Now that everyone who shouldn't find out via the Internet knows, it's safe to say out loud that I've decided after two and a half years to leave AgileThought for a new gig. I'm going to a small, local company that is about to start its largest growth spurt, where I'll run software engineering and product development.
This is easily one of the hardest decisions I've had to make, arguably harder than leaving Microsoft (which was stupid, by the way). AT has a lot of the things that people in this line of work crave: Excellent people, interesting work, fair salary and benefits, and a fair amount of stability and momentum. It's completely unusual, in a good way. I've had a number of consecutive fantastic successes, so I could argue that it's a comfortable place to be. Did I mention that I love working with the people there? Why would I leave that?
Earlier in the year, I started to become very contemplative about my long-term view. I've told the story before that when I left the broadcast world, I largely let career happen to me, instead of actively managing it. When things started to really suck in 2009, in a crappy job market, I promised myself not to do that anymore. So the contemplation led to the conclusion that my strengths really have been around executing the end to end process of making software, from vision to shipping, involving everything from technical leadership to administrative guidance. What I want to do more of is apply those skills to something longer term, something more product oriented. My biggest professional growth periods have been in product oriented situations (Insurance.com, Microsoft). AT operates on a consulting model, so the opportunity for building stuff over the course of more than six months is pretty rare. That's what I'm itching for. I'm not leaving because of some flaw with the company. Seriously, if you need custom bits, I would recommend them every day of the week.
I spent a long time vetting the new company, as I'm sure the owner did me, before pulling the trigger. It's not that there is enormous risk in the job market, there's only risk in leaving something safe and relatively predictable. But this new gig scratches the itch, to be at the helm of something that will grow and evolve. I'm sold on what the team has done so far, and its commitment. It's going to be hard work, but it will be exciting.
So here's to the next chapter. I'm going to miss the AT people, because they're pretty amazing. Fortunately, it's a small community, and I'm sure I'll see them at the various local events.
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