I haven't blogged since starting my new job at Focus, but I'm starting to get the itch again. I'm doing a presentation tomorrow on Ruby on Rails and it's really got me fired up to do a multi-part series on building a Rails app using the new 2.0.x drop of Rails.
Anyways, what better way to start posting again than to share a quick quote on the value of working with people that you like.
Do you like the company of your teammates on a personal level? Do you respect your teammates professionally? If you were starting at another company, would you invite your coworkers along? Do you have spirited team discussions or knock-down, drag-out, last man standing filibuster team arguments? Are there any people on your team you'd "vote off the island" if you could?
It may sound trivial to focus on the people you work with over more tangible things like, say, the actual work, or the particular technology you're using to do that work. But it isn't. The people you choose to work with are the most accurate predictor of job satisfaction I've ever found. And job satisfaction, based on my work experience to date, correlates perfectly with success. I have never seen a happy, healthy, gelled, socially functional software development team fail. It's a shame such teams are so rare.
Working with friends was something that I had always enjoyed at TG. Based on my interviews with Focus, I was pretty sure that the environment would be similar. I'm happy to find out that it was even better than I expected. Of course, I've also tinkered with it a bit by inviting some previous coworkers along.