Contact Ross

If you're just interested in my general day to day goings-on, I'd suggest following me on social media rather than sending me an email.

My LinkedIn profile is a thing, although I don't post there too regularly. I do try to connect to people and organisations that I have actively worked with.
I post photos (mostly of running, my kids, and attempts at home-made pizza) over on Instagram as @Ross_Poulton
My running log is on Strava, of course. Don't be creepy!

Ways I can help

I've been very fortunate in my career to date and am eager to help pay it forward.

The below should give a rough idea of the types of conversations we could have. If you're not sure, please ask.

Answer concise questions about topics I'm familiar with. If your question is something I can answer, I'll always try to do so. If it's a technical question I think you're better off using the django-users mailing list, Stack Overflow, or other tech-focused resources. If you can write a couple of paragraphs about what you need, I'll try to respond reasonably quickly. Anything I have blogged or tweeted about should be fair game, so long as I don't need to do any in-depth research.
Introductions My consulting career has caused me to cross paths with some fascinating people from all areas of all sorts of industries. I would be happy to introduce you to them (assuming it's mutually beneficial to you and them - i.e. I believe they would want and may benefit from the introduction). If you are able to, I suggest you reach out to them directly first, but if that isn't appropriate then I'll see what I can do.
Share experiences with companies If you know I've worked for or with a company in the past, I'd be happy to give you my honest thoughts on the elements of their workplace culture that I'm familiar with. This list isn't overly obvious due to the nature of consulting, but if it looks like I am connected with an organisation on LinkedIn it usually means I have worked with them.

Where I'm not likely to be helpful

I am not currently available to discuss Django or Python development, sorry. This includes providing mentorship to new developers. I highly recommend asking your questions on Stack Overflow or the django-users mailing list where there are a large number of like-minded developers with varied experiences.

I generally do not want to entertain recruiting discussions - particularly if it's a request to get me to do my current role for a new employer.

Further, these are a few specific items I can't help with:

Getting your first job. This isn't a specialty sorry. When my employer runs a graduate intake I share it via my social media profiles, and I would be happy to entertain your questions about that particular intake or my employer.
Working at Big Tech. This just isn't my bag.
Bugs in your code.
Reviewing blog posts, books, or magazine submissions
Writing guest posts for your blog (or accepting your posts for mine)
Investment. I'm not "an investor" beyond looking after my future with superannuation and index funds. I don't invest in singlular companies, particularly those who approach me by email.
Responses by direct message on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Please just use email.

How to get in touch

Social media DMs are unlikely to get a response - it's just too hard for me to keep track of sorry.

I also don't like initial contact by phone. I get a lot of spam calls so I don't answer unknown or private numbers without prior arrangement. That said I am not phone-phobic, so let's make a plan to chat using one of the above methods if you absolutely need a phone call.

The best way to reach me is via email: ross@rossp.org.

This page was inspired by Jacob Kaplan-Moss.