When studying Sound and Film at art school, I spent most weekends renting as much equipment as possible, wheeling it into my dorm room, and staying up late creating work. I've been called a workaholic for this kind of behavior and maybe it's true; I really love working on meaningful projects. I also realize that it's an honor and privilege to work on projects I care about.
After Mozilla, I'll be joining Bluecrew full time to help build a platform for working.
Bluecrew creates apps for on-demand staffing (temp work) but with a twist: workers receive W-2 status and everything that comes with it. This includes minimum wage protection, overtime / sick pay, workers' comp., eligibility for healthcare, etc. Bluecrew connects people to jobs like light industrial work, hospitality, and logistics, providing opportunities at varying skill levels.
I live on the edge of Chicago's Austin neighborhood which has a median household income of $18K (in parts like South Austin). Yes, that's household income. When leaders like mayor Lori Lightfoot talk about solving violence and poverty in Chicago they point out how communities such as Austin (a predominantly black community) have been systematically shut out of the work force. Bluecrew is helping address this problem.
Temp work also provides flexibility and autonomy to those with atypical schedules like single parents, students, artists, musicians, etc. More importantly, the future of work feels fragile right now. Automation, artificial intelligence, climate change, populism, and other things I'm probably forgetting are poised to severely disrupt the US economy. On-demand staffing can help employers react quickly to disruption or take chances on bold new ideas.
I'll be doing full stack development on Bluecrew web apps and will focus on improving code architecture, preparing for growth, and mentoring devs. Since frontend is a passion of mine, I was drawn to their React / Redux / Node.JS stack, a solid stack with fantastic tooling focused on productivity. I'm eager to find ways of pushing the team forward and shipping faster but I don't know exactly what I'll be working on yet.
Everyone I've met, especially the founders, are passionate about the mission and have a lot of great ideas. This is the number one thing I assess in a company: the people. If the people are kind, enthusiastic, open minded, and collaborative then everything else falls into place.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to tune and maintain a code base so that a team can react quickly to user needs. Striking a balance between speed and quality is a fine art. I've written a fair bit about this, such as keeping tests fast and I hope to write more about this new journey. Stay tuned.
If you're based in Chicago or SF and this sounds interesting, check out the open roles!