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by bravesoul2 354 days ago
I've always gone back to work but I haven't had that level of money and the breaks shorter circa. Few months.

Something to consider is fractional work, which is take to mean part time high value work. Like a CTO for 10-20 hours a week. Choose if you prefer advising or writing code or a mix.

But "burned out" is serious so no rush just to feel meaningful. Health first.
1 comments
OccamsMirror 354 days ago
Out of curiosity, what would a rent-a-CTO even do for 10 hours a week?
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bravesoul2 354 days ago
I think it's going to be mainly startups who have say 2 coders and need a part time CTO build out the team a bit, process etc. Like hiring an architect part time to help build your house vs. full time because you build 1000 appartments a year.
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OccamsMirror 353 days ago
Is this a comment need? I've plenty of experience with early stage startups, but they either already have a CTO, have a motivated senior engineer, or somewhere in the middle. My experience is that it's rare they can even identify what they need and why.
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bravesoul2 352 days ago
I think the need is rare to be fair. Good call.

The guy whose job it is to collate all jobs like this only posts 20 a week (some recurring) over all disciplines not just engineering.

There may be creatable demand. "Hire me for $200/h 10h a week and I'll make your current 5 people 50% more productive, yod have to pay them 20% more but you are still up 2.5 devs for the price of 1" could be a good consultancy sell. How you would do that is do normal (small-shop) CTO things. Make them more productive by the right focuses and processes not just more caffeine and late nights.

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OccamsMirror 352 days ago
That's a big call! I don't know if I'd be brave enough to promise making devs 50% more productive. Definitely a good consultancy sell but I wonder about what the delivery would actually be.

I have a pet theory that the standard practices in software development actually reduce productivity, at least in the short term. From my experience, the sure fire way to get teams to be more productive is to first hire great people, then to empower them and make sure their morale is high.

Not sure how I could do that on a consultant basis. I can imagine how I'd bring tighter project management in, and make sure people are doing what they're best at. But actual long lasting productivity of a team I don't really directly manage?

Someone who can do that is a wizard.

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