I’m not quite sure exactly how it happened, but I’ve got a job. One minute I was quietly doing some contract work at home on yet another Rails app; the next, I was halfway around the world, in a place I’d never been, interviewing for a job. Which I got.

Thus, as of last month, I’m working for Stripe. I’ll actually be working in the UK as part of the growing London presence, but, as the company is based in San Francisco, I’ve been out in California for the past three and a bit weeks to get to know how everything works.

It’s interesting. It’s different work from the kind of applications I’ve spent most of my time doing over the past few years, and that’s a pleasant change. There’s decent money to be made in CRUD apps, but I’d been finding that a bit repetitive; one of the things that attracted me to working for Stripe was the availability of new problems to work on.

I try to approach things in a systematic manner, so I’ve set myself a calendar reminder in six months’ time to ask myself six specific questions about whether the new job is everything I hoped:

  • Am I learning?
  • Am I enjoying work?
  • Am I happy with commuting?
  • Have I found time to work on my own projects?
  • Is it easy to wake up?
  • Do I want to spend another year doing this?

One month in, I’m feeling optimistic.

Living—albeit briefly—in San Francisco has been very interesting, too, but that’s a story for another day.

Oh, and we’re hiring, so if you fancy a change, get in touch.