There are countless times throughout my life that I’ve let my lack of self confidence stop me from doing or trying things, especially when I was younger. One that really sticks out to me was the start of grade 11. I was starting at a new school and I thought I would try to makeContinue reading “Self Confidence”
Author Archives: Sandy McFadden
Weekend Automation
So far I haven’t gotten very into home automation. Haven’t had that much of a need and didn’t want to invest much into it without a clear problem to solve. The one exception is for the past couple of Christmases I automated all our lights. We had gotten an Amazon Echo / Alexa for free,Continue reading “Weekend Automation”
What I think good hiring looks like
Now that I’m on the other side of my job search, and very happy with where things landed, I wanted to share some of what I experienced along the way.I want to preface this by saying I know hiring teams are under a lot of pressure. The job market has shifted significantly and that affectsContinue reading “What I think good hiring looks like”
The Job Search
I won’t bury the lede I’m joining n8n, officially starting on March 9th, as a Senior Support Engineer! I’ll write more about n8n in the future, but right now I am really excited and think this is an excellent match. Struggle It’s been eleven months since I was laid off, and although I did takeContinue reading “The Job Search”
❤️ Web
I’m a big fan of the web. Have been for over 30 years. Though I didn’t have access to my own computer, or the internet, until the late 1990’s I still remember the first time going online. It was 1999 when I really became hooked. I was helping people at work get online and spendingContinue reading “❤️ Web”
Online Resume
Since I’ve started the search for the next chapter in my career I’ve been looking for two related but different types of roles. Either a Technical Support Engineer or Software Engineer. For the Technical Support Engineer I’m looking for a role where I’m helping developers use a product. Something that gets fairly technical. Looking atContinue reading “Online Resume”
Rethinking My Path Forward
Things haven’t been going well in my job search. I’ve been more active over the past few months, but the results have been pretty discouraging. Roles I’m fully qualified for, and confident I’d excel in, often end in silence or rejection before I even get a chance to speak with someone. If you’ve been followingContinue reading “Rethinking My Path Forward”
Job hunting update
The past few months have been a roller coaster and extremely humbling. At the start of this process, looking to find a new role, I might have even been a little cocky. Despite being let go as part of a large restructuring I truly felt like I was good at being a software engineer andContinue reading “Job hunting update”
Unexpected Goodbye, Unshakable Gratitude
The past few days have been difficult. After over 10 years working at Automattic my time has come to an end. As with any loss there has been a mix of feelings, but most consistently how I’ve been describing it to those close to me asking is heartbreaking. Although I always knew I didn’t haveContinue reading “Unexpected Goodbye, Unshakable Gratitude”
Unseen influence, unspoken thanks
As I was sitting in a rural high school gym yesterday I found myself reminiscing about my own youth. It wasn’t for a typical reason you might think of for a middle aged man watching high school students play volleyball. Despite liking sports and even once walked into a tryout to play for my highContinue reading “Unseen influence, unspoken thanks”
Sandy McFadden 