I finally have a new job, and one that pay’s what I used to be making, is actually in Burlington, and which I think I’ll enjoy a lot better than any of the employement options I’ve had (including unemployment) for the past 3 years!

I got a call about a week after I “blindly” applied for the job. I say “blindly” because I never thought I’d hear anything back. I got a phone call from HR who gave me an initial short technical interview. Then I proceeded to talk to three senior technicians, their manager, and the world-wide IT director. I had to do all of this by “sneaking” out of work and waiting outside for them to phone me on my cell.

I actually thought it was somewhat like winning the lottery. As the interviews continued, I kept being told how much they wanted me to have the job – something I’ve never encountered before.

As I’ve already mentioned above and in previous posts, working at Microsoft was far from the ideal solution. The pay was half what the industry would normally give somebody for the equivalent amount of work (because it was all via a staffing agency rather than Microsoft actually bothering to hire full-time employees in Canada for some reason) and the commute, for me, was hellish. Additionally, there was a rather high degree of “drone” mentality, where employee review came down to simple metrics that really didn’t have all that much bearing on individuality – everybody there, as far as I know, was constantly looking for other work, and nobody really felt anything other than “expendable”.

In any case, my new job is with VMWare and I start on the 25th. I gave me 2 weeks notice (as required) but was not forced to work out those two weeks – so I’m now enjoying a couple of weeks off work.

I’ll be the first position to support the team I’ll be part of (the “hosting” portion of VMWare) and will need to be sent to Palo Alto, California for several weeks for training before actually doing anything. (I can’t say I’ll complain too much about that, although I’ll miss Michelle.)