Being a developer evangelist at Microsoft was my biggest, most influential, broadest-reaching job ever, and as this is my final week working for The Empire, I though it would be fitting to mark it with a different version of Europe’s classic ‘80s hair-rock hit, The Final Countdown. To kick it off, I give you the original version in all its mulleted Reagan-era glory. Crank up your speakers, bang your head, throw the horns and enjoy!
…and there’ve been quite a few since my announcement that I was leaving Microsoft, but I’ve had another gig lined up for a while now. After all, Tarzan doesn’t let go of the last vine until he’s got a firm grip on the next one, right?
Art Wells came up with a great quote for this pic: “I don’t wanna knock anyone over. But if I gotta get that pig, and you’re standing in my way, one way or the other, you’re getting outta my way.”
“We enter as friends, we leave as friends,” said Mark Relph, then the VP of Microsoft Canada’s Developer and Platform Group as we did my final interview in early October 2008. I started just under a fortnight later, on October 20th, and for the past two and a half years, I have proudly held the title of Developer Evangelist, representing Microsoft to Canadian software developers, and in turn, advocating for Canadian software developers to Microsoft Canada. If you have read anything I’ve written, caught any of my presentations or seen me evangelize, you will know that it is a job that I love and enjoy wholeheartedly.
Mark may have gone off to Redmond to join the mother ship, but his declaration still holds true. I will leave Microsoft as a friend next week on Friday, April 22nd.
If life is change, then I’ve had life by the truckload over the past few months. I’ll spare you the details here (if you really must know, it’s best done in person and over a pint or two), but it should be plenty to simply say that if I were a more “New Age” sort of person, I’d say that the universe has been dropping hints that I really need to shake things up. Hence my departure, something I would never have predicted a mere six months ago. Life’s like that.
Mine is still a great job. I could’ve spent the past few weeks just winding down and wrapping up, but I love this job too much to do that. I enjoy it enough to keeping “Bringing the Awesome”, right to my last minute on my last day next week. Everything I wrote in the “Now Hiring” post when we were looking for a new evangelist back in October remains the same.
What’s changed is me, and I’ve got to go and follow a different path. If and when the opening to fill my position appears, go check it out – you might find that it’s the job for you. It comes with my highest recommendation, and if you’ve got the skills and inclination, I’d tell you to go for it.
I’m going to wax a little more poetic in a blog post on my final day at the job. For now, I’d like to say that it’s been an honour, a privilege and a joy to have worked at Microsoft. I have worked with bright and talented people on interesting and important projects with some amazing gear, in cities all over Canada. I’ve learned a lot: not just about Microsoft’s tools and technologies, but also about the problems they solve, the customers they serve, the corporation that makes them and the industry said corporation is part of. I am a better geek, a better public speaker, a better writer, a better performer and even a better person for my experiences at Microsoft. For all this and more, they will always have my gratitude. I entered as a friend two and a half years ago, and next week, I leave as one.
Thank you, Microsoft. It’s been a great journey.
I have seen the future, and it is closed for maintenance:
I took off from the conference for an hour to check out Fry’s Electronics. Here’s a snapshot of the integrated circuits aisle:
Got some lunch in the great (and sunny and warm) outdoors at the patio at Cabo Wabo – shrimp tacos, Corona and chips and salsa:
…and of course, Stripper Bar!
When you’re in Vegas and a Dean Martin impersonator, a Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator and a Frank Sinatra impersonator tap you on the shoulder and say “Hey, pally, wanna take that squeezebox onstage and do a number with us?”, the only answer is “Yes”.
The number we did? That’s Amore, of course!
