I'm leaving Microsoft UK, but joining...

In many ways, yesterday was a sad day as I resigned from Microsoft UK after 18 months or so, having decided to take a change in career direction. I'll still be around Microsoft UK for about a month though. However, it certainly wasn't just a sad day, it was one very happy day too.

Many of you know my passion and interest in Virtualisation and it's this making me move on. Early this year, I accepted a job in Microsoft Corporate over in Seattle, WA. As you can imagine, sorting out the visa and relocation isn't trivial and it's taken weeks to finalise everything. So the good news is, I'm not leaving Microsoft entirely, just transferring subsidiaries. My blog will still be active, but simply not as active as it has been over the past year as I'm going to be focusing very much on a single technology (at work at least - the home IT overkill is very much there to stay!)

The new role is Program Manager, working alongside many very talented people including, most visibly externally, the likes of Ben, in the Windows Virtualisation team - part of the Windows Core Operating System Division, working on virtualisation support within Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" and beyond. This is such a great time to be involved right in the heart of a hugely significant technology and a challenge I'm immensely looking forward to. I'll provide more details on the areas I'm going to be working on in a few weeks.

I think along the way, for myself, my wife and my children, there'll be some challenges when we're moving 5,000 miles to another continent. Obviously, there's driving on the other side, the petrol (gas) thing seems a little wierd, spellings (Virtualisation vs. Virtualization being a prime example even if I still don't get why Hypervisor isn't spelt Hypervizor state-side), the fact that it's nigh on impossible to get my staple weekend diet - a decent "British-hot" Vindaloo curry complete with a decent Belgian beer brewed in Brentford or where-ever it is in the UK, remembering to press "1" in the lift (sorry, elevator) if you want to get to the ground floor (sorry lobby) of a hotel. I guess I'm going to miss lots of things too - British TV, roundabouts, lollypop men (people to be PC), a decent cup of tea and plugs with fuses, just for starters. However, my favourite (doh, favorite) difference has to be one which tickled my youngest - the fact that you wear your pants on the outside in America. And I though that was the preserve of superheros! (For the benefits of anyone state-side reading this who aren't aware, pants=underwear and trousers=pants in England.) There lots more useful info to translate between en-us and en-gb here.

You have a nice day now!
Cheers,
John.