Connect with me on Google+, Twitter, Brazen Careerist, LinkedIn. You can also email me: catehuston and I use gmail. I don’t get follower notifications on Twitter, so say hi. In general when adding people on LinkedIn it’s a good idea to include how you know them – I don’t accept people I don’t recognize without a personalized message.

Some guidelines that will help me communicate with you in the most efficient way (for me). Please be aware that my personal inbox is a desolate wasteland of dashed expectations and broken promises.

Cate, I really liked this thing you wrote and I want to reuse it.

Awesome! Everything is cc-licensed so you don’t have to ask me, just credit me. If you use blogging software, it will likely ping me and let me know, but please leave a comment on whatever you’ve reused and tell me what/where/why. Thanks for reading!

Cate, I’m interested in the Awesome Foundation / CompSci Woman / CS Education / etc

Great! Email me telling me which, why, what you want to do.

Awesome Foundation: do you want to be a trustee? Start an AF somewhere else? Or do you have a proposal you’re thinking of submitting? Please bear in mind that emailing me to tell me how awesome your project is doesn’t make it any more likely to be accepted – I read them all anyway, and there is always a healthy debate over what to fund. Be clear about what you know, and what your question is.

CompSci Woman: Are you thinking about writing for us? Have an idea of what you want to write about. Anything on any of our previous themes is fine. Anything else you’ve thought up is probably OK too – but feel free to run it by me. Nervous about it? I’m happy to help you edit. You can share a Google doc with me and I’ll have a look.

CS Education: my latest curriculum is cc-licensed, you don’t need my permission to use it non-commercially. If you use it I’d love to know and get feedback from you.

Cate, I’m your friend and you didn’t reply to my email.

I’m sorry. I will eventually.

Cate, I want to tell you why you should be working for us instead.

Thanks for your interest. I truly believe that I work for a world changing company, and I am committed to that. I may make a move at some point, but if I do it will be because I can do more world-changing elsewhere. I don’t enjoy interviewing just for the fun of it. You can feel free to get in touch and tell me why you are more world-changing. However, please be aware – I do not consider banks to be world-changing (except when they nearly destroy the world economy, to be clear – not the kind of world changing I’m aiming for) and I do not consider earning more money to be world-changing.

Cate, I’m applying for a job at the awesome company you work for and want some help.

I have the best job for a software engineer. I’m incredibly lucky and I know it, and I achieved this pretty much by working really, really hard. You can see what I did to prepare here and here.

If you’re male and you’ve worked through the list, have passed a phone screen and made it onsite, and have a specific question, you can email me. I will do my best to get back to you.

If you’re female (or, I actually know you) – get in touch at whatever point in the process, even if you’re just thinking about applying. We can set up a time to chat on skype or gchat.

Yes, I know this is sexist. I’m not swayed by arguments about it.

Cate, you’re wrong. Here’s why.

My commitment to free speech was tested when a lunatic I used to know spent hours stalking my blog and then wrote an upsetting and offensive comment. However, it remains intact. Please don’t email me to tell me I’m an idiot, just let me know in the comments. Maybe someone else will agree with you.

Cate, I’m a reporter/blogger and I want to take something you said out of context.

My opinions are my own and not those of my employer. Anything written pre-January 2011 is before I started work and knew nothing more than anyone reading the tech press. I respect the conditions of my NDA and am not going to comment on whatever is currently interesting.