On Leaving Microsoft

I had enjoyed a 16-year career building mainframe, Unix and Macintosh systems and programs when I realized I was always the big fish in a small pond. I determined to go to a larger pond and so I submitted my resume to a friend who worked at Microsoft.

I began my time at Microsoft on 9-5-95, and I actually had two separate careers there.

For the first 13 years I worked on data-access technologies. You name it – ODBC, OLEDB, MDAC, ADO.NET, the Entity Framework (v1) – I probably had something to do with it, and if it talked to an Oracle database, it was all me for sure.

Ten years ago, I once again realized I’d been either working on the same team, for the same person, or both, for my whole time and desired to do something different. So I joined a small team called Zune Mobile that eventually became part of the WindowsPhone team. I’m super proud of the work we did on that product. The realization a few years ago that we had lost in the market was disappointing. C’est La Vie.

Through a series of organizational shifts, I recognized I’d been looking for something different myself for a while now. I started thinking about what my ideal opportunity would be and I realized I yearned to work for a smaller company and put what I’ve learned over the past 39 years into practice, using more modern technologies and development practices, and helping to develop the next generation of leaders and engineers.

Starting July 16th, I’m changing venues to a smaller company nearby, where I’ll be working for and with a number of people that I met while I was at Microsoft, lead a team of engineers, and have the opportunity to learn a whole bunch of new things in the process.

Throughout my time at Microsoft, I’ve had the opportunity to work both for and with some amazing people. They’re one of the reasons I remained there as long as I did, and I am both grateful and thankful for them and for their investment and/or trust in me.