widgets, but that’s ok — we’re growing and working on that. (The site is crazy popular though — check out the downloads on my Shark! Widget) Either way, my job is secure and I genuinely enjoy our product, find it worthwhile and fun, and am quite proud of the work we do. It’s a very nice change of pace from the K-12 content management system I hardly cared a lick about.

3. Brand Recognition

   Everybody has heard of Yahoo! Most people use our services in one form or another. If not webmail, then finance, if not finance, then peronals (and so forth). Also, it feels good knowing I’m among the best at what I do. We only hire experienced veterans who know their shit. I’m quite proud to be a part of that.

4. Industry Access

   I really didn’t know what to call this bullet point. I considered Advanced Expertise or something… this is why I’m not a technical writer! Basically what I’m getting at with this point is that we’ve got fancy tools to get our work done. We have some of the very best engineers that have been using Apache, MySQL, FreeBSD and all of our other tools for years. We have constant keynotes, presentations, workshops and hundreds of very active mailing lists where you can tap into this knowledge base. I feel like anything is possible.

   Hell, we have Rasmus Lerdorf working here. Who better to ask about PHP than the guy that got it off the ground?

5. Perks

   Free coffee (and I mean lattes with whip cream), free soda, catered lunches, occasional alcoholic beverages, Mac Book Pro provided to me, on-site gym, sauna and personal showers (with soap and shampoo), 24″ desktop monitor, random shwag, shuttle to San Francisco… the list goes on.

   Also, we get a free convention per year! Looks like I’ll be attending An Event Apart on the house! Pics eventually, I hope.

Sorry if this seems pretentious. I’m excited about this and have a hard time not talking/writing about it.