Good Jobs #89: Walking uphill both ways

Taking a web design class at 8 a.m. on Fridays has its perks. Plus: Good jobs at Handshake, LeanLaw, Babylist, Shopify, BrandCraft, and more.

Jun 16, 2023

Frank

Sophomore year of college I took a web design class at 8 a.m. … on Fridays. I remember that first week of class. It was January and we were in the middle of a stint of fucking frigid weather. It was in the negative degrees most mornings, and windy, the sharp kind that penetrated through any and all clothing. Might as well have been naked. My apartment was nearly a mile to the administration building where the class was being held… uphill almost the entire way—yes, just like when the olds talk about getting to school back in the day.

mountain with fogs — This is an approximation of the hill I had to climb to get to class. Might have been steeper and colder actually.

The first week of classes had about 20 students. So did the next week. Then it dropped to 15. Ten the week after. And after two months, it was just me and the professor. His name was Frank.

Frank was an interesting guy. He was a shorter man with messy grey hair. He smelled of cigarettes and cologne, and the cigarettes were winning. He didn’t really care about grades or assignments. He liked helping people work through a problem. He liked people who were curious and motivated.

On those days when it was just Frank and me, he wouldn’t get out his computer, nor would I turn on mine. We rarely talked about web design or code. He’d ask me about my future and what I was interested in, and he’d give me advice in the form of stories from his past. He’d tell me about the spice trade, flower farming, and how Dell computers came to be… to list just a few. He had an endless bank of stories. I believe most of them were true.

We’d talk through the entire class time and then move outside, where he’d light up a cigarette and we’d talk some more. There are few people in my life that are interested and able to devote some much time to conversation.

The class ended that spring. I got an A. I did absolutely nothing.

We ended up keeping that tradition over my junior and senior year. I’d catch him lighting up and we’d chat for a couple hours about the most random things. I’d show him something I was working on and he would trash it, in a nice way, and list a bunch of other ideas and options.

Fast forward to spring of my senior year. I was a month out from graduating. I found Frank one last time. I thanked him for all of our time together. I sensed he didn’t know how to take it, so he moved past it by bringing up another topic. During that conversation he left me one more piece of advice, and I’m paraphrasing because he said “fuck” a lot, but he said, “Go after the things that you are curious of. The money and fame may come, but fulfillment comes from pursuing things you don’t understand but want to.”

He passed away a couple years after that. It has continued to be good advice.

Rest in peace, Frank.

Onward,

Loren

P.S. - Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and dad proxies out there!

DEV

Software Engineering Manager at Simplot

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iOS Engineer at Handshake

Remote | Full-time | Salary: $127–170K

Senior QA Analyst at LeanLaw

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Still hiring: Senior Software Engineer at Remitly

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