I use this section to cover anything I really want people to know about me, but that would be strange to bring up out of the blue.
- The preferred shortening of my name is 'Zac', but 'Zach' is fine too.
- My time is valuable to me, I have a lot of hobbies and spend a lot of time studying, so I keep strict working hours and disengage from work outside of those hours.
- I worked in a highly regulated industry on safety critical products (medical devices), so I value rigor, testing, and accuracy. I know a lot about Systems Engineering and process design.
- 8:30 -> 17:00 Berlin (CEST)
- 15:30 -> 01:00 Tokyo (GMT+9)
I am highly driven by my personal values and find that sharing these can often avoid conflict with people who do not share them.
- Fairness: Co-workers being treated fairly in terms of practical resources (time, money, etc) is very important to me. I don't like seeing co-workers work excessively.
- Reliability: Making commitments and sticking to them, I don't mind if you try and fail to get something done, but I often plan around commitments people have made, so forgetting to do things you've commited to frustrates me.
- Democracy: I value a flat team structure and like everyone to be able to have their input heard and valued, I don't like rigid hierarchies.
- Commit to things and stick to them.
- Be concise and to the point. Try not to labor points or ramble too much.
- Don't drag meetings on and keep the overall meeting length in mind.
- Stay focused on the point at hand, and finish discussing one point before moving onto a tangent or other point.
- Be practical, realistic, and pragmatic. Always consider available resources (time) when discussing an idea or task.
- Differentiate between 'ideal solution' and 'practical given current constraints'.
- It's fine to call me with no prior schedule, but ask on Slack first and be specific about what kind of meeting it is. (general chat? specific purpose?)
- If I message you asynchronously, I don't expect an immediate response, take your time.
- I like to receive feedback on my performance.
- I like to receive direction on what results my manager would like to see that are not currently being seen.
- I like to receive feedback on my transparency and how easy it is to see how/what I'm doing.
- I like to discuss short/medium/long term goals for me and my team.
- I like to hear about your current well-being and work-life balance.
- I like to take action on any problems or personal issues, let me know how I can help.
- I like to receive feedback from you about your experience on the team and your relationship with me.
- I'm fine with skipping 1:1s if you wish, but I will rarely skip them. If you'd prefer not to have the meeting this time, let me know, and I'll tell you if I had specific topics to discuss.
- Architecture: I specialize in systems engineering and architecture and am motivated by greenfield projects where I can make these decisions and plan.
- Clean Code: I'm motivated by writing clean, readable, testable code.
- Specification: I like to plan and specify projects or tasks before executing them. I prefer not to 'hack'.
- Delivery: I like to see progress and deliver projects.
I am flexible for meetings to accomodate people in Tokyo or other timezones, if you give me 24+ hours notice, I can be up early or available later to accomodate your timezone.