So Long Silicon Valley. Hello Seattle.

I arrived in Silicon Valley several years ago with dreams of building the next big thing. ? In hindsight, I had neither the maturity nor the skills needed to pursue those dreams at the time so it was only a matter of time before I traded? those dreams for the comforts of a well-paying tech job. I did the big company tour with Oracle and then went on to do the small company thing with a SAAS startup in Menlo Park, before finally settling at this great mid-sized startup called LinkedIn.

Sure, the valley humbled me, but it also helped me grow into an engineer and more recently, a people leader. ? So I have much to be thankful for as I bid this special place good bye. The valley can be a scary place but it’s also a magical place especially if you know exactly what you are looking for and have what it takes.? The possibilities here are endless.? I’ve seen companies grow into unicorns overnight and others flame out just as quickly.? So why would I ever leave all this excitement behind?

Well, getting an evacuation notice during the fire season last year sure wasn’t fun, and I could never wrap my head around the rising cost of real estate in the bay.? And no, I didn’t care too much for the crazy traffic either. ? But in the end, it wasn’t any one of these things that made me leave the place where I have officially lived the longest.? I left because of the excitement Seattle promised.? In Seattle, I saw a fresh opportunity to go somewhere where tech was still the primary business, but things were still not quite as advanced as they are in the valley. ? To me, that meant rewinding the clock so I could see some of the exciting growth that marked the valley’s early days.? Yes, I know there can only be one Silicon Valley but Seattle, with its pace-setting growth among the large US tech markets,? promised to be the one most likely to offer glimpses of Silicon Valley of old.

So a few weeks ago I packed up my bags and moved north to start a new chapter in a new land that I’m hoping will give me the chance to experience both the thrills and growing pains as I grow alongside it. ? Like any good adventure, my hope is that I’ll find what I’m looking for and if I don’t, well I’m sure this wouldn’t be the first time Silicon Valley has welcomed back a prodigal son.

Shameless plug:? We (LinkedIn) now have a new site in Bellevue, WA and are hiring engineers at many levels.??

• Staff SWE [Azure Graph]
• Sr. SWE [Azure Graph]
• SWE [Azure Graph]
• Sr. SWE [Sales Process and Experience]
• Frontend SWE [Sales Process and Experience]
• MS Dynamics CRM Systems Engineer [Sell and Order Experience]

Please follow me to learn about even more opportunities from this new site as they become available.