[imetatroll]

I think you are wise to worry. Last year I was laid off from a company whose technology I helped build for years. I was promoted up to the position of "CTO"... with no team below me. It was a very small company working on email archiving and encryption that still runs today. As the system admin and solo developer I was spread thin, working on a system that now processes anywhere from 80 to 120 (150?) million emails a month. In the last several months I sent out my resume to at least 40 different companies, but the only offer I received was through someone my previous boss knows. It isn't a CTO level position.

To be clear I was let go because the company ended up having financial difficulties. It is a strange story to tell and sometimes I wonder if people think I am weaving it as I go. I'm not. It did leave me severely burnt out and I find the question "what was your biggest accomplishment?" to be a frustrating one during interviews because I did so much for that previous company that I almost don't remember any of the subtle details. I thought that the numbers would speak for themselves but nobody seems to care. I find it bizarre.

The other thing that might be fascinating is that the technical portion of interviews seem to be where things stall out for me. I would never claim to be an incredible programmer, but my previous companies system was not a trivial piece of software. I am probably going to give my one and only job offer a try and see how that goes. shrugs

Finally when I say build I mean to say that there was a PKI api + c library for interfacing that layer when I started. The website, the inbound/outbound email processing, the ES portion of the service etc were all built by me. So the parts that brought the actual customers were built by me.

[D-Coder]

"I find the question "what was your biggest accomplishment?" to be a frustrating one during interviews because I did so much for that previous company that I almost don't remember any of the subtle details."

I've kept a daily work log at my last few jobs -- just a line about each significant thing I made progress on, so usually one sentence a day (and often the same sentence for several days). This could be helpful.

[imetatroll]

Thanks for the suggestion I will keep it in mind once I find another job.

[james_s_tayler]

I've been doing this starting this year. It's magic.

[tracer4201]

Contributing a ton and then not being able to speak to it isn’t that abnormal. Well, at least I felt in the same boat.

I keep a daily log of outstanding and completed tasks. It includes everything from high level sprint stories or tasks to setup meeting with such and such for some project or write status report for z.

[maxxxxx]

“The other thing that might be fascinating is that the technical portion of interviews seem to be where things stall out for me. I would never claim to be an incredible programmer, ”

The interview process filters for coming up with solutions quickly. My strength has always been that I worked through a situation even after the initial or obvious approach(es) didn’t work. A lot of people give up quickly but I keep going and solve it. You sound similar.

Unfortunately the interview process doesn’t filter for that.

[imetatroll]

Yes we probably are. I don't usually walk away lightly from a problem that initially gives me difficulty, but the speed with which I can execute just doesn't seem to satisfy the hiring process. It is frustrating.

[alchemism]

Try interviewing for senior SRE positions, if you would like that quality to become an asset towards being hired.

[james_s_tayler]

This is one thing I consider as a criteria. Will it make a good story?