Changing jobs
So, yesterday was my last day at C Tech Development Corporation. It was my last day as a freelancer too. These last three years have been a great learning experience, and I feel I have grown quite a lot as a developer.
I landed the job thanks to my work in the old Jad Engine, where I met Reed and Bengt, and I honestly think I have been very lucky to be working with them, along Adam and Devlin. They are very talented devs, and I have learned from each of them as much as I have been able. I am proud also of the product we have been build during this time: EnterVol, an ArcGIS plugin that adds volumetric analysis of chemistry/geology data. Internally EnterVol is a really interesting piece of software, using WPF, WCF, TPL,... It is rather complicated, but also full of very elegant design decisions and code. I really hope it brings lots of new customers to C Tech, they deserve it :)
I want to give a special mention to Reed, my boss. Reed Copsey is a Microsoft MVP in C#, maybe not as known as other famous people on that area, but he is one of the best (you can check Stack Overflow and see him in the first page of top users ;) Not only he is an outstanding developer, capable of facing any problem you throw at him (seriously, he can jump from DB, to graphics, to algorithms, to WCF, and not even blink), he has been also an outstanding boss. He has lead the team carefully, dividing the job, keeping an eye on us, helping when needed, and he has been more than understanding with some cultural differences that exist between Spain and USA, specially regarding holidays. Given how hard is to find a good boss, I really appreciate this.
And for the future? Well, I am moving to Plain Concepts, a Spanish Microsoft partner. I am very happy of this for several reasons. First and mostly, because of the people: I know quite a lot of people in the company from old jobs, Microsoft events,… It is always nice to work with people you know you already get along well, and even nicer when they are technical leaders in their fields. I hope I’ll learn quite a few new things from all of them. Oh, and the company average age is quite young too :)
Second, because Plain Concepts has just started developing games, via Weekend Game Studio. They have already released two games and are developing their own multiplatform game engine called Wave (which powers Bye Bye Brain). Wave is mostly the work of two people, one if them is Javier Canton, another fellow Spanish XNA/DX MVP. I really look forward working with them on the engine and improving it in the future. And releasing quite a few games :)
And third, because I’ll be moving to their Seattle office (if I get the visa, come on immigration), which is a huge change for me. I needed to get out of my comfort zone a little, and I wanted a change after been working so long remotely at home, and this achieves it by long. It also allows me to experience what it means to live abroad for a long time, something I’m very curious to discover.
So, one path ends, and another starts, I am really eager to discover how this new part of my life and professional career will develop.