absolutgcs.org

well i had been thinking about this in various degrees of seriousness since this spring and i’ve finally come to some resolution. i have decided to take a job offer with a company called Aplix. before i get into what they’re about and what i will be doing there, i want to talk a little bit about where i didn’t go and why.

i wrote an entire post about one of the companies that made me an offer and i’ll let you link off this post to read that.

i completed my master’s project with panasonic san jose research laboratory and pursued an opening with them. i had a great working relationship with my adviser there and was very motivated by the topics addressed by the master’s project so pursuing the opening made sense. i went in for a long afternoon, gave a presentation about myself, went through a panel interview and then met one-on-one with several individuals. i got the impression that all members of the team i would be working with were extremely bright. many had been doing speech recognition research with panasonic in santa barbara but moved up here with the opening of this lab.

the duties of the position entailed conducting research in the area of peer to peer networks of audio / visual content think about the home of the future and the consumer electronics devices that will power the capabilities of that home. this is the problem panasonic is primarily concerned with. given my background in distributed computing, peer to peer networks, sensor networks and my master’s project, i felt like there was a great alignment between my interests and the goals of the lab. the group interacted with a vc group also situated in the same office, which was particularly appealing to me.

ultimately i decided against panasonic primarily because for lifestyle reasons. their office is located by santana row in san jose, which is not close to any public transportation. i knew i would be moving after my lease expired, and only as far south as fremont. this commute was not acceptable. i also had some concerns about career growth and having the “research” label put on me, which could hurt if i were to decide those types of problems weren’t for me. i had already faced plenty of frustrating situations with my current employer on research projects so i knew this was a possibility. their offer was very competitive, both in terms of salary and benefits.

i had another offer from palm. i went to the stanford engineering alumni job fair and stopped by palm’s stand there. coincidentally, the guy i spoke with there was a classmate of mine, though i never met him during school. he is also the manager of the windows mobile system and drivers team and had an opening in his group that he felt i was qualified for. given that i an on my second windows mobile device and believe in the product, i figured i would interview and give it a shot. i was impressed with everyone i met, particularly the senior manager there.

it took them a while, but they finally put together a generous offer sheet and it gave me a lot to think about. i had some concerns about the position. location was big again since palm is located in sunnyvale. fremont -> sunnyvale = long driving commute again. still, the prospect of working in the hottest area of the company, developing device drivers, was very appealing. i had some reservations about working for (under) someone who was my year at stanford. this had nothing to do with him as a person and more to do with my ego but i figured i could overlook that if i could move on/up within 6 months to a year. i figured i could earn some credibility and that would be a possibility. then again i also figured that was an IF and not a WHEN. regardless, i know i will consider palm again the future and i definitely plan to take the senior manager up on his offer for advice as my career continues in the future.

so, why aplix? i figured that this was a good time in my career to try out a small company and see how i like it. aplix isn’t a startup, the company is roughly 20 years old, but has an entrepreneurial feel given the size of the SF R&D office and their activities in the mobile space. i had some reservations about not going for a “brand name” place, but i figured what difference will that really make? i want to go somewhere where i can do some really fun and exciting stuff and feel challenged. given the composition of the team i’ll be working on and the goals ahead of them i felt this was a certainty. i also love the location of the office, right in SOMA. this opens up the possibility of living in san francisco or east bay (berkeley/oakland). the offer was generous and i feel like i have great chemistry with the engineering manager. that chemistry is really what helped win me over when i was at my wit’s end trying to figure out what i wanted to do and where i wanted to be. i just felt like he’s in touch with what engineers want/like and that there’s a strong sense of fairness based on that knowledge. after my experience with my current employer, that is worth major bonus points to me.

so i’m excited! i start jan 29. between now and then i will finish my current project on nov. 30, leave for seattle on dec 1, leave for bangalore on dec 2, return on dec 27, go to milwaukee shortly thereafter and return to the bay area on jan 5. my paid vacation will carry me through until jan 15, at which point i will be unemployed and unpaid. less than two weeks later i will start at aplix and be ready to roll, hopefully rested and refocused after the 2 months off. i think it will be the longest period of my life where i do not have a work or school obligation since i was in elementary school!

that’s all for now, i have another post coming about the one year anniversary of my car, which was today. i’m off to dinner