My friend Tony Wright posted his “Reverse Resume” and after reading through it, I think I could benefit from creating one. The goal of the post is to define what I’m looking for in an ideal position, team and product. While not traveling the world, I recently conducted my own job search and it was quite daunting interviewing at a number of places before finding my fit as a Program Manager at BitTitan. I knew that taking the next step meant that I had to be more thoughtful of my choices. So with that mission ready to go here’s the types of positions, companies and culture that I would like to serve as I look to the future.
The Why: I want to build, run and maintain quality products and services such as Software as a Service or Mobile products utilizing my 15 years of technology and 8 years of Product and Program Management experience. I want to own a product line, feature set or service. I’m passionate about my work and set a high bar for excellence and I thrive off of working with others while evangelizing our efforts with my customers, stakeholders and co-workers.
Positions: Product or Program Manager
Location: Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, WA
Team Size: Less than 250 people; the smaller the better. I would strongly considering a startup if the fit was right.
Culture: I want to truly be part of a wicked smart team who at the same time contribute to a team that knows how to have fun and work hard. I want a place I can bring my son in and say “Daddy works here.” I’m proud of the work I do and I want to be surrounded by people who can challenge and partner with me to make our products more successful. I also want the culture to innovate and to keep improving and always asking how we can be doing better.
Autonomy: I want to be able to make decisions, mistakes and grow with my team and products and services delivered. Openness: This is a relatively new request, but having stints at small startups and epic failures I want the executives to be transparent about our finances at all times. I want to feel like I can talk about anything with my management team, not necessarily as transparent as Moz’s TAGFEE, but some level of inclusion and ability to take feedback.
Consulting/Contracting: Potentially, but I’m looking for Full Time long term employment.
Type of Work: I love problem solving. I need very little direction to get started. Help me identify the problem, the stakeholders, the market and resources and I can grind out the requirements definition to create a functional specification or project plan and begin leading the team on execution. While not married to the Agile framework, I do believe it produces the best predictable results to my stakeholders and customers and I’ve been a certified Scrum master since 2009. I’m fully capable of being both a player and a coach and I love the opportunity to mentor fellow employees as well as learn things from my co-workers. I love Inbound marketing (Technical Marketing, Content Generation, Blogging, Strategic Partnerships, SEO, Email). I love customer evangelism and am happy to do events, webinars or public speaking. I’m sure there are other little things that might make an employer more attractive, but this is a good start.
If you have an opportunity that fits within these general guidelines, please reach out to me at jason [at] jasongrimes [dot] com.
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