.. Ross Patterson's Blog imported post, created by `$ ./bin/rfc822-to-post` on Mar 15, 2021.

.. meta::
   :description: I'm available for work and am interested in contract/consultant projects or a position with a team.

.. post:: Sep 14, 2011
   :author: Ross Patterson
   :redirect:  @@redirect-to-uuid/5e024d1a-7704-4490-9c45-e4cb4a8de690

##################################
Looking for Projects and/or a Team
##################################

    I'm available for work and am interested in contract/consultant projects or a position with a team.

I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about which direction I
want to take my professional life as a software developer and I've
come to some conclusions.  I'll detail more about that below if you're
interested in my process and thinking on that but first I'll summarize
what I'm looking for.

Consulting/Contract Opportunities
    I'm perfectly happy to keep working independently or as a
    sub-contractor with a larger consultancy on `Plone
    <http://plone.org/>`_ projects.  I know Plone very well and am
    very happy to continue working with it on projects such as:

    * Intranet workflow/business-process applications
    * Custom web publishing CMS projects
    * Quickly solving critical problems as a Plone "hired gun"
    * Building a project while also cross-training internal developers
    * Social justice related projects
    * Etc., pretty much any Plone project

Opportunities with a Team
    I'm eager to join a team, either as an employee or as a
    contractor, that can offer some of the following:

    * More collaboration as a part of a team that genuinely like each other
    * More technological diversity outside of Plone/Zope
    * Opportunity to work on social justice related projects

Team Collaboration
==================

I've been working as an independent freelancer since 2005 in one form
or another.  I've probably worked about 1/3 as a "sub-contractor" for
a larger consultancy as a developer team member on larger projects.
The rest of my work has been as a solo contractor doing everything
from requirements gathering to deployment and support, end-to-end.

This has worked quite well for me.  I've got my personal project
management down to an art such that context switches cost either
project almost no time.  I enjoy the flexibility a lot such as being
able to work from home or my favorite cafe and also being able to work
at the times of day and the week when my brain is most productive.
(Oddly, I seem to be most productive writing code between midnight and
4AM, and more so Sunday nights to Monday mornings, go figure.)

I started working with Plone in 1999-2000 and initially I was a total
hermit, not getting involved in the community at all.  Eventually, I
started to come out of my shell and get more involved.  It was
something I waited far too long to do, especially in a community as
awesome and fun to work with as Plone's.  I've enjoyed the greater
interaction and collaboration in software development a lot and I'm
interested in having more of that in my working life.

As such, I'm interested in opportunities to join a team where there's
a solid connection and more collaboration.  I do enjoy my swingin'
freelancing location and hours flexibility, but I'm interested in
making that trade-off for the opportunity to work closely with people
with whom I have a good rapport.

Happy Code Monkey
=================

For the last few years, I've also been wondering where I might want to
take my career.  It seemed to me there were two basic models for
advancement as a software developer and they're kind of the same
model: IT management, or starting a business.  While I'm very good at
solo project management, I'm not well suited to managing a team.  I
greatly value a good project manager, they're just a godsend.
Similarly, I'm just not inspired by the challenges of running a
business.  More generally, I don't have much natural capacity in those
domains and my lack of passion there means I'd be no good at
developing capacity there.

I suppose another "path for advancement" might be as someone who
creates new software frameworks, code used by code to build things.
Whether or not you think of that as a path for advancement, I have
similar feelings about this path.  I very much enjoy participating in
and contributing to the development of exciting frameworks and I feel
I have a lot to contribute there, but I'm not passionate about leading
such projects.

Finally it occurred to me that maybe I should just set my sights on
what I'm already passionate about, being a happy code monkey, a
conclusion aided and finalized by too many drinks with Liz and Spanky
after a sprint.  :-)  I find this conclusion very liberating which I
take as affirmation.

As such, I'm looking for opportunities where being a happy code monkey
is valued.  IOW, I'm interested opportunities to join a team with more
diverse opportunities for advancement other than IT management or
ownership.

Diversifying
============

I am a self-taught web developer who has spent most of that time as a
freelancer who *loves* working with the stack he first learned.  It's
hard to formulate a better recipe for over-specialization.  This is a
difficult issue because I really do love working with Plone but I also
know I would be happier and a better developer having more diversity
in my experience.

As such, I'm very interested in opportunities where I can leverage my
current expertise to gain new experience.  Anything in the Python web
app world would be good since I have very strong `Python
<http://bfg.repoze.org/>`_ skills.  Working with the new direction
`Pylons <https://www.pylonsproject.org/>`_ is taking, `Pyramid
<https://www.pylonsproject.org/projects/pyramid/about>`_, could be an
even better fit since I can leverage my in-depth familiarity with it's
`Zope <http://bfg.repoze.org/>`_ underpinnings and heritage.

Social Justice
==============

Finally, while I've gotten to work with clients in the education
domain here and there as well as some non-profits I support heartily,
I've never had the opportunity to work on projects relating to the
issues I am most passionate about, social justice issues.  I'm
interested in any opportunities to work on projects for organizations
doing work on queer, gender, labor, race, or environmental justice
issues.  I'm *very* interested in working for any technology
organization that provides technology services to such organizations.

Summary
=======

If you're looking for a consultant/contractor or a team member, or
know of any such opportunities, which you think I'm suited for.
Please let me know.  Here is my contact information and links to my
online resumes.

    :Name: Ross Patterson
    :Resume: `LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/rossp>`_
    :Resume: `Careers 2.0 <http://careers.stackoverflow.com/rpatterson>`_
    :Email: `me@rpatterson.net <mailto:me@rpatterson.net>`_
    :Phone: +1 (415) 894-5323
    :IRC: zenwryly@irc.freenode.net
    :plone.org:  `rossp <http://plone.org/author/rossp>`_
    :GTalk: merpattersonnet@gmail.com
    :Yahoo IM: patterson_ross
    :AIM: rosspatters
    :MSN: me@rpatterson.net


.. update:: Oct 30, 2012

   Imported from Plone on Mar 15, 2021.  The date for this update is the last
   modified date in Plone.