The ideal job

As I am currently looking for work, there are several key points that I will review thoroughly before considering the position. Here’s a list in no particular order of what I look at when I’m offered a job :

  • Communication with business teams : if there are several layers between IT and business experts or if it is downright impossible to contact them then this is a problem.
  • Communication avec les équipes ops (Azure experts, system administrators, DBA…) : similarly, we need to be able to work in a healthy environment with the people who control the infrastructure on which our applications run.
  • No toxicity from the team and the management.
  • Diversity and inclusion. A team with diverse profiles will be richer and more effective than a team composed with the same profiles. Tech is a very male-dominated environment, not very inclusive and too off-putting for many people who don’t fit the “cisgender straight white male” stereotype. I want to help change that.
  • Crisis response : it is necessary to have no micro-management during an incident, as well as a good communication on a dedicated channel ; post-crisis, taking a step back (discussions and long-term thinking) and implementing appropriate actions are important assets.
  • “Agility” : is there a flow methodology like Kanban or Lean or is waterfall the main process in use (even camouflaged as sprints) ? Are deadlines important notions ?
  • Remote work : since 2020, I have been able to notice a substantial increase in productivity thanks to remote working. I believe it is an essential ingredient to be used several days per week.
  • Part time work : similarly, I have been working 4 days a week since 2020 and was able to see how beneficial to my productivity and communication skills it was.
  • Continuous improvement : I think it is important that all team members are both aware of their limits and active (even a driving force) to push them back.
  • Welcome change with an open mind : there are sometimes organisational barriers that must be removed or things to improve. Constructive proposals must be welcomed and not rejected.
  • “Test first” mindset : a mandatory tool to ask oneself the right questions from the start and spend a much needed time in the problem space instead of jumping directly into the solution space.
  • In a legacy context : support from the management to solve it. Despite its flaws, legacy code fulfils business needs. It is therefore very precious to the business teams, but it needs to be tackled through fundamental actions that consume both time and money. I can lead this kind of issue, but I do not want to be alone in this fight.

All of these points are debatable but my vision of the ideal job contains all of them.