Cover Letter

Dear OCaml Labs,

Let me begin by expressing a genuine admiration for the work that you all have been doing. In my short time engaging with the OCaml community, I have been able to discern a bit of "who is who" in the ecosystem. It is entirely conspicuous that OCaml Labs has been at the forefront of progressing OCaml's stature. Your team's efforts have demonstrated that OCaml is not only tenable, but highly desirable for both niche and general purpose computing. Whether in the OCaml slack, discord, discuss, or even tuning into the the Signals & Threads podcast, engaging with this community has been a consistently positive experience. 🤩

You are looking for an experienced runtime engineer. I am not an experienced systems engineer. Before you crumple up this application, hear me out. You should consider giving me the chance to quickly become the coworker that you delight in working with. If you demand systems engineering excellence from the start, I thank you for reading thus far nonetheless. Despite a skills mismatch, I have notable qualifications. My career in software has predominantly been in web-oriented applications, but I am at a phase where I am interested in getting closer to the metal. I have climbed nearly all of the technical rankings as a software engineer, to the highest at my company. I have been a contributor, leader, and manager of engineering teams. My experience has taught me that technical competence is easily learned by a subject who has proper drive and fundamental engineering training. I have this drive, and it is easily demonstrable. University certificates? Got 'em--two BS engineering from Oregon State University, and a MS computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology. Proof of successful software engagement? I have a full app for that! See the GitHub Diary (click "Load Demo"). Our domains of expertise may be slightly mismatched, but may be rectified with haste.

Assuming that technical competence is the baseline for consideration, social skills no doubt predict a team'scollective success. The healthiest teammates practice humility, kindness without fault, and inexhaustible patience. These traits are not merely checkbox items one should claim in order to get a job. In software, these traits are essential to fostering a culture where people delight in their work, and delight working with one another. Any of us can write software. Only with trust and empathy for one another can a team flourish. I have been on well over a dozen teams, and seen these fundamental dynamics be the strongest indicator of teams' performance, over and over again. Software developers tend to be strong personalities, and strong personalities can be friction inducing. Protecting our engagements with each other is paramount. "People over process", as they say.

I know how to be a great engineering teammate. I want to do great work for you. I want to learn from you, and I want to teach you. I will be great to work with. Yes, my C skills are pretty dang rusty. Big whoop. Do I remember what little endian vs big endian is? Definitely. Do I remember off hand why a two's-complement is useful? Nope, but I promise to pack my dust buster.

Even if it doesn't work this time around, keep me in your back pocket. I am in on the west coat USA, and know most of your partners are mainly in Europe & India, with some folks in NYC. I feel like I am the sole west-coast OCaml'er out here!

Thanks,

Chris

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