The new guy

Our newest developer is an affable California actor/musician named Mike. He came to Ai very deliberately: not just to take on a new job, but to have a new experience, shifting from freelance life on the west coast to a full-time gig at a boutique agency in Manhattan.

We thought it'd be interesting to hear Mike's take on joining Ai. Here is his story.

It's 80 degrees in California. The sun is shining, the surf is epic, and I'm enduring a bone-chilling winter in New York City; I've accepted a job here at Alexander Interactive, and these are my reflections on my first couple of months here.

Prior to taking this job, I've spent a long time freelancing, largely because I wanted the flexibility to pursue music and acting, but also because there's a certain stubborn pride in flying solo.

As a freelance developer you have opportunities to interact with so many different kinds of organizations. You see their strengths and weaknesses; the star players that make them great, and the mediocre-types that weigh them down. You bounce in for a while to launch a new web property or maybe to incubate a fledgling app idea with a prototype.

But then when it comes to evaluating these engagements as full-time employment opportunities, you start to sound like Goldilocks - this company's too big; that one's too small. This one's too structured or limiting; that one's too disorganized or perhaps underfunded for their expectations. Some companies define us too rigidly, while still others lack enough methodology and process for us to grow as individuals, team members, decision-makers, artists and engineers.

At the end of the day, the choice of employment is an exercise in personal branding ... and I was fundamentally unwilling to marry my personal brand to that of an organization, big or small. Was it a fear of commitment? Was it that I felt the other "hats" or interests would somehow be lost upon taking a "full-time" job as a web developer? Did I think that somehow an employer would dismiss my range of possibilities? Or had I simply not found an organization that I was going to be proud to be a part of?

Some people said I had the perfect LA life - 5-minute commute to my own office, flexible schedule to surf and rehearse with my band, coding through my twilight primetime as I pleased. I had complete flexibility, which was great, but it was a lonesome existence. Encounter a problem? Just me and The Google, baby. I was lacking community, challenge, and direction; and I knew it.

What makes this Ai place special, isn't that everyone here is excellent at some piece in the web development puzzle. It's that the people here are real people, bringing their talents as "individuals" to the team - and trying to excel in disciplines beyond those called upon at work.

A tech lead is leaving work with a violin amidst a 60-hour week, on his way to orchestra rehearsal. Another dude is reading Chekhov ... in Russian! Yet another has made a career change from teaching, and enjoys discussing philosophy. One of the javascript gurus plays bass like Jaco! The list goes on, of course, but already it's sounding contrived. My point is that people here are fascinated by a lot more than just elegant code and sleek design - they're drawn in by the patterns of the world at large.

And this drive to see order in the world and in our work pays off big for clients. People here kill themselves to build things the right way. Folks here groan when clients stubbornly choose less-than-usable solutions. Everyone here hang their hats on goodness, and it's not in a taking-credit or competitive sense - it's in the genuine appreciation of a solid product.

I'm really fortunate (and stoked, in the California vernacular) to have discovered a group of 40 men and woman that are doing solid work, and having fun while doing it. If my fooseball skills can improve half as much as my programming has, I'm going to be all set -- actually strike that -- my fooseball skills need a pretty severe overhaul.

When I came in for interviews in December, my final interviewer had googled me and found a goofy YouTube video of me dancing at a wedding a couple of years ago. I shook my head and thought "Oh man, that's it - there's no way I'm getting that job" as I left the interview. Upon recounting this episode now to one of the founders, he responded "Are you kidding me? That video's *why* we hired you." Amen to people with a sense of humor in an age with no *real* privacy.

There's great stuff going on here. We've just built a social network using Ruby-on-Rails, we're building beautifully-usable websites, and we're helping our clients extend their brands everywhere from Facebook to the iPhone. And you know what? It feels really good to say "we". And for my old colleagues and clients reading this - I'm happy to say, I'm still available to build to help build your digital idea. Because now I'm part of a killer team, doing just that. No longer a solo artist - I'm with the band, man.

And for all you maverick freelancers out there that could never imagine ever setting foot in an office again, consider that this is a golden time to be at this company of this size - a delicate balance of freedom and know-how accountability. And though I'm miles away from "home", it feels a bit like a homecoming.