Job Search 2026 Begins!

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been laid off from Xbox, and after some introspection and updating my resume, I think I’m ready to find my next role. Here’s what I’m looking for from that role:

• Must be fully remote with minimal travel
• I prefer IC roles over project lead/architecture, which I prefer over people manager
• I prefer API/Integration automation over UI automation, which I prefer over no automation/coding
• I prefer C#/.NET over JavaScript or TypeScript
• I would hope to get back into the Games industry, and with experience in Fintech that’s a comfort zone, but I’m open to most sectors
• I need a strong DEI culture in the company, no exceptions

A note about AI

I am admittedly overly hesitant about AI. It’s hard to ignore the environmental, socio-economic, and psychological effects (including decaying skills) it has.

At Microsoft, we were strongly encouraged to use Copilot. Their sustainability program helped alleviate some of my concerns with using it, and while I did use Copilot and GitHub Copilot for menial tasks, idea generation, and some code assistance, I kept my use to a minimum (but enough to try not to be a total outlier on the “who’s using AI and who needs a talking to” charts I imagine management had but have no evidence of that being a thing, just looming layoffs anxiety!).

I know that testing AI output is increasingly an area of concern – I was in the process of getting into our AI Red Teaming at Xbox Game Studios Quality when I was laid off. I’m definitely concerned with code being looked at by a human for the first time as a PR, and never run locally. We’ve all seen the now-meme of an AI agent that changed the tests to pass rather than fixing the error in the code.

Essentially, when it comes to writing code, I prefer to keep a hold of the reins a bit more than most folks these days. Maybe it’s because the past 4 years, I haven’t been able to code much except the first half of 2026, and I want to understand what’s going on with the code – I don’t want my skills to decay more in favor of AI. Maybe I’ll get more comfortable in an AI-first environment, but I honestly don’t think I’d thrive in one.

I’m not a prompt engineer, and I’m sure I’ll gain more skills in that as time goes on and AI becomes less avoidable. But for now, I’m human-first.