Goodbye Enterprise Java, Hello Seeking Alpha!
This Friday is my last day doing Java work for what will probably be a long time. I’m leaving Smart Solutions and the Java Enterprise world to join Seeking Alpha, a financial blog network. I’ll be joining Dion and Jim, who are both Madison residents, so although everyone is home office based we’ll be able to meet up whenever we like. There has already been talk of turning Dion’s house into the Seeking Alpha “war room”, but I’m not sure how much his wife and new son would like that.
If you had told me a couple years ago that I would have an oppurtunity like this, I would’ve not believed you. You know how interviewers always do the “Describe your ideal work environment” thing? This job pretty much matches what my answer has been: A small, highly talented, motivated team, working with the best hardware available. A startup environment instead of a corporate one. Immediate feedback from our users, the readers. All open source and the right tools for the job - PHP and Ruby. Working in a domain I know and love - blogs - in a market that is primed for huge growth - blog networks. Opportunities to learn a ton of stuff, not only technology but about the finance.
Its funny how Jim originally helped me get into Smart Solutions, and I returned the favor by recommending him for Seeking Alpha. I just can’t get rid of that guy, no matter what I do. Jim has blogged about the same conundrum.
This also means its time to join the cult, as we are getting MacBook Pros and fancy smancy 30” monitors to go with them. Nothing like having the best hardware to improve productivity.
So goodbye Java! Its been fun and I’ve learned a lot, but I can’t say I’ll miss you too much.