15:22 - Now that I’ve had some time away, I think a lot about the things that I DID like about my old job. Most often what comes readily to mind is the people. There was always a revolving door of personalities, but by the end of my time in New York, most of the time I would land on a job site full of people I could trust, and who put trust in me in turn. This goes double for bosses. I could hop into a scissor lift with someone and two people together would suddenly become better than they would have been apart. Communication was tight, everyone knew what they were doing based off of a drawing, and therefore we could very happily make small talk as we went without sacrificing productivity.

It was awesome.

I’ve been afraid ever since I left that world that I’d never find that kind of team-based camaraderie. My biggest fear is being stuck in a place where the worst day scenario happens instead: I walk onto a site full of people who are cocky amateurs with a head that micromanages and treats me like a warm body; what we used to call “neck-down” types of days. Those suck.

It seems a lot like both of these scenarios exist in the development world, which to me seems encouraging. I’m extremely excited to give pair programming a go, and if I can earn a place on a team that is valued not only as code-monkeys but as critically-thinking developers, I’ll be in nerd heaven.