I can’t believe I’ve never made this list.
1989-90: Akard’s True Value Hardware — Stocker/Customer Assistance
My first real job when I turned 14. Full time in the summer, part time during school. The owner was like something out of a made-for-tv remake of a Dickens novel: A beady-eyed hunched-over monster who sat in his upstairs office peering out his window at everyone in the store and counting money. I hated him. People were nice though. This is where I learned the difference between straw and hay during an embarrassing exchange.
1990-1993: Marsh Grocery — Sacker
This was a big step up, from $4/hr to $5.25. I felt rich. I loved this job. The work was fun, the coworkers were diverse (in age) and kind, and the managers were nice. This was small-town Indiana where if they ran out of the sale item they’d give you the name-brand version for the same price. Once I accidentally left one sack behind when packing a cart and my manager called the customer and sent me to her house to deliver the bag and an apology. My girlfriend-now-wife worked here too.
1993: Taco Bell — Cashier and Floor Mopper
I wanted some extra cash before I moved. A friend was assistant manager at the new Taco Bell and they agreed to let me do odd jobs for a couple of weeks before heading out of state. They never paid me. It devolved to me calling the owner repeatedly at 2:00 am and ask him to please send my check, while he swore at me and said there was nothing I could do about it because it was undocumented so he wasn’t paying me.
1993-1995: CompUSA — Macintosh Sales
Got this job a week or so after moving to Phoenix. I was a terrible salesman but I knew a ton about macintosh computers so I had a very loyal customer base. We had a lot of fun playing around between customers at this job. But ultimately sales was not my bag.
1995-1997: MicroAge — Apple Computer Technical Support
MicroAge had a contract to provide some of Apple’s call-in support. “Thank you for calling the Apple Assistance Center! My name is Geoff. May I get your first name please?” I said that 80 times a day. I actually loved this job and was very good at it because I knew everything about macs and I have a patient disposition. I also learned to build database systems in FileMaker Pro here. Alas the company was awful and I became something of a corporate robin hood before I quit.
1995-1998: WorqSmart — Database Engineer
I took what I learned about FileMaker Pro at MicroAge and parlayed it into a job at a small consulting firm in Phoenix. I was genuinely surprised that people would pay money for something as easy as using FileMaker. I met a life-long friend here and started my real career as a software engineer. We did really early pioneering work in dynamic web applications here, which established the direction of my whole career. But, the partners began to fight and then the good partner left so I left too.
1998: New Perspectives Software — Software Engineer
We moved to flagstaff so I could do software engineering for this startup selling small-office management software. Flagstaff was beautiful and the work was fun, but their primary funder ran into financial problems and canceled his disbursements abruptly. They shut the doors a year after I started. We lost our health insurance when my wife was two months pregnant. This was before Obamacare so we were uninsurable. Luckily we had no major medical issues during that time.
1998-1999: Independent Contractor
I did freelance database work while we finished school. This often involved driving to phoenix on Thursday afternoon after classes, working 15 hour days Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and driving back late Sunday night for class Monday morning. While my wife managed a new baby at home all alone all weekend. Ah to be young again.
1999-2001: Micron Technology — Software Engineer
For my first out-of-college job I worked as a systems programmer in Micron’s IT department in Idaho. Loved the job. Loved the work. Loved the people. Hated the town. It was so remote and we just missed the culture, friends, and life of a bigger city. I learned Perl at Micron which was fun, and built my first and last Microsoft ASP based web application.
2001-2004: Waves in Motion — Software Engineer
Back to the FileMaker world where I built plugins for FileMaker, supported other product development efforts, did some contract database work, and wrote documentation. True story: When I gave notice, I explained that I couldn’t manage all my workload and still be there for my wife. With a straight my boss said “Have you considered that maybe your wife is holding you back? Maybe you should be giving her notice.” The HR director said she was shocked I didn’t punch him. I just said “no.”
2004: Intentionally Unemployed
I went back to school for my masters degree. Then six months into that I got a book deal from O’Reilly. We had two small children. So I decided to stop working for a few months to focus on the book and school at night and be present to my family during the day. I loved loved loved my long late nights writing.
2004-2007: Allegro Enterprises — Director of IT
I started doing contract work after the book was finished, but this client convinced me to work for them full time managing their internal database efforts and managing the rebuild of their web store. I hired four awesome engineers here. One of them went on to be my business partner for seven years (see below), another is my boss now. All of them are still close friend. We also did awesome engineering work here if I may say so.
2007-2015: Six Fried Rice, LLC — Principal and Engineering Manager
My coworker Jesse and I left Allegro and started this software consulting firm. It was fun, uplifting, and engaging the whole time. He was a perfect partner. Our clients were for the most part an absolute blessing, and work was relatively steady. This was a great time. But…it eventually stopped feeling like a challenge.
2015-Present: Apple, Inc — Software Engineer
Two of my employees at Allegro left after me and took jobs at Apple. They spent the next 7 years trying to convince me to leave Six Fried Rice and join them, but I loved my job too much. Once it started to feel less fulfilling I opened the dialogue with Apple about my needs and they were very accommodating so I made the switch. That last year and a half has been exactly what I wanted: new challenges, learning new things, doing work I’m proud of, and flexible enough to be present for my family.
“Some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but I’ve had a good life all the way.”