Wondering how it is to have a +15 year career in Silicon Valley and lead software developer teams?
Leading software teams? Here are 5 things I’ve learned that you can use to build a thriving career
By: Jed Horne
At the risk of being accused of false modesty, I would say that in 20 years as a software engineer and leader, I’ve made my mistakes. I’ve spent most of my working life as an outsider — I didn’t set out to program computers as an undergrad at MIT (and am old enough to be excused for not seeing the revolution coming), and the choices I’ve made have been consistent if only in my willingness to take risks — some lucky, some dumb, but all interesting and worthwhile.
My career has been a rollercoaster that took me from my own small startup in San Francisco’s Mission District to Apple Maps (20x growth in three years), Uber (100x growth in six), and several startups in Bogotá, Colombia where I have lived with my family for the past six years. The most fulfilling opportunities I’ve had are working with small to medium sized teams in Latin America, and Valere has been the best yet.
The challenges of leading teams is bringing your experiences — good, bad, exhilarating, tiresome, all of them — and embracing a pragmatic syncretism in approach that allows your team to grow around you. In Colombia this is not a simple undertaking — forget for a moment the upheavals in a labor market where salaries doubled during the pandemic and have since fallen back down by 50%. What I mean is that being an American can sometimes be like being a bull in a china shop when working in the context of other cultures, not to mention an American who spent the bulk of his career at a company with a somewhat dubious, ahem, reputation.
So, what advice do I have for someone who wants to emulate my admittedly quirky path? Here’s what’s worked for me.
