Last week I started a new job at another small software company in the Research Triangle Park area.

For now I’m going to refrain from mentioning the name of my new employer here, since I’ve learned that some firms are hyper-sensitive about information control and have bots running to alert them to any “violations”. For now, I’ll just say that my decision to change jobs was based primarily on simply having been recruited away with a better offer – quite unsolicited, I might add! It had little to do with my being unhappy with my previous job, really, although there are always risks associated with any startup. My new employer is a more established company with a more palettable risk/opportunity ratio. I’m also working with Java again, which is great. Python was fun, but (as with other scripting languages like Perl and PHP) not ideal for complex commercial products. I’ve said this for years but never actually used python professionally. Now that I’ve had 4 months of python under my belt, I can say it with more authority. I’d be happy to share my reasons for this, but that’s a subject for a different post.

There are several things I LOVE about my new job:

1. This company actually empowers developers by providing them with the best computers, monitors, and tools money can buy. For the first time in my career, my work computer (a brand new top-of-the-line Mac desktop) is actually significantly better than my home machine. It’s always baffled me why companies will spend huge amounts of money on developer salaries, then cripple them by refusing to buy them decent machines and software. I’m especially glad this company chose Intelli-J for their IDE, and all the developers use it. This is such a no-brainer, and I find it astonishing that most companies just let their developers use whatever IDE they want, because the collaborative features in Intelli-J such as TeamCity integration and IDETalk are hella-useful, and using a shared IDE eliminates wasted time dealing with configuration issues, since everyone uses the same config. I was up & coding on my first day.

2. They outsource their Exchange server at intermedia.net. This pretty much means they don’t need to hire a full time IT guy, and I can access my corporate email from anywhere without dealing with a VPN. Nice.

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4. This is the first company I’ve worked for in quite some time that actually has a product roadmap laid out, with very specific goals for the upcoming year. Again, amazingly, this is something that many companies – even those with legions of overpaid executives who are supposed to be running the show – never manage to achieve. I guess those companies are too busy putting out fires and writing status reports to actually put a plan together. (?)

5. Speaking of overpaid executives, this company is shockingly devoid of them. There’s the usual top brass, of course – the “C”-level folks doing the big picture stuff – but there is no “middle management” layer at all. The developers are all extremely professional and more than capable of managing themselves. There’s no need for a development manager because of the internal transparency throughout the organization, and aforementioned planning.

In short, this company is structured exactly as I would do it if I were creating my own company. Hire great people, give them great tools and a clear vision, and let them execute. Pinch me, I must be dreaming!