Today was contract renegotiation day. They’re looking at bringing me on as an employee, which I am ambivalent towards: I love freedom, I love dental coverage, and never the twain shall meet.

To that end, they’re getting me to help them revise their hiring process, towards which I am also ambivalent: I get to pick my own coworkers, but I have to do HR — traditionally the most useless development task of all.

How does one hire coders? Interesting question. More to follow (and much discussion, I imagine). Since I’m building HR policy from the ground-up, here’re my preliminary decrees:

HR policy #1: We will never hire anyone who has had anything to do with iTrade or Canada Post.

HR policy #2: We will never hire anyone on my shitlist.

HR policy #3: all my industry friends now have job offers (let me know if you want one).

Corrupt, I know. Fun, too!

I find myself needing lightweight CRM software. Trello helped me convert a contact into a later opportunity that I need to follow up on, but storing information in TODO lists is like storing TODO lists in email: stress-generating and bad.

Anyway, more later. For now: Drive with Jill @ The Fox.

[Update: there is no good small/micro business CRM software. 37 Signals was on it, but I guess that project failed -- or converted to Highrise. I just want a one-user-free solution.]

Remember The Ventletter? Well, I actually did something much more strange. I’m really interested in people’s opinions here. I’ve noticed a certain uniformity in reaction.

When the company called and asked for references, I decided I’d had enough. The CEO asked me to track down a reference they were having trouble contacting and something in his tone made me furious.

I called up my other references and had them all agree to two things:

1. That we hadn’t discussed what to say to the guy.
2. That when I work overtime I sometimes, playfully, strangle coworkers.

And that, as they say, was the end of that. He was digging, so I gave him something to find — a strategy from poker. I’m collating reports from my obliging refs, perhaps for another update.

I’ve seen a couple of beneficial side effects already. First, I feel better about my interactions with the douche — like I counted coup. Second, I broke a creative block I’ve had on a story I’ve been working on for a couple of years about the games industry. Third, I feel more confident — I got an anecdote out of an unpleasant encounter. Fourth, I feel more connected to my references. Fifth, I didn’t send someone a crazy fucking letter.

I’m sure the list will grow.

I was just asked some pointed questions in a company’s second interview. They want to talk to me again next week, but I am fuming and considering sending the following (this is one of the benefits of pseudonymous posting — I can do this, have the satisfaction and self-esteem boost of a public whinge, and then send it or not depending on how I feel tomorrow). It’s ordered from most-to-least likely for me to actually send:

Hi Chris:

I thought some more about the questions you asked during our meeting, and I have some different answers.

First, it is standard in the game industry to take time off, and even change studios, between projects. I have left studios for a variety of reasons, including being headhunted and to pursue educational interests. I have also stayed at studios for consecutive projects, and been invited back to ones I left. I was wrong-footed when you asked me about this so pointedly and might not have responded skillfully.

Second, I have multiple interests and I have been fortunate enough to be able to explore lots of educational avenues: the visual arts, business, computer science. If I choose to go back to university again, next time I’ll probably study anthropology or linguistics. Or maybe philosophy. Or French.

Third, I think diverse skills are both valuable and needed in the game industry. I can code. I can critique visual layouts. I can budget. But only by accident — I just studied things that interested me and, as luck would have it, found out that I’ve got multidimensional competencies. You’d need to hire two or three people to duplicate my skill set — think of the cost!

The questions you asked revealed more of your understanding of HR best practices than, perhaps, was wise. You seem to think my background is fragmentary whereas I think of it as broad. This makes me think you are looking for someone who is “just a coder”, whereas, in the words of Marshall McLuhan, I am not looking for a J-O-B, I am looking for a R-O-L-E.

Given that disconnect, I don’t think we’re a good fit. Thanks for the opportunity, but I don’t want to explore this particular avenue any further.

Sincerely,

[Jack]

This company has severely upset me twice during the interview process, so that’s it for them regardless of my decision to send this or not. “Won’t be a strike three ’cause I don’t play fair.” But, via BB, some mollifying quotes from Steve. Another fave was “getting fired from Apple was the best thing that ever happened to me.”