Me/CV/corp

Woozle Nicola Staddon

Durham, NC — cv2019@woozalia.com

Executive Summary

How I can help you:

• I design software/business systems and subsystems, either solo or as part of a team.
• I can create documentation to any required level of detail. (I like documentation; it makes my job easier.)
• I'm deeply into PHP and fluent in SQL (especially MySQL, though I have also worked with other variants)., with at least 5-10 k hours of coding time (best guess).
• I am intimately familiar with Linux system administration, especially the LAMP stack
• I typically learn new technologies by using them, so am willing to attempt whatever other tools you might need me to become familiar with; in return, I will let you know if I see any better options.

Requirements

Immediate

Long-term

Workplace must be a safe space with a culture that is supportive of diversity and the practicalities of getting work done. I enjoy making people's lives better by solving problems. I also like being paid a living wage or better. I am willing to do work that primarily benefits shareholders and therefore aids in the concentration of wealth, but it will cost extra. I will obviously want to know more about how your company or work is beneficial, how any profit is shared, etc. I prefer to work remotely, but am open to other arrangements if there is a good reason for doing things differently. I am not open to relocation on a permanent basis, though I might consider temporary relocation for a span of time. Generally, I do not make or receive phone calls.Business communication belongs in non-ephemeral media. It may be nice to converse vocally on occasion, but this should not be the primary means of conveying important information or agreements. No silly hoop-jumping, please.

These are not deal-breakers, but if they are a problem I will agitate whenever I bump into them: I am allergic to BS, especially the authoritarian varieties. No cube-farms, no compulsory meetings for no apparent reason, no power-games or headgames. Must use good collaborative software (project management, wiki, chat, etc.) and have good channels of communication. No deep/sacred hierarchies. No "performance"-worship. There must be respect for the long-term sustainability of the enterprise. Needs and requirements for any given project, or the impetus for evaluating needs and requirements, must be stated clearly and must not arbitrarily change.

History

• 2018.05 - 2019.02 -- PaperDemon: creating and maintaining features for an art-sharing web site written with PHP, MySQL, and Smarty templates.
• 2018.01 - present -- hosting/maintaining toot.cat, a popular (1000+ users) Mastodon instance
• 2011.07 - 2014.11 -- Swashbuckler Interactive: creating and maintaining features fur multiple web sites in PHP and MySQL, often using Drupal.
• 2007.09 - 2010.04 -- ResearchBuy: created MediaWiki skin to match PhotoShop images, integrated with PayPal to support content paywall; web site maintenance
• 2007.09 - present -- Sage & Swift / Watts Grocery: network, web, email, and software maintenance for a catering business and a restaurant
• 1999 - 2001 -- Carrier Transicold: writing and maintaining business applications using MS Access, Visual Basic, MS SQL Server
• 1997 - 1999 -- Pierce Manufacturing: developing user interfaces in C++ for computer control of auxiliary systems in fire engines
• 1990 - 1991 -- Duke University: developing neural network simulations for natural language processing applications in Pascal and C++
• 1985 - 1989 -- Brown University: developing data collection and analysis programs in FORTRAN and Pascal for behavior research

A full history of my computing experience is here.

Further Reading

• Developer hiring and the market for lemons "...almost [every employer] uses the same filters [for screening applicants], so everyone ends up fighting over the 30 people who they think are solid. When people do randomized trials on what actually causes resumes to get filtered out, it often turns out that traits that are tangentially related or unrelated to job performance make huge differences."
• Normalization of deviance in software: how broken practices become standard
• 2017-07-24 12+ Ways Job Applications Discriminate Against Applicants: you're always up against the "cream of the crop", and what constitutes "cream" can be quite arbitrary
• 2014-06 Inside the Mirrortocracy