Big Decisions
Sorry no posts lately. Big things have been happening this week - I finally took a full time job after waiting for over a month for an offer, but I ended up not taking that one and instead going with a better offer from the company I've been contracting at for the past couple of months called WaveMarket.
How much do I tell of this story? The problem with blogging while back here in the U.S. is that everyone I know and work with *reads* it. This wasn't really a problem in Spain, but it's somewhat inhibiting now. I guess I'll just have to go with it. But unlike my prior posts in Spain about work when I blurted out how much I was making (because I was making so laughably little) I won't be doing that here. I'm definitely making more than some and less than others and there's no reason to trample into that mess right now (maybe later ;-) ). So barring that bit of info, here's the rest of the stuff that's been happening in the past couple months.
Back in October I responded to a DICE.com posting for someone with mobile internet experience and got a call right away from WaveMarket. If you look back in my blog you'll see this is the pre-hire post that I wrote a while ago. They had seen my resume, seen my weblog and basically said "see you on Monday." It was the Thursday the week before and I was in Spain and I was coming out sometime that next week anyways, but the opportunity to earn some money while trying to make the transition to the U.S. was such that I got off my ass and got to San Francisco ASAP, and started working as soon as possible as well. This turned out to be a lifesaver for the move - I wouldn't have been able to have afford it without that income.
During this same week or so I had just seen the mobile Flash demo on CNet and thought it was fantastic. When I had posted about it, someone left me a link to a position at Macromedia within that area and I had sent my resume in, but knew it wasn't going to get far going through normal HR channels so I tried to work my connections to see if they could help me out and they did. Within a few days I got a call from Jim Morris who's in charge of the FlashCast effort (!!) and after a phone screening we set an interview. The first interview was good, but I'm not a heads-down architectural type, so they had me come in for a second round a couple weeks later to interview for a more standard developer role. Then after my references were checked, I was going to get an offer which in early November I thought was awesome and I told Macromedia that I could join within a week. And then I waited. Five weeks later, and two months after we started the process I got the offer in hand for a Senior Software Engineer. Whew! Finally!
The problem was that during that time things at WaveMarket had progressed. They were happy with my work on a new web services product I'm developing for them and their clients are excited about it as well. So yesterday when I went in and said I'm going to Macromedia, the CEO at WaveMarket gave me a great offer to convince me to stay. Not just a counter-offer, but a killer offer: a lot better money, options and the most important part being I'll be in charge of developing and launching the product I've been working on. It wasn't just an offer, but a signal that I was going to be able to play a significant role in the company and that they appreciated this. Since I'm already happy with the people, technology and focus of the company it didn't take too long to decide that was the way to go. I've been waiting for this sort of opportunity for a while now.
I called Macromedia to tell them the bad news and of course, they were pissed. The last five weeks were filled, I'm sure, with lots of emails and bureaucracy, etc. to get me hired. And I had pulled in contacts to help at the beginning, etc. And then at the end I say no and go somewhere else. Urgh! I can totally understand hard feelings on their part. I feel bad about it myself and a little shell-shocked at the decision because Macromedia is a real player and I think their FlashCast stuff is going to make an impact (once you *see* it in person you'll agree). However, I'm just tired of being Yet Another Senior Software Developer and even though there were opportunities for me to move up and do bigger/better things at Macromedia, the actual title/role just wasn't there right now and neither was the money, so I had to go with the better offer. I think anyone in my shoes would've done the same.
So anyways, that's why there's been no posting. Lots of stress and tons-o-shit up in the air. Now, finally, I've got a real job doing stuff that's really incredibly interesting and have enough skin in the game to feel a real interest in what's going on. This is *all good* and there'll be a lot more news coming shortly about what I'm working on when we finally launch.
Whew. Hopefully now I can get back into the rhythm of posting regularly. Stresssss. I've gained at least 20lbs in the past month. ;-)
-Russ