A couple of people have asked me what my post-Microsoft plan is and whether or not I plan to stay actively involved in the .NET developer community -- resounding YES!
A dream of mine has always been to start my own consulting/software company, I love technology and I love helping people with technology so it seemed a natural fit. Working at Microsoft for nearly 6 years was definitely part of that plan. I wanted to learn from the best and for me that meant getting a job at the best possible software company and learning their business.
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Working at Microsoft was definitely an eye-opening experience. Microsoft is run in a very bottom's up manner - I've recently been reading the book First, Break All the Rules... and it amazes me how many of the recommended culture/management styles are embodied in the Microsoft culture. Microsoft is an idea incubator with hundreds if not thousands of small-sized internal businesses. I'll post some more later about my experiences as a Microsoft employee and the culture.
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About 18 months ago I decided it was time to start thinking about leaving Microsoft and pursuing my dream. I'm big on goal setting and when I first joined the company my goal was 5 years and the re-evaluate. It was a tough decision; there was no reason for me to want to leave in fact there was more reasons to stay! But I followed my dream and decided to pull the trigger. The first step was moving to Dallas, TX June of 2003 where I was introduced to the world of telecommuting (read: working from home); oddly enough the challenge here was that I never had to leave work -- loved it!
While all this was going on I also started writing out my business plan, started seeking financing, and started chatting with a couple of people about what my plans were -- mainly just trying out different ideas to see what peoples reactions were. The hardest part about getting everything started? Picking a name! It took me nearly 6 months to finally pick the name »telligentsystems.
May 31st was my last day at my 2nd favorite company (Telligent now being my new favorite) ...now a little on what we do (note, www.telligentsystems.com launches July 1):
»telligentsystems
Telligent Systems, Inc. is a solutions company with unique expertise and knowledge of the Microsoft .NET Platform. We offer developer guidance, architecture, design, and implementation services for enterprise organizations migrating to or already using the Microsoft .NET Platform. While we take great pride in our engineering abilities, our core value and driving vision is to provide our customers with beyond their expectations service and care.
We believe in a high-touch relationship driven business coupled with on-demand services. We deliver value by providing our customers with exceptional service, advice, guidance, and products as they apply technology to accomplish their organization’s goals and vision.
Beyond simply having beyond your expectations customer service, we also like to pride ourselves in the predictable nature of what we do. It’s what helps makes us different from other technology companies or as we like to say: Exceptional service. Predictable Results.
My new email address is rhoward@telligentsystems.com.