Apr 24, 2017
Why I refused a position has the CTO
It’s been almost a month since I wrote my last daily challenge. I can no longer call my stories daily challenges, I’m taking to long to write daily has I was supposed to, although I push myself into writing and reviewing all of my the words that are put into my small drafts. Every day I think about writing and publishing some of my thoughts but it’s becoming even more difficult the work I have to do that take all of my time and energy. Talking about energy and time consumption reminds of a time I refused a CTO position at a startup.
Becoming the CTO of a business corporate it’s a very responsible and demanding position, even if that business is a small startup. The startup environment and its culture are usually built by the current founders thus you’re responsibilities are even greater forcing you to focus on the repercussions of your work in a long-term perspective.
As the CTO you’ll probably be working with a small team (or maybe alone) at the beginning of the startup and hopefully in the future you’ll be leading a larger team focused in maintaining the startup product and adding new features. Simply to say that you’ll need a good combination of both knowledge and technical skills…
So when I was asked to become the CTO of a startup I asked myself this two questions:
- Do I have the skills for the job?
- Am I passionate enough for this startup?
At that time my coding journey just had started for a year and my professional experience was only 5 months at a IT company, which wasn’t that much. I felt I wasn’t ready for that kind of position right away, not just because of my experience but my lack of knowledge at the moment. Also I wasn’t fully aware of what could be built for the web and in my point of view that was a very strong “need" for the startup I was joining in.
The other good reason was my still to prove love for that startup. It was the first time that I got in touch with the startup, the project/product, their MVP and their current founders. In that short moment I couldn’t decide if I was astonished for the startup itself, but I was rather motivated by my new career and work, that alone wouldn’t be enough.
I don’t usually turn down new challenges and this wasn’t the moment to say no. My counter-proposal was to work with them during a certain time and see if there was a startup/job chemistry between us all and in what ways I could be useful to their mission. At the start I was learning more about their work and how their web-platform was built with while giving some feedback about the type of developers they could need.
After 3 months I still wasn’t feeling attached, I was getting a little bored and then I met her! My first client in need of my advice and services has a web developer. In that moment I understood my relation with this startup was going to end and so we broke up but still kept ourselves as friends with benefits.
I add a double meaning in my last sentence for a good reason: Whatever the job you are applying to, it will be like any kind relationship with trust-based decisions and self-sacrifice. If you think you’re not that committed to your work, if you don’t have enough “love”, then you better find a place were you feel that kind of commitment.
Hope this reading was interesting for you and feel free to say “Hello” at any time.
Cheers,
