This popped in my e-mail box just now:

Subject: Anyone know a top Rails programmer for Tech Advisor role

Could be as little as one hour per week? Great opportunity for this person to inherit vp of engineering position once we get funded. We are close to launching, and hopefully to being funded.

…

This is wrong in so many ways. You know, when your Vice President of Engineering is going to be a RAILS programmer… need I continue?

[Being the first engineer after the jump]

In a related (but unrelated to Ruby on Rails) observation…

First!

I heard that a friend is leaving a company to become the first engineer at another startup. That’s asking for trouble in a way I couldn’t express, but another friend put words to it:

“First engineer?”

What are the founders—business majors???

I don’t think they mean this “first” when they say “F1rst!”

Career Tip: Never be the “first engineer” anywhere—a tech startup without engineers is a really bad idea.