I've had a few readers ask me how the new gig is going, how's Seattle, etc. While I'm not exactly trying to stay hidden (making the occasional post over on CS.org, and a few Twitters here and there) I've definitely been lower profile than usual. I'm actually not in Seattle yet. The initial schedule was to have me out there on the 7th of this month but it didn't happen due to 2 words: Background check. Nothing is actually wrong, it's just taking longer than expected, and MS only offers initial training for my position once a month so the next window is the 4th of June. Seeing as I can't commit to any new freelance work, it's been a very slow couple of weeks. I do have a pet project I'm working on on the side (and had a very productive self imposed sprint last week where I hit my a major milestone. One more before giving it the "ready for beta" stamp of approval). Other than that, it's a bunch of hurry up and wait.

Background checks. I do realize that due to the new laws here stateside after 9/11 that they are as thorough as can be, but gone are the days of "I can start tomorrow" after accepting an offer. My last gig took 10 weeks from the date of the first interview until I stepped foot inside the office. With Microsoft it will have been about 8 weeks. Of course in an ideal scenario there would be zero lag between gigs, but that wasn't the case this time due to factors outside the scope of this post. Perhaps things are different with smaller organizations, but it's been my experience lately that you should give yourself an 8-12 week window if you're looking to switch companies.

So 2 more weeks to go. I'm chomping at the bit to get started in my new role!

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