Let the New Journey Begin

So, I reached 7 months before my feet started itching. Or was it that my brain was itching? Either way, I started looking seriously at contributing to the corporate world again.

After resigning from my previous job, it was clear that I was not going to do the exact same role. There were a couple of head-hunter calls, and some projects related to channel sales where I purposely said a firm no. Doing exactly the same type of thing would have probably been the easiest route to boot loads of cash, but the shortest road to insanity. Just putting the new cover pages on TPS reports was not a part of the original game plan.

Working for yourself, building a business and looking for projects to keep some income rolling in, is a tough task. Whilst self employment has it many benefits; professional companionship and intellectual stimulation are not included when self means self. No doubt, there are many things to keep your mind working: new customers, new projects, new languages, new environments, new products – however your power to influence any of these is very limited. Working with other smart people is just too darn attractive.

Knowing that I wanted to return to a technical, customer-facing, software related job filtered number of qualifying jobs diminish dramatically. Staying in Sydney, having a good manager, working for a name-brand company starts to filter down the choice even more.

So when this Microsoft Enthusiast Evangelist role appeared, I was over the moon and as keen as mustard. An excellent, well respected manager. Check. Loads of customers, buckets of technology and a strong desire to connect the two: Tick. Being a conduit; taking feedback, showing and listening in that order. Perfect.

Today, I signed on to Microsoft. Start on Thursday. Let the journey begin. WooT!

FAQs

1. What are you going to miss about the time off?

Getting up at anytime in the morning, reading lots of books, having the time to be able to research a completely new IT subject and watching TV. Chilling out and doing very little has certainly cleaned out the cobwebs.

2. You are sucking up to your new boss, already, right?

You read me like a book. No seriously, check him out. I did my reference checks, too!

3. Microsoft is big. Can you deal with the huge-ness?

Yes, Microsoft is a huge organisation with many people and lots of tools and technologies. Their products touch virtually everyone in the digital world, somewhere. Being a small part of this bigness is coolness.

4. How much Gardening did you do?

As promised, none. I did however water the garden under the draconian rules of Sydney Water during this period.

5. So, you are never going to use a Mac nor Photoshop/InDesign again?

I seriously doubt that. Microsoft creates Mac software, and Photoshop/InDesign is ingrained into my system. The world is a much more complex place than “A vs. B”.