I warned everyone that I’d be posting a very long blog post. Some people said I should publish it in sections, but I’m not going to do that and you’ll soon know why. I’m just going to put it all out there. Also, I’m also including some mostly iPhone pictures. (Sorry they’re not up to my usual quality). If you want to know exactly what’s coming next (skipping the epic story,) just scroll down.
I got a phone call in early June from a recruiter. To be honest, I get calls from recruiters once a week asking if I want to interview for a job. I always say yes to talking to someone, but usually never actually interview once I hear what the job is. Even though I rarely pursue these things my advice is to always say “yes” and then listen. You never know where it will take you…
This time I was intrigued, so I talked to a few people about a possible job. Since I was happy at my current job and had no intention of looking for another job, I wasn’t too disappointed when a couple of weeks went by and I hadn’t heard back. Then the recruiter called and said, “It’s been narrowed down to a handful of people. Can you fly out there and meet with the company?” I said yes.
On Thursday, July 15th, I left work around 10PM to fly across the country for my interview. Only a handful of people knew what I doing; I had emailed my parents and Laura saying: “I’m hopping the red-eye to Boston for a job interview. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
Then I sent this tweet, “I love telling stories. Not this time. Goodnight friends.”
But the truth is, I didn’t sleep on the plane that night. I was so nervous about taking a sick day and discreetly flying across country for an interview at a large company. I was also
worried that after all the time and travel I wouldn’t get the job. As I said, I was nervous.
One good omen took place, though, As I was about to board, my friend and mentor Dom Sagolla checked in via Foursquare at SFO and posted: “red-eye back east to hang out with friends.” I looked up and there he was, on the same plane I was on. He was seated a few rows back, but still. The friend who’d helped me in so many ways was on my flight and – in essence – accompanying me in that journey east to a potential new beginning. At 5 AM eastern time I was 30,000 feet up in the air and the sun peaked over the clouds. We landed in Boston at 8AM. I hadn’t been to there since 2004 when I went to Macworld with my friend, Matt. I was all of 16 then. Now at age 24 I was coming back. In the intervening years so much has changed, technologically and in me. I was, as you can imagine, psyched.
I was also tired and hungry. My friend Ben had DMed me as I got off the plane saying the coffee in Boston isn’t as good as it is in San Francisco. He was right. But there were Dunkin Donuts everywhere. Must have been 10 for every 1 Starbucks. There was a lot of that recognizable Boston accent too. I asked around and was told that to get where I wanted to go I should hop on the Dartmouth Coach. (That’s a $30 one-way charter bus that leaves Boston for Dartmouth College three times a day. Although the drive is just over 2 hours, this bus takes 3.5 because of stops along the way.)
Yes, I was headed to New Hampshire. I was almost at my destination, a town called Lebanon.
I need to tell you a little about Lebanon, N.H. The town is 5 miles from Hanover, home of Dartmouth, and has a population of 12,000 people (which is actually pretty big for New Hampshire). Both towns are tucked away behind the upper valley hills among hundreds of miles of trees. It’s safe to say I was in the middle of nowhere. The bus was full of people my age. At the time, I didn’t know two large colleges and an Ivy-League university were among those trees, or that the town I was interviewing in had a median age of 21 because of the huge influx of college students that are there year-round.
Back to my story: It was only 11:30AM (8:30 back in California) and I about to have lunch with two potential colleagues. They were dressed in button down shirts with slacks and were clean shaven. In NewEngland they call this “business casual.” It was casual Friday, so suits weren’t required that day. (I was glad I had bought nice slacks for the interview. No one wears suits in the startup world. In Northern California, your CEO comes to work in jeans.) On the east coast, jeans on a weekday are for college kids and baseball fans. This was new to me, but refreshing.
The people there mean business. Blackberry and Windows are winning over iPhones and Macs. I loved it. It felt so productive. And the company I was interviewing for felt like a real company – which is a stark contrast to the very casual and very Apple-y culture in Nor-Cal. Of course, both places and styles have their advantages, but I loved the change and the very different feel of New England.
The interview process was incredible. I’m pretty sure that I was talking and throwing out more ideas than they were asking for. Everything fit together. Every question I was asked felt right. I knew the answers and I could foresee exactly what it would take to deliver on the goal – the goal of getting the job and the goal of making the company that much better.
What company? Be patient.
The day was going by too fast. After 5 hours of interviews I was dropped off at a hotel (one of 2 in the entire town), and the man who I hoped would be my future boss said, “How soon can you start?” I really wanted to say “bright and early Monday morning,” but of course I wasn’t hired yet. Still, I think we both knew that everything in my past had prepared me for this job, and that I was the right fit. We shook hands and I went to my room hoping to finally get some sleep.
Back in San Francisco I waited. My day to day routine continued; I toiled at my desk and kept my focus. I was one of two candidates trying out for this position. The other guy was local and as time went on I began to assume that he’d get it. Maybe the job was simply a pipe dream. After 2 weeks, I composed a letter to the recruiter with a list of 10 colleagues, business partners and mentors as references, and a list of my Linkedin 30 recommendations from years of job experiences starting with my Assistant Management job at Apple when I was only 18.
I knew that if I got the job in New Hampshire, I wouldn’t be required to move (I could work out of any one of their offices in California, Boston or at the home base in New
Hampshire) but I decided I could be more effective being near the team and working closely with my colleagues. Because I spent hours researching New Hampshire and soaking up everything I could about the state, I included a note saying if hired I’d be thrilled to relocate to the Lebanon office. I didn’t ask for relocation assistance or any extra incentives. It didn’t matter; I was ready for a big change.
As I noted in my blog post at the turn of my 2 year San Franniversary, I wanted to live in more places than just San Francisco. Now feels like the time to explore a bit more. Afterall, I’ve been in SF far longer than I had originally planned. Of course, New Hampshire wasn’t on the list of places I wanted to live, but long ago I told myself that I’d go almost anywhere if I thought moving would be a productive and fun adventure.
As the weeks went by, I began falling in love with the small, bucolic town that I might be moving to. In New Hampshire, there’s no sales tax or income tax; the nearest mall is an hour away. There areflowing tree-covered mountains that go for miles and they measure snowfall in feet. The average low is 8 degrees but in summer it can hit 85. In autumn the trees turn bright orange, yellow and red. There are rushing brooks in spring. The morning dew nourishes the wild flowers in one season and creates fog or icy roads in another. It’s pretty magical.
The state is very green when it comes to recycling too, and there are as many hybrid cars as we have in San Francisco. There are families who are just getting by and lots of well-off families who spend their summers water skiing on the hundreds of lakes. It seems like everyone spends part of their winter snow skiing atop nearby mountains. Unlike San Francisco, New Hampshire is a place where you can get by on minimum wage and live well and save for retirement on an average income. (In Lebanon the median household income is just $45K.) The nearest city is Concord, the state capital, which was settled in the early 1700s. It’s an hour away and the population is just over 50,000.
By now you’ve figured out that I’m moving. I got the job. When I got the call I was elated –and relieved. I felt as if the recruiter was excited as well. His voice was pleasant as he said, “I have some good news.” To my surprise, I remained professional. This is just another day and I have to find out the details before I say yes. Everything being offered was in line with my expectations but, they didn’t know I’d take the job even if it was less than what they were offering. The fact is, I wanted this job no matter what. If you’ve observed my pattern over the past couple of years, you know I moved to the suburbs and now spend most of my time at home. It’s not because I don’t like SF, it’s just
that I wanted to work on myself a bit more and city life can be a bit overwhelming at times. Remember, I’m a southern boy who spent a lot of his time hiking in the woods and milking cows. Really. City life is awesome, but it can sometimes be too much, and it was getting in the way of healthy living and living the values I was raised with. Playing and partying became a distraction from work and a roadblock to expanding myself. While city life is fun from time to time, I wanted and needed a change.
Some of things I know I’ll like about living in New Hampshire include being able to get my concealed weapons permit (something I miss about Florida), and driving down to the general store to get some milk. It’s not like SF where guns are nearly banned and going out to get milk means an hour on public transit and paying twice what it should cost.But relocating to New Hampshire is about more than guns or milk, or even peace and quiet. It will give me the opportunity to do a few other important things like:
- Spend time with people my age who simply don’t worry too much about their online reputation and persona. People in New Hampshire generally aren’t as involved in tech as I am. I think that will yield some greater friendships than I’ve made in SF. (You can expect to see my tweeting to change quite a bit and become more personal and less about social media.)
- I’m going to take up skiing and snowboarding; I’m going to start fishing again; I’m going to join a bicycle team. The mountains and rolling hills of New Hampshire are incredible for those things.
- I’m going to use my free time on the weekends to finally finish writing the 3 books that have been on my mind for a few years.
- I’m going to get back to what made me happy once: is sitting around a bonfire in my back yard and falling asleep to the sound of its roar.
- I’m going to slow down a little bit, work hard, improve my skills and spend more time on myself.
To be clear, San Francisco has been and remains great. It’s one of the greatest cities in the world. But it’s still a city and I want to enjoy nature a bit more. City life may be in my future again, but for now I’m going to move to New Hampshire and slow down.
Another side note about moving to The Upper Valley of New England is that my friend Lee lives across the border in Vermont. She was a very close family friend when I lived in Florida. She’s the fun and lively Italian woman who taught me how to cook. (For any of you who have had my cooking, you know she taught me well.) She moved to Vermont a few years before I moved to SF and each year she invites me up to Vermont to ski. I always wanted to make the trek but never took the time. Now, I’ll be about an hour away from her and that makes me happy. I also have many friends and connections in Boston and New York City that I’ll be able to reconnect with. This doesn’t include all of the friends I know I’ll make after I settle in.
By now you’re probably wondering about my current job – how I really feel about Brightkite and if I’ve been unhappy there. I joined Brightkite on March 1, 2010 and had no plans to leave after just 6 months. Let me be really clear on this: I wasn’t looking to leave. I was called out of the blue and said yes to this amazing opportunity for all the reasons I’ve just delineated. I was a Brightkite user when they first launched in 2008 and never stopped using the service. Now that I’m moving, sharing photos with everyone with a Brightkite location attached to them will be more important than ever. I’m thrilled to be moving on after having worked for a company I respect so much. I was a passionate and dedicated Brightkite user for many years before joining their staff. I will continue to be a Brightkite user and booster.
As far as the future of Brightkite goes, it is huge. The entire team is doing some amazing things and I’m just happy that I was a part of it, even for a short time. I’ll miss my colleagues. That’s all I have to say on the subject, thanks for asking.
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One more thing to get straight: If you’re thinking that San Francisco won and I failed you’re wrong. San Francisco didn’t win, I did. I’m a kid from a small town in Florida with a C Average high school GPA and no college experience. I arrived with an amazing girlfriend and a few hundred bucks in my pocket. Together she and I networked our way in. We attended tech parties, studied, worked long hours and dedicated ourselves to making it. It took one year to finally start saving money again and be happy in SF as a person – not just happy because of my job and career opportunities. The past years have been incredible and challenging, but I’ve been up to the challenge. I spent all of year 2 without Laura as my girlfriend but this journey will be made alone for the first time. I would like to share with high gratitude what having a life partner meant to me and how Laura’s support and love for the past 4.5 years has really shaped who I am as a person. She’s not as public as I am so I won’t say much else other than to thank her for everything. Along the way, I made more friends. I had what it takes to stay in San Francisco for many years beyond today, but I’m choosing to move to advance my career and have a new adventure. Sorry, just had to get that out there before I get a dozen anonymous emails about “giving up”.
So, drum roll please…
On September 7th, 2010 I’ll be firmly settled in Lebanon, New Hampshire and starting my first day at TomTom. In case you don’t know, TomTom is a huge player in the GPS sector and they’re the leader as far as innovations in that market go. For many people TomTom is a household name. They’re doing some truly terrific things. I’m very proud to be their new Senior Project Manager for Content Production, Community Management.
The office I’ll be working out of was formerly TeleAtlas, the mapping company purchased by TomTom in 2007. As a map geek and lover of technology and navigation I’ve long been a huge fan of TomTom Anyone who knows me knows my fascination with Google Earth, mapping and topography. This is a great fit.
This is a major career move for me for a few reasons that I wanted to jot down:
- This is the first public company I’ve worked for since Apple when I was a teenager.
- There are a few thousand employees at TomTom. My last 4 jobs have been at companies with less than 20 employees.
- I’m completely amazed at how small and friendly TomTom feels despite its size. This is a huge reason I’m joining.
- They’re doing amazing things at TomTom and I see a few ways to help that will directly make a difference to the company. This means so much to me.
- I’m being given the chance to fill a position that I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid. But it’s not about the title, it’s about the direct influence I’ll have over so much. You can bet I’m going to put everything I have into this position.
The first week of September will be spent packing and moving across country. I’ll need to rent a new apartment, change my driver’s license and buy a car that’s good in the snow. I’ll have a couple of days to do all that before starting my new job in a new town with new people.
The excitement I feel right now is similar to when Laura and I first arrived in San Francisco on June 1st, 2008 (photos). I feel the same way about this move. True, I don’t have someone to share it with, but that’s life. I’m going to own this move and it will be a chance to do something remarkable.
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In closing, I want to say thank you to everyone. Everyone I’ve met along the way who has given me the chance to chat with them about tech, in person or virtually. An to those of you who simply taught me something—anything—well, thank you too. To all of you who replied to me on Twitter and supported my various life changes I say thank you. I’m simply ecstatic. I’m amazed. I’m overwhelmed with the love and support everyone has given me. (Of course, I’d be okay if the haters had never come forth, but that’s part of this journey too. They are also my teachers.) Everything I did in San Francisco enhanced my life and my knowledge of people and of the tech business in so many ways. I’ll be back in SF pretty often, I suspect and who knows I might even find myself living in the bay area again later in life.
Dad told me yesterday, “San Francisco will always be there. Your family will always be here. Go have an adventure.”
Off I go. Again.
The photos used in this post are all iPhone photos taken within 24 hours on my trip to New Hampshire for the job interview.
. I’ll be inviting people via Facebook.
