I’ve accepted a User Interface Specialist position at Convio. I’ll still be doing web application development, and still working primarily in Java, but with emphasis on the user interface. This specialization is consistent with the work I’ve been doing for the past few years, so I look forward to having that role more formally.
I was initially drawn to Convio by the opportunity to do work that benefits non-profit organizations. I understand that working for a for-profit corporation that provides software to organizations that may-or-may-not be actually making a difference is far from sweating for a cause directly. However, given that I want to be paid to write software, I feel this is a significant improvement.
In the past I’ve thought of my job as working with software, and noted that the technological problems to solve are amazingly similar regardless of the business application. More recently I’ve realized that my job is about people rather than software; people will maintain the code I write, and people will use the software I develop. The computer doesn’t care.
I’m looking forward to going from a small technology team inside a company with a strong sales culture, to a technology company with a culture of supporting nonprofits.