About
Hi, I'm Mike "Not The" Pope.
I'm 49.5% software engineer, 49.5% recruiter, and 1% nachos (it was a big snack).
What I Write About
On this blog, I share insights and stories about software development, recruiting, and travel. Expect a mix of technical deep-dives, lessons learned from building teams, and adventures from around the world.
My Background
I founded Captain Recruiter in 2010 and grew it by word of mouth to $1.2 million in annual revenue with 15 employees before it was acquired by The Sourcery. I've filled hundreds of technical roles for companies like Apple, Docker, Heroku, Kiva, and Walmart.
From 2019 to 2023, I worked as a digital nomad, living and working remotely in 26 countries across 5 continents. Along the way, I saw a volcanic eruption in Iceland, got lost in a Mexican jungle, was featured in a Pakistani newspaper, and completed multiple treks through the Himalayas including Everest Base Camp.
Currently, I work as a Senior Software Engineer at Booking.com, where I handle DBA duties for distributed MySQL clusters managing revenue-generating systems with thousands of servers and 20+ TB of storage.