Brilliant assholes versus hilarious frauds
… And that wraps up possibly my most enjoyable and successful job role I’ve had in about the last five years. A three-month web dev contracting job! Loads of fun. Couple of reasons:
- This was the first really big role I’d kicked off after starting ADHD meds (Rubifen SR). Turns out sustained focus isn’t a pipe dream at all, and it’s actually possible to bang out loads of programming code without burning out. I’m not joking. This stuff has doubled-to-tripled my sustainable productivity. It’s like night and day.
- In web-dev-land, my hiring jumped the rails a bit, in the most glorious way you can imagine. Normally, most tech companies follow a standard two-interview format. The first is a happy jolly getting-to-know-thee cafe chat, and if we click, we move on to Two, a deeper denser techie grilling. Fun fun. But turns out the company owner happily made me a formal offer after only half an hour into One.
We got chatting, and I’d mentioned I was a teensy bit hung over. I’d attended the hilarious and steamy union of Glenn Senior and Sarah Song Senior the evening before, and figured it might be a lark to wear a kilt suit. Three piece tuxedo, sporran, fake ceremonial dagger, the works.
And oh man. The comments! The feedback! Never in my entire life had I ever encountered so much as a hint, even in the most heliummed-up jesting, about a male guest upstaging the bride. (The bride herself thought and thinks this was hilarious, by the way, I’d checked with her about mentioning this, it’s all good.) But there’s a first for everything, right?
I left the event thoroughly satisfied and convinced of the wisdom of purchasing a MacRae-tartan kilt of my own. Seriously. You should see the looks on peoples’ faces whenever I mention this. Love love love. Adoration universal. Why aren’t kilts more popular, seriously?
(Edit: me and my big mouth. The shop I’d hired the suit-plus-paraphernalia from, highlandetc.co.nz, quoted an original bespoke MacRae-tartan kilt at $870. As bespoke formal attire goes, that’s actually not overly eye-gouge-y; a custom-tailored business suit regularly retails for >$2k. But still. Answered my own question.)
Anyhoo. It would appear my now-new manager includes himself in the Kilts-Are-Magnificent brigade. He too declared all this was hilarious, and made me a job offer on the spot, how cool is that?
Naturally I accepted, and knuckled down with work. Some days later, though, curiosity gnawed me: “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,” I asked, “but rocking a kilt isn’t quite the same thing as being a skilled programmer, right? Wasn’t your offer still a teensy gamble? I might have been hilarious and shit!”
He laughed again, and said “Yeah you’re right, but it’s nowhere near as big a dice roll as you’d think. I have to work closely with whoever I hire, every day. Your CV already shows me you’ve got coding chops. But you get all sorts applying. I’ve met a ton of brilliant assholes … but very few hilarious frauds. And I know who I’d rather work alongside.”