Almost exactly three years ago I received an email that changed my life. It was something like: "We would like to work with you and invite you to a one week trial". I still remember reading the email while spending my last loooong summer break just after earning my masters degree.
I was on a job hunt and got lucky to find some nice potential jobs quite quickly. One was a position in a small company that develop the "brains" for Slot Machines, Electronic Roulette and other automated gambling equipment. This was basically a dream come true for a gambler like me :)
The other position I really liked was a Silverlight development position in a (then) 5 people strong company called UX Passion. After a nice talk with one of the founders (Darko) I called my (now) wife and told her I won't be searching for a job until these guys either hire or reject me.
I just felt like this was the place to go. At one moment I was stalling on making a decision in accepting the offer from the first (gambling) company just so I won't miss out on working with UX Passion. This was something the guy I that interviewed me also realized and after he asked me if they were my "second choice" I knew that I really wanted to get the job I ended up doing for the last three years.
I was working with a British company called Qualtrak which had a call center management application written in Silverlight and my main task was to iron out all bugs and try to squeeze in some additional functionality. It was a bit of a nightmare for a year (or more) until we got to a point where the product was stable enough to demo to some potential customers.
While working on the Silverlight application new guys joined the company which grew to a healthy number of 12 employees. Even one of my friends whom I recommended started working here (I haven't received my provision yet, but the guy both himself a MacBook...).
During the time I really got attached to this guys. I was able to learn a thing or two from them while listening to them mocking me for having a Windows Phone, coding in .NET, or anything else non-Mac/Linux :)
I was also lucky enough to travel to London a few times to meet the guys from Qualtrak and I had a nice time while there. In the end some decisions were made I didn't really agree with so I started looking for some other options.
I started sending out CVs again and felt quite strange while thinking that my time with the guys may come to an end. I was shocked about how quickly this might happen when I first got a job offer from one company which hasn't contacted me since then (duh) and then a week or two later I got a genuine offer from Axilis. I will be joining their team on the 18th of August while working on a somewhat big Windows Phone project (yay) and I am really excited about that.
Leaving UX Passion will mean another big change in my life. I can only hope that the friendships developed there will last longer then my stay there.
I feel happy to be part of something like that and I will keep all the memories forever with me.
Now it's time for another big step in my career but first I have to take my trip to the far north of Europe (together with my wife of course :)).
Until then, keep smiling :)