Hi there! Welcome to my blog about software engineering leadership, among other things. My name is James Nall, and I’m a software engineer with over a decade of professional experience, and I’ve been in management for three of them. You can find my work history here on my LinkedIn page. I also help regular people invest in apartments, so if you have any interest in that, feel free to drop me a line.
What you won’t find on my LinkedIn
As I mentioned, I’ve been a software engineer for a decent little while. But even longer than that, I’ve been a leader and something people frequently like to call “a team player.” What that usually boils down to is wearing a bunch of different hats. No, I don’t mean like my silly photo above. I mean like when you read the job description and it says your job is X, and you sign on to do X, but then you end up doing X, Y, Z, and @. Now I certainly wouldn’t advocate to everyone that they should expect to wear all the hats, but I think it helps to expect to do so when you’re the ambitious sort. And you may wonder, how frequently have I worn more hats than expected? Here’s a short list of highlights:
- One of my earliest jobs was as a Taekwondo instructor at Karate America. Yes, I’m aware that’s a funny sentence. I taught and mentored people of all ages in this capacity, and that’s what I signed up to do. I didn’t realize that I was also going to be making sales calls to prospects and manning mall kiosks as well.
- While in undergrad, I joined a social fraternity, Beta Chi Theta. In my time there, I got into quite a few chair and executive positions – too many to list, really. Some of them were even at the national level. I joined to have the college experience, make friends, and party a bit. I didn’t know I was also going to build a career in non-profit management as a volunteer.
- I’ve been involved in a handful of failed startups. When you’re working in a startup, unless your founding group is the dream team, you’re going to be wearing a lot of hats.
- The latest leg of my software career has been between MarTech companies SharpSpring and Constant Contact, the latter acquiring the former in 2021. Since being promoted to management, I feel like I’ve done all the things. No, thankfully I wasn’t pushed back into sales, and no, I’ve never needed to take a support call. I just mean when I was first promoted, there was an order of things and the departments fulfilled their roles well and you didn’t need to color outside the lines too much. Upon acquisition though, all bets were off. Since then I’ve made quite a name for myself in our business unit as a guy who refuses to stay in his own lane.
Why I started this Blog
So why am I bothering to write all this stuff, you might be wondering. Well, there’s a few reasons:
- Wearing all the hats happens. In fact, it happens a lot more frequently than you’d think. Well, perhaps not “you” would think. Maybe you’re just like me, constantly finding themselves in a multi-hat paradigm environment. If that’s the case, then know you’re not alone and I hope some of what is written here may be of use to you.
- I wanted to chronicle my experiences and conclusions. These are the lessons I’ve picked up over time. Sometimes I forget them, and this is a way of remembering. And for those who have not had similar experiences, it’s something to share.
- I wanted to start a conversation with others. Whether you’re the sort who wears a lot of hats or not, I’m extremely grateful you’re here reading my words. If anything in this blog moves you, whether it’s in agreement, disagreement, plain old contrarianism, or just downright hatred of my writing style, please feel free to leave a comment. I think we learn the most when we share and discuss. And everyone wins if they have a free window seat to that conversation. If you’re the more private sort, feel free to email me directly.
- Teaching helps me learn. Leadership and mentoring usually go fairly well hand-in-hand. And this blog is another outlet for me to do just that.
Thank you so much for being a part of my journey. Here’s to the people who bravely weather the storm while wearing all the hats. Cheers!