I've been putting off posting about this here, because there were a number of people I wanted to tell in person, rather than having them read about significant news like this on my blog. But I've told a bunch of people over the past few days, and I hit the point today at work where the rumormill had gone into overdrive and a number of people I hadn't told came up to me to say that they had heard I was leaving $DAYJOB.
Yes, it's true, after approximately 4 years here I've decided to take a position as a software engineer at Ask Jeeves, working on their newly acquired Bloglines product in Los Gatos, CA.
This is, in no uncertain terms, a huge change for me. I've moving from the financial industry to something far less well defined, from the east coast to the west coast, and from a reasonably large team to a team that (at the time they interviewed me anyway) consists of a grand total of two engineers. Of course by the time I show up on my first day of work (April 25th, for the curious) I'm sure they'll have picked up a few more sets of hands, but it's still small compared to my current team (anywhere from 5 to 50 people, depending on how you count it).
It's important to note that I don't have any problem with my current job, it's interesting and satisfying and there are fantastic people there and I've learned more than I could have ever thought possible, but this is just too good an opportunity, and it's time to move on to other things.
I'm incredibly excited about this whole thing, and terrified at the same time. I'm sure I'll have more news on both topics as this whole process moves forward, but for now, I'll just leave it at that.
If you're one of the people I should have told in person, but that I didn't get around to, I'm sorry, but there are just too many people and I've been a little distracted lately, for obvious reasons ;-)
