This is in reference to John’s post at johnwilker.com about being available for work.
I work at eBay and, if you see my earlier post, I love it. There’s only one thing that could make life better at eBay, that’s if John was there. I’ve been in and out of corporate life for 10+ years now. I’ve worked for the likes of Bank of America, The Walt Disney Company, eBay and Ameriquest Mortgage. In all those years and all those work sites, I’ve only met one person like John.
John and I met at Ameriquest. He tried to leave, but I hunted him down and hounded him until he came back. That’s how much fun he is to work with. How many of your co-workers, who left a company, have you tracked down and did everything you could to get that person back? Me…only one, John.
John has technical skills: ColdFusion, Flex, Databases, yada-yada. Every one in Monster.com has those skills. John has two things most people in Monster.com do not have: organization and personality.
In the organization department, John’s topnotch. From the moment your project starts, his organization skillset kicks in. If you let him run with it, you’ll have folders, communications, mailing groups, project sites, time tracking, etc. He’ll make sure you know how to track progress on everything and will ride your bootie when you start to fall behind on the deliverables. He’ll be harsh on that too, but that’s a good thing for you, because that’ll help deliver a better product.
Personality, though, now that’s where he’ll shine. If you have a 1 month project, you’ll see some of it, but not all of it. You need to keep him onboard more long term to fully experience it. When I first met him, we passed each other many, many times for a month or so. We finally started chatting one day, and not a weekday has gone by since in the 5 or so years that we haven’t chatted. Wilker is one of the funniest guys around. He’s not an insulting kind of funny, but one of those calls it as he sees it kind of funny. It’s those views that are funny.
John and I are similar in some things, but total opposites in others. It’s for that reason that he’s been on my short list of possible business partners. He’ll agrue til he’s blue in the face for things that I can’t see at the time. Usually, as the weeks go by, I find myself saying, “Hey, you were right about that thing.” He never makes me feel bad when I do that too, when he could totally rub my face in it if he wanted.
John is 1/3 of the 360Flex Conference committee. When the conference is over and everybody’s yammering about how great it was, it will be because of John. If they leave complaining about something missing/gone awry, I’ll most likely be typing over IM to John, “Ya know, I guess you were right about that one thing.”
One more thing, if you wonder if he knows a particular skill for your project, just ask him. He’ll tell you the truth. If the answer is no, don’t worry, hire him anyway. Tech skills are learnable by buying a book, but personality…like MasterCard says, “Some things, money can’t buy.”
Tom's Blog 
Tom,
Thanks! Such kind words! And all for $10, a steal at twice the price.
Tom,
I couldn’t agree with you more! I would work with either, hopefully both of you, again at the drop of a dime.
And to you, Reader, I urge you – if you have a project you need a reliable developer for HIRE JOHN! First of all, you won’t regret it because he is a dedicated, thorough, organized, honest, and just downright awesome developer, and to top it all off, he is just a great person, period. Even better, if you’re lucky enough to get both Tom and John, you are guaranteed timely success for your project, no two ways about it.
John’s a great guy. I’ve known him for a more years that I want to admit. Tom, John and I some time together at Ameriquest. TOP NOTCH….killer potlucks too. I’d hire him at Amgen but he hates the Seattle rain.