Hello, I’m James Winfield and I’m a senior front-end software engineer. You may know that already.
What do I want?
I currently work for M&S and they are a very good company to work for, but I am open to other opportunities if you know of something really interesting.
This is what I’m looking for:
1. £90k. I’m from Yorkshire so happy to get straight to the point. There’s no point in offering me lower as M&S could easily counter-offer up to around £80k and I like it sufficiently here, albeit I am too unchallenged at the moment.
2. A modern tech stack. I need to develop as an engineer, so I’m only looking for projects using React, TypeScript, etc that are going to feed into my personal development – along with that of the organisation.
3. An interesting project. OK, this is very subjective and I have a wide range of interests so there is nothing you can do to influence this. Either I find it interesting or I don’t.
4. An engineering culture, with at least a fair amount of engineers – I’d say 20 engineers at a minimum, so that I have people to learn from, but people to help upskill also.
5. Remote-first. I work far more effectively at home and my energy levels are greater since I’ve cut out the commute. Once a month in the office is fine…maybe once a week if the role is really interesting. Understand that onboarding may need to be in person, which is fine.
6. 35-37 hour working week. I appreciate my work/life balance, so only looking for roles with 35 hours a week – 37.5 absolute maximum. On call rota is fine, as long as it is paid. No nonsense like handing out flyers after work (yep…done that).
What do I offer?
Yeah, I’m demanding. I’m not going to leave a really good company unless I can improve upon it.
But as important, I want you to be happy with what I offer. There is no point in our wasting time if you don’t offer what I want, and vice versa.
1. A year’s experience with React, TypeScript, NextJS & GraphQL, so I’m proficient – but I’m not yet an expert. If you want a React/TypeScript expert right now, that isn’t me. If you want someone that will be an expert in 1-2 years, that will be me.
2. 3-4 years experience working with vanilla JavaScript.
3. Communication – I try to explain things so everyone can understand, and tailor for the audience.
4. Unit testing experience with Mocha, Chai, Jest & React Testing Library.
4. Styling experience with ordinary CSS, SCSS and Emotion Styled Components.
6. AngularJS and jQuery experience. Not sure why I’m writing this as I have no intention of using either again…but maybe it shows I can pick up different frameworks?!
7. Experience of recruiting and building a rapport with candidates – always delightful when you see someone join that you’ve interviewed.
8. I’m honest, reliable and I speak my mind – politely and professionally though. I’m loyal too.
9. Idea generation – I have come up with ideas that have earnt M&S significant extra revenue. And some that haven’t, but hey – experimentation mindset and all that stuff.
10. Really good at code reviews – I like to think that I leave constructive feedback to help people learn. I’m not just a “LGTM” kinda guy – I actually review properly
11. I enjoy helping people learn as much as I enjoy learning – and feel that I’ve done a good job in progressing juniors at M&S, along with sharing knowledge between those at my level.
12. Always keen to improve communication and togetherness the across software engineering department – initiated social committee, also run learning guilds.
13. General good business experience, I have a Business Studies degree, keep in touch with what is happening in the world and am generally fairly knowledgeable.
14. I enjoy trying new technology.
I think I’m a pretty decent person, my mother likes me anyway, and I’m a personable kinda guy.
If you have a role for me, then drop me an e-mail. If you’ve read this, then I promise to respond…if you’ve actually read it of course!
