The World Has Changed
thane April 4th, 2008
My world has changed. It will never go back to the way it was before. As a means of explanation, I need to give you some background.
Half a year ago or so, Wacom was experiencing some growing pains. This took the form of planning a new building where everyone involved in the planning was getting very irritated with the totally opaque and nonsensical process. Multiple people in Engineering were talking about leaving (almost half the department) at various times, and others were talking about collective bargaining. I got fed up and started putting out feelers and digging around for a new job. On 12/4/2007 I got a bite from a friend at Apple, asking if I was still looking. I sent him my resume, along with that of a friend, noting that neither of us was interested in moving. On 1/18 his old boss called me and decided I was a good candidate for the job. 2/1 I had two phone interviews with engineers. 2/18 I took a trip to Cupertino where I interviewed with nine different people in half a day. 3/7 was another day trip to California where I interviewed with five more people. At this point I have talked with almost everyone I could talk to in ‘my’ management chain, and with surrounding groups that I would have to interface with.
On 3/25, 113 days in and 17 interviewers later, they offered me a job working from my own home. As of 4/21, I will be an Apple employe, an I/O Kit Kernel Engineer. I will have to spend a lot of the next 6 months in California, trying to develop the network that will allow me to succeed at the job. Even doing that, my success is not guaranteed. This is going to be the hardest and most challenging job I have ever taken, from a professional standpoint, from a personal standpoint, and from a family standpoint. It is also one of the most exciting, most thrilling jobs I can imagine having. When I started looking, low those many months ago, I came up with a list of things the perfect job would have. This has all of them. It is even more perfect than the job I had imagined. It is like a dream.
People, if this is a dream, don’t wake me. I will kick your ass.