OR: Why I'd Love to Work for the City

One of my favorite things to tell people is that I have one real regret in life. It was leaving New York for college. I thought it would be good to see what it was like to live in a small town, somewhere I wouldn't have to deal with the hustle and bustle of the big city.

So I went to school in Boston...

Boston is a great city, but I always knew that I had to come back to New York. And right now is a very exciting time to be in New York. There is an energy that has been spreading. For the first time in a long time there is a sense of optimism, a sense that if we work together then we can solve problems and help improve people's lives. Like many, I have found some of that comradery in the campaign and election of Zohran Mamdani, and that has inspired me to write this.

Software development is all about working together to solve problems. The kinds of problems you face come in all shapes and sizes, because everything is in the domain of computers and nowadays computers are a part of everything. Once upon a time, you could have argued that the internet didn't feel real. We all viewed computers, and the things they showed us, as an alternate world. People called it the net or cyberspace while we logged on, but technology has moved past that. And with that, it is extremely important that local governments are able to adapt with the ways technology changes and, more importantly, with the ways it changes us.

Local government is fundamentally the most important form of government. It is by far the form of government that has the most impact on our day to day lives, and thus it is the form of government with the most capacity to positively impact people's lives. I'm not a politician so I don't know how to make an impact that way, but I am a software engineer and I believe that the current mayor-elect understands how critical it is that the city is able to continue to adapt in order to provide for the needs of its citizens.

New York City faces many unique challenges, and I'll be the first to admit I know very little about the current systems and technology infrastructure that the city supports. I'm sure it's already a lot to take care of the existing needs of the many city departments and the services those departments provide, and I'm sure plenty of the current software is causing a lot of headaches for the people actually using the systems. But despite the headaches, these systems, for the most part at least, have provided a lot of help to the people who utilize them. In the spirit of continuous improvment, I would love the opportunity to dive into all of these problems and look for ways to make the end user experience better.

There is a vision of a more affordable New York City. I believe that the technology we use to make that dream a reality is critical to the final execution, and I believe that I have the skills to help make that vision a reality. Working for the city that I grew up in, the city that has given me so much, the city that I believe in, would be a dream. So yeah, I do think software can really help people.

Thanks for reading this far =)