A New Job For Topher

My time at HDC ended in early December, and I’ve been kicking around the idea of getting a job ever since. I made myself CEO of HeroPress on LinkedIn with the idea of maybe making that my main gig, but it would be startup lifestyle for a while, and I hate that life. Don’t get me wrong, I love HeroPress, really enjoyed the work, but its current funding is not exactly employment funding.

Recently I was hanging out in Bangkok (as one does) and I mentioned to my friend JC that I was looking around and she said “Hey! My team at WebDev Studios is looking for a backend developer! Would you apply?”

So I explained to her that I don’t really consider myself a dev anymore. She smiled and said I should look at the position. As it turns out, the work they would have me do is exactly what I love doing. I did some building on HeroPress over my “sabbatical” and really enjoyed it quite a lot, so the idea of getting paid to do it really appealed.

JC asked me the next day if I’d applied yet, (I hadn’t) so I sat down at lunch and applied. Almost immediately I got some very simple vetting tests and went through those and quite quickly got an email asking for an interview! It was really refreshing to have quick responses from a place I applied to. Other places have waited weeks or even not responded. Score 1 more for WDS.

The interview went quite well, and they sent me a code test. Fortunately for me it was something I knew how to do really well, and they said I could do it in any language I wanted. So I did it in PHP but also Javascript, which I had told them I don’t know (I don’t). The code review went well and they made an offer and I took it.

Today is my first day.

We’ve already done a little setup though. I got my new laptop the other day and got it all set up. They sent me my onboarding doc, and I have to say this is one of the very best onboarding processes I’ve ever experienced. The entire first week has every hour of the week planned out, telling me what I’m supposed to be doing or learning and who it’s with.

I haven’t even started yet (I’m writing this yesterday) and already I know when I’m going to meet with HR, the engineering team, my dev team, and everyone else. No questions, it’s all laid out for me. Beautiful.

So what about HeroPress?

WDS has no restriction on side gigs, so I’m certainly allowed to keep it going. In the last few months I’ve refined a lot of processes as well, so I think I can maintain the pace I’ve had for the last month or so. One essay per week, one podcasts episode every 2 weeks, a photo per week, a video tip of the week, and an weekly email newsletter. Automation helps a lot.

I’m going to continue to try to raise funding for HeroPress for a couple reasons. One is simply to reduce debt, but the bigger one is that I’d still like HeroPress to support an employee someday. I’ll keep building the audience and talking to sponsors and I have some dreams of supporting some people some day. We shall see.

Many thanks to all who have supported me thus far, I love and appreciate you!