Today, I start a new job with a new company. After more than three years with 318, Inc., as a consultant, I’m moving to Minneapolis-based JAMF Software as a Professional Services Engineer. JAMF is a company I’ve known more than 10 years with many people I’ve known nearly as long.
In a call with my former boss late last week, I told him coming to 318 was a needed kick in the seat of the pants for me. Ten years with my employer before that had made me complacent and I didn’t realize how much I needed a new challenge. In my first month with 318, I learned more than I’d learned in the prior year.
And while with 318, I had a wonderful and very rare opportunity to spend a year on a major iPad deployment project as an embedded engineer working on behalf of Apple. That gig came to a close this past August and then I returned to civilian life at 318. Half my time for the next few months was spent conducting Casper JumpStarts on behalf of JAMF and I really enjoyed that work. Moving to JAMF just makes sense. I’m proud to be a part of the 318 alumni who’ve gone on to work at Apple, Puppet Labs, Sony, Amazon and JAMF Software.
However, I’m just one of several people where 2015 was a time for change. Through personal friendships and through the Twin Cities Mac Admins group that a few of us started last January, I know of six others who changed jobs.
One moved to a different school district to take a management position.
Another moved to a different school in a completely different country—Switzerland—for an opportunity to see the world.
The third moved on to support a much larger group of Macs with a major retailer.
One quit his company after 18 years to continue doing what he loves—development—at another organization with a very different and distributed work model.
And the rest… went to JAMF, one of whom is starting his “zero month” with me today.
These are all good moves. Everyone is moving on to a new challenge in one way or another. The best advice I ever received about changing jobs (and advice I pass along to anyone I know changing jobs) is “It’s not worth it if it doesn’t scare you a little.”
Remember the Human 