Life: The Next Chapter
| 2012/05/20 | Posted by CCAdmin under Microsoft, Software Testing, Uncategorized |
It’s one of those times in life to start a new chapter. New chapters in life don’t come as often as they used to, but now is the time to start my next chapter. I’ve been working at Honeywell Aerospace since August of 1998. That was shortly after I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering (1997). It was a good place to go. Honeywell taught me a lot of things – not just in software development and testing, but general engineering problem solving skills too.
The problem is that Aerospace is a slow industry. They don’t pick up on new technologies very quickly. I wouldn’t blame the industry…you don’t really want to be trying new and unproven things for the development that goes into airplanes, missiles or satellites, right? I outgrew the industry. I needed more stimuli than the glacier-paced Aerospace industry could provide, so it was time to find somewhere that had more growth potential.
The Aerospace industry is also a heavily regulated industry and context-driven testing is not a very easy task to perform when working around all the standards that one must obey. I’ve long said that “Aerospace” gets in the way of “software” because software is only a subset of the primary “product”. That won’t be the case at my new employer, so I’m excited about working software for the sake of software and not something else.
Enter Microsoft. I went to a recruiting event for testers at Microsoft last December. It was for the entertainment division (Xbox). After that, I was talking to a recruiter and a few people internally, but by the time things came to fruition those positions were already filled. I was trying to get a few organizational ducks in a row before coming back to see other possibilities, when I got an email from another Microsoft recruiter.
He asked me if I was interested in an SDET position at Microsoft, and I told him “I am open to new opportunities and an SDET is EXACTLY the direction I am trying to go.” Ironically, his contacting me had nothing to do with my recent discussions in the entertainment division of Microsoft. He had just stumbled across my resume on LinkedIn and thought I had the right background for an SDET position.
So I interviewed with Microsoft and was offered a position as an SDET in their Platforms and Tools group. I’ll be working with claims based authentication (using WIF – Windows Identity Foundation) on various cloud computing platforms. Until I actually start, that’s about all the specifics I really know.
I have slightly mixed feelings, as one might expect. I’m a little melancholy about leaving the comfort of a company I’ve worked for almost 14 years now, but at the same time I’m super excited about joining Microsoft. Not only is Microsoft a great company, but they are much better geared toward the type of context-driven software testing I subscribe to.
This new chapter looks like it’s going to be a great chapter. I can’t wait to start reading it. Stay tuned to this blog for chapter updates.
That’s awesome Chris – I’m glad you’re coming over to the evil empire.
I was swayed by the cookies promised by the Dark Side.
Congratulations, Chris!
Hopefully you’ll blog about this new life chapter and the transition involved. Should be interesting for all of us.
I’m just starting a new chaper in my life as well. Hope it all works out for you and look forward to reading about how it goes. Good luck
Great Phil. Good luck. What is your “next chapter”?
Left the UK after living there all my life and now living and working in the US – as a tester of course