New Job

Cut to the Chase

I'm leaving Tyson Foods for a position with Microsoft.

Looking Back

This coming March would have been my 10 year mark with Tyson (with the exception of a one year stint). Even though I'm crazy excited about the new position and the fact that it's Microsoft, this was an incredibly hard decision. Tyson has treated me great and I honestly feel I had a long and bright future with them. In my mind, I was giving up a lot and I was leaving behind some really, really good relationships. In fact, this wasn't a change I was actively looking for. An opportunity was presented to me and because it was Microsoft, I couldn't resist at least giving it a look. The next thing I knew (at least that's the way it seemed), they made an offer. This might sound nuts, but I almost turned it down! In the end though, I recognized this as an awesome opportunity and realized I'd be crazy to pass it up. Tyson, thank you for an excellent start to my career, thank you for all the great friendships, and thank you for being a great employer.

Looking Forward

No, I'm not moving to Redmond. My new position is an Application Development Manager with Microsoft Premier Support Services in the Bentonville, AR area. I'll let your imagination fly as to what company in northwest Arkansas would pay for that level of support ;). This is the formal job description:

The Premier Support for Developer offering is part of Microsoft Premier Support Services. The purpose of the Application Development Manager (ADM) role is to provide our customers with a technically competent advocate with access to all of the resources at Microsoft, to advise and consult on the use of Microsoft technology in their particular product or application. Tasks performed in this role include helping with technology assessments, workshops, prototyping, conducting application design reviews, performance benchmarks, code reviews, porting/migration assistance, configuration management and general development consulting. Key to the success of this role is the ability to develop and maintain strong trust/working relationships with assigned accounts and constantly expanding the working knowledge of current and pre-release Microsoft systems, products and platforms.

Responsibilities:
The ADM is responsible for understanding the customer's environment, its technical requirements and fit to Microsoft technologies. The ADM serves as the customer's persistent Microsoft point of contact throughout the customer's product development lifecycle, which is a role that is heavily reliant on the ADM possessing excellent customer service skills. The ADM is required to assist the team with quick and efficient resolution of customer's reactive support needs. The ADM will deliver prescriptive consulting guidance in the form of workshops, reviews, prototypes, white papers, and conclusive test results while setting realistic expectations regarding the capabilities and delivery timeframes of Microsoft technologies. It is vital that the ADM works continuously on keeping up-to-date on new Microsoft technologies relevant to the customer's particular needs, while developing relationships with key Microsoft product group resources. The ADM is expected to maintain a collaborative role with customers. The ADM is expected to provide consulting assistance to peers as project workloads allows. The ADM also maintains relationships with Microsoft product managers, providing feedback on product requirements and driving product feature/functionality requests on behalf of Premier customers.

My description: pure awesome! My wife has told me many times that she thinks I have organizational ADD. I get bored insanely fast on projects. Some of my favorite times at Tyson were the times when I got loaned to other teams. Other favorites include devloop and when other team members came to me for help or advice. With this in mind, the new role really does seem like a perfect fit for me.

Needless to say, I'm excited. Wish me luck and stay in touch. You'll always be able to find me at the monthly DNUG meetings.