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Although this has been in the works for a while, the time is finally right for me to share the news.  As of tomorrow, I’ll work for Microsoft.  Since I was recently inspired by Tim Bray’s entry describing his decision to work for Sun, I thought I would try to do something similar to explain my thought process and to share this in detail for those that are interested.

After thinking about this seriously for nearly six months, I decided to make the jump in early March.  There was a lot involved with the whole process, including a number of face to face interviews, lunch meetings, and a bunch of late evening phone calls.  After meeting a number of Microsoft people, and thinking very highly of each and every one of them, considering the job opportunity itself, and talking with the Microsoft friends that I already have, I knew that taking this job would be the right decision.  But let me step back for a minute and talk about what led me down this path.

A Giant Sucking Sound

Over a year ago, I started noticing a lot of people in the community heading to Microsoft.  People who wrote books that I’d read, had listened to at conferences, had read their blog, and had even met in person were starting to move to Microsoft in growing numbers.  I’m not really one to follow the crowd, but at the same time I started thinking “there are a lot of smart people making the jump to Redmond- what gives?”  I was intrigued, and became curious to see what kind of feedback would come from those people making the move to Microsoft.  Fast-forward to last year’s CIO Summit.  While there, I had a chance to meet Robert Scoble.  He took me around campus one afternoon to show me Microsoft “from the inside”, and then we went out and had a great dinner that night.  I really enjoyed our conversation, and I could see that he was truly passionate about what he was doing.  And honestly, I hadn’t felt that passion in my day job as a software development director for some time.  I wanted that again… and while Microsoft wasn’t necessarily the first option that came to mind, I wanted to explore the possibilities.

Add to that mix the fact that I was really impressed by the CIO Summit.  And no, I’m not referring to the cool gifts that I received.  I was excited by the fact that Steve Ballmer, Rick Devenuti, and a number of other Microsoft executives and senior managers talked about what Microsoft was working on across a variety of areas, and much of what I heard and saw was compelling and interesting.  When I asked Steve Ballmer about requiring automated software updates as part of Windows licensing and potential liability issues, he quickly dismissed the legal concerns and focused on customer needs.  Although the issue is complex, I was impressed with his answer.

The Changing Culture at Microsoft

Another major driver in my decision to make this move is that our whole industry is really changing, and Microsoft is leading the charge from my perspective.  I don’t want to be naïve, but I think that Microsoft recognizes that a state of hegemony in the industry has caused a number of problems, and that Microsoft can only solve those problems by becoming more open as a company and more concerned with satisfying customers.  By reading the blogs of Chris Sells and Robert Scoble and some others, I realized something that was important.  First, Microsoft was changing for the better and becoming more open.  Second, individual people at Microsoft really can make a difference in a way that helps customers.  It’s not a “top down” organization.  Each person can reach beyond the boundaries of their core responsibilities to help the company make its products, and its customers, more successful.  It seems like a good person at Microsoft can take on as much as they want and can really get exposure to a lot of great projects and people in the process.

What's Next?

All of these factors led me to the decision to join Microsoft.  For now, I’m staying in the St. Louis area.  While there are a number of opportunities in Redmond that may open up down the road, one of the main factors that influenced my decision to go with Microsoft was that I could take a great position with a great company without relocating immediately.  That’s a huge plus for me and my family, and makes the transition much easier. 

The position that I’ve taken is in the Solutions group in the Mid America district, and I’ll be the Application Platforms Solutions Specialist.  In that role, I’m going to be working with a team that includes our implementation partners, our account managers, and other product specialists to help launch new initiatives for our customers involving SQL Server, BizTalk, and Sharepoint technologies (along with a few others).  It is an exciting opportunity to continue to be involved with technology, while also playing a role in helping customers to map out the vision for their companies from a technology perspective.

This blog is going to change a little bit, starting with the title.  Yukon, er… SQL Server 2005 will start to be a bigger focus, but I will also focus some on BizTalk and Sharepoint.  As I gain experience in my new role, I also plan to write more about it and how things work in the field and to share my observations about the MS organization from that perspective.  I will also be reaching out to some community members to try to get them more involved with CLRSQL, since I don’t want it to be branded as a “Microsoft site”.  It really should be a community resource.  I will also continue to work on my SQL Server 2005 book, and it will be published by Addison-Wesley in 2005 as originally planned.

Help Me to Help You

As I move into this new role I’m encouraging everyone that knows me already to reach out so that we can help each other.  For those that don’t know me, please introduce yourselves.  I'd like to get to know many of you better.  If I’m doing my job well, I’ll be helping Microsoft’s customers to succeed, and a big part of that includes the developers and technology professionals that work with these products on a daily basis.  Whatever I can do to help, it would be my pleasure to do so.  To reach me, my mobile phone number is 636-448-4263, and my personal e-mail address is randy [AT] clrsql [DOT] com.  Let’s work together as I start this new adventure.