Software Confidential

—A different kind of cover letter

Published: Thursday, October 03 2019 18:35

Written by Jesse Riggs

Who Will You Still Know Is The Right Hire, A Year From Now?

It can be hard to make a decision that will affect your company into the future. Sometimes, we make bold decisions. Are you a hiring manager who has taken a risk that has paid off? Have you seen a potential employee with a blemish on their record, spotty work history or something missing from their academic credentials, but interviewed them anyway? If so, were you surprised by their skill, determination, honesty and personality?

If you’re looking for a well educated candidate with a little industry experience, and are still reading, then I think I have a lot to offer your company.

Cut To The Chase

I’ll cut to the chase. I don’t want to waste your time, and I don’t want to waste my own time applying to companies if I can’t be hired. But, since you’re still reading, I’ll quickly describe some of my personal obstacles before getting into my education, experience and skills. ;) So, I’ll run down what you may find on a background check. For your convenience, I’ll start with the worst.

Due to a colossal, drunken mistake I made in 2011, I am currently on probation for burglary. I have paid all my restitution and court/probation costs. I’m just waiting until January 30^th 2020, to have served all my time. The judgment has been withheld, and I plan to motion for an expungment.

It’s been eight years since I’ve committed a felony, and almost five years since my sentencing. And, I’ve been sober ever since.

Why has it taken so long to reach the end of my sentence? Well, I wasn’t even charged for this crime until 2014, and then I wasn’t sentenced until 2015. The evidence that lead to my arrest were fingerprints. But, my prints weren’t on record until 2013. This leads me to my next confession, a DUI.

In October of 2013, I was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. I have since paid my dues. And, again, I’m no longer drinking.

A Tight Race Against Myself

Even though I was facing some pretty serious legal action, I was still holding my academic life together, mostly. I was interning as a software developer at SAP. I was taking classes for software development, design patterns, computer architecture and more. At this time, I was racing to get everything done before I stood before a judge to be sentencing. But, I struggled with time-boxing my problems, and ultimately bit off more than I could chew.

By the summer of 2014, the Boise SAP office had closed and I was “laid off”. I took that as an opportunity to double down on school and continue to work on my defense. One thing I learned from this process is that, when fighting a legal battle, the main purpose of an attorney is to communicate with a judge. It is still the responsibility of the defendant to participate in discovery and talk to their attorney about what they want done. If nothing else, I did learn a lot about the criminal justice system.

By December, I had taken a guilty plea, in exchange for the dropping of a second charge, and a recommendation from the prosecutor. This was supposed to be the month when I graduate. But, I had to make a lot of hard decisions during this time, and two of them I still stand by. The first decision was taking the first job I could find.

Kitchen

It was two weeks before my sentencing hearing and I needed to show the judge that I was more valuable to the community as a tax paying citizen than as a prisoner. So I took a cooking job at Highlands Hollow to fill that void in my life.

Not unlike an old-testament proverb, I have grown a lot from my experiences since my sentencing. I have learned a lot about teamwork and leading. I provide value to the company and they have entrusted me with a key to the building. I have taken on new responsibilities that have made me feel stronger. After pleading guilty, I felt extremely vulnerable. I needed some time to rebuild myself, and I needed some time to forgive myself. And cooking has helped me do that.

Walking The Line

So, I was pretty sure that I was going to fail the one class I needed to graduate. It had been a real hard semester. I was in and out of court, battling a system. I was overloaded on classes. And, I was dealing with some personal issues. And, I still didn’t know if I would spend one year on probation or 14 years in prison. If my mother were to die while I was in prison, I would never have another opportunity to hug her at the end of the graduation line. So, I walked it anyway.

But, this was not done to deceive anyone. Rather, it is a debt to my future, which I am going to pay. When I have the money to go back, and take that class, I will have a bachelors of science in computer science.

Let’s Move On To A Better Side

So, at this point, you may be wondering what I can do for you. I hope that you can check out my portfolio on my website, www.jesse-riggs.com. I have taken some time to understand an open-source content-management system called Joomla. I demonstrate my usage of it, my skills with PHP, SQL and Javascript. And, I have some articles on computation theory.

When your thinking about what an employee would have to do, so that, in a year, you would know that you’ve made the right decision, I hope that you think of Jesse Riggs. I look forward to hearing from you. ;)

contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Software Confidential by Jesse Riggs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at jesse-riggs.com.