Well, after a brief (4 month) stint at BGSU, I’m changing employers again. This all kind of fell into my lap in a crazy and unexpected way.

Back at the very start of December I received an email from a friend who I’d worked pretty closely with at Glasstech. He was a consultant at the time working on the Glasstech implementation of some CAD software and a data management system for our drawings.

A couple years ago, Mikel left that company and moved out to Arizona or New Mexico or something like that and worked there for a while before coming back to Michigan (where he’s from) to work for Autodesk. We always kept in touch to some extent, just the occasional “How’s it going” on IM and the like. Upon his return to Mi, he actually came BACK down to Glasstech with some others from Autodesk to discuss some of the limitations we were running into at the time with Vault and, more specifically, Content Center.

Anyhow, fast forward to December 2. He sent me an email and just asked how things were going and said that there was a position opening up at Autodesk that he thought I’d be a good fit for.

I sent him my resume, he put it in front of the right people, I officially applied, had 2 phone interviews and a 3-hour face-to-face interview up at the Autodesk offices in Novi, Mi and they offered me a position supporting the data management products in Autodesk’s line.

The offer was great and amounts to a really nice raise, an extra chunk of $ up front to help with moving and displacement costs, and some ADSK stock as well. The benefits package offered by Autodesk is fantastic too! The highlight has to be the sabbatical! I had always thought sabbaticals were mythical things reserved only for tenured professors and author types and that they were not “real” for the common worker. Well, every 4 years of continuous full-time employment with AutoDesk, employees are required to take a 6 week paid sabbatical. Six weeks of contiguous paid time off. I can’t even imagine that! But I am already looking forward to it!! It’s perks like this that have landed Autodesk all kinds of corporate awards in recent years.

  • 2007 Constructech Magazine’s “Hottest Companies”
  • 2007 CRO Magazine’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens”
  • 2007 Fortune Magazine’s Most Admired Companies — Ranked 2nd in Computer Software category
  • 2006, 2003, 1999 Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 Places to Work
  • 2006 Forbes’ Best Big Companies
  • 2005 Business Week 50 Best Performers – Ranked 25th
  • 2005, 2002 Business 2.0 “100 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies” – Ranked 37th

So, suffice it to say, I’m excited!  I’m a little freaked out about the whole relocation thing. Needing to find a house, sell a house, and find Maryellen a job.  Also, we’ll be living apart for a while.  I think I’m going to be shacking up with my buddy and former co-worker, Trent, for a month or two while we look for and move into a house.  The commute to Novi is about 1:15 on a Sunday.  I’m guessing the rush-hour commute times would be closer to 1:45 each way, making it pretty much a no-brainer.

So, that’s the latest!  Exciting, scary, nerve-racking, and life-changing.  It’s going to be a fun stretch here for the next few months!