Earlier this day I wrote a thread on twitter. I wanted this thread to be on my blog in an extended version. So here we go:

A recruiter sent me a message on Stack Overflow today: He was looking for a Senior iOS Developer/iOS magician for a Berlin-based health startup promising the usual promises (Startup mentality, flexible working hours, a budget for con­fe­ren­ces and hardware, cutting edge, in­ter­na­tio­nal team, a decent salary...) He stumbled upon my profile and thought it to fit perfectly for that position. Although I told him that I’m not interested, he has made me think about some things.

I’m neither a Senior iOS developer nor an iOS magician/ninja/rock star... I’ve been writing Enterprise iOS Apps as an employee for nearly two and a half years now and I consider myself to be a mediocre — sometimes really bad — iOS developer.

I don’t like working after hours. “startup mentality” and “flexible working” sound to me like “lots of after hours”. I often feel ashamed of code, I wrote in the past and some hacks I wrote yesterday. I think that's a good sign: I got better since then. I don’t like “cutting edge-tech­no­lo­gy” as in my experience, the cutting edge moves pretty quickly.

I want to write robust, well designed, accessible, main­tainable, high-quality software. I’m failing too often to do so. A year, a month or a week ago, I failed more often, so I’m fine with that. Sometimes I wonder: Why the heck does my employer pay me 1742€ per month for the shitty work I’m doing?

Oh, I think it’s important to share how much you earn. I make 1742€ per month for 30 hours per week after taxes and stuff. I’m unionized as I consider solidarity very important. I love to learn and to gain knowledge and share it with other people. Attending one conference a year isn’t enough to learn. A — formerly — secret dream of mine is attending Apple’s annual WWDC.

I want to improve and learn new things every single day and I want my employer to pay me for that. I’m white, young, and male and I want to use my privileges to make the world a better place for everyone. I want to work in a diverse team. I dislike hier­ar­chies and plan offices and I value honest, con­struc­tive feedback. Oh, and com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on on eye level.

As I wrote earlier: I see myself as a mediocre developer, but I want to change that and develop myself both on a pro­fes­sio­nal and personal level. This needs more time, more energy and more failing and will lead to a lot more frus­tra­ti­on, I guess.

My dream is to work in a diverse, inclusive en­vi­ron­ment. My dream is to work on an app I use myself on a daily basis. Fligh­tra­dar­24, for instance, is one of those apps. But I’m too shy to apply for a job there. My dream is getting paid for developing open source software, learning and sharing my knowledge. My dream is getting paid enough to put enough money aside. You know, for when my washing machine and my glasses break at the same time and need to be replaced. Oh, and attending the afo­re­men­tio­ned WWDC.

At the moment I see my job as a tool that pays the bills and enables me to do more in­te­res­ting things than developing Enterprise Apps in my spare time. I’d like to change that one day.