September 28th was my last day at Microsoft.
I resigned after taking a job as a “Senior IT Consultant” with a small Danish company called Codehouse. It’s small. 16 employees. It’s over 5,000 times smaller than Microsoft, with its mind-boggling 79,000.
Codehouse specializes in providing custom web solutions for large customers. In other words, big companies need big web sites, and Codehouse sets these sites up. They don’t do the content — they set up an infrastructure that the big company can then use to add and maintain content on their site.
Despite the job description, I’m essentially a programmer. However, one of the things I’ve missed about working in a small company is that you get to do a lot of different things. You can do that at a large company too, but to a much smaller degree, as your job is more strictly defined in a large company.
Another reason for the move is their location: right in the center of Copenhagen, and a five minute bike ride from my apartment. Unfortuntely, on my first day I learned that they are looking for a new location. But it will be in Copenhagen as well, whereas Microsoft is 22 kilometers outside the city.
I don’t regret working at Microsoft for over five years, but it was never my plan to work a corporate environment at all, and I never felt it was really where I belonged. I learned a lot (although more about the corporate bureaucracy than about technology) and I made some great friends. But other than that, I’m glad to be out.
At the same time, I’m also glad to be using Microsoft technology at the new job. Microsoft is really good at creating developer tools. They’re a pleasure to use, and ironically I’ll get to use a lot more Microsoft tools by leaving the company.
Congratulations, Stan! You won’t regret making the leap. Until you land, of course. But don’t worry about that now. I bet you’ll learn a lot about Web programming at Codehouse. Not just that… in a small startup environment you might be called on to do just about anything,which could be interesting. Like load the dishwasher. Wash them socks for a change. Make yourself useful.
Oh dear. It sounds like your escape from Microsoft hasn’t gone that well?
I don’t know if it can actually be called an “escape” when my contract is, well, at Microsoft. It’s like that movie with Clint Eastwood where he tunnels out of Alcatraz and comes up in the middle of the SF Bay. Birdman of Alcatraz… yeah, that’s it.
Nevertheless it’s a big improvement.
Congratulations! I’m glad you’re taking some risks. I’m also very happy that you’re prospering. Take care my friend.