Joining the LINQ to SQL team at Microsoft

I’ve been quiet on my blog lately largely because I have been preparing to change job and relocate half-way around the world to Vancouver in the beautiful province of British Columbia (where I spent my 2004 summer holiday).

In February I traveled out to Redmond for three days of interviews (one position grew to two, then three). Having read the Microsoft Jobs Blog I was prepared for long hard days but in reality the process was incredibly enjoyable and exciting.

So much so I wanted to find a desk and move in right then.

With some luck I also found myself at Hanselman’s geek dinner which involved some great discussions and the chance to meet Scott himself, Brad Wilson and Nikhil Kothari who I knew from .NET on-line community as well as some ~35 other developers from both within Microsoft and the outside world. It was one fun evening and my thanks go to Scott for kindly driving me back to my hotel in Redmond town center.

Many white-boards and a few lunches later (including an unexpected one with Phil Haack, Nikhil and two more guys from ASP.NET team – I wish I could remember all the names of the people I met!) I found myself with the hard task of choosing a position.

I settled on a developer role within the LINQ to SQL team starting mid-May and am counting down the days…

[)amien

14 responses

  1. Avatar for Nikhil Kothari

    Great to hear you're joining! I'll have a set of LINQ to SQL feature requests ready for you :-)

    Oh, and I sure hope this isn't an April fools thing :-) (I know this isn't, but couldn't resist...)

    Nikhil Kothari 1 April 2008
  2. Avatar for Damon Stephenson

    Well done dude! Have a nice life in the not-so-tax haven :p

    Damon Stephenson 1 April 2008
  3. Avatar for Tomas Restrepo

    Congratulations Damien! Great news, and I wish you all the best on your new role!

    Tomas Restrepo 1 April 2008
  4. Avatar for steve

    Finally - I was expecting this blog post a month ago ;)

    I've said it to your face already, but congratulations, it's an awesome opportunity for you.

    steve 1 April 2008
  5. Avatar for Dave Transom

    Congrats Damien, all the best for the new job.

    PS: You couldn't wait until the 2nd? :)

    Dave Transom 1 April 2008
  6. Avatar for Tim Park

    [) Wow man if this isn't a an April's Fool this is just incredible. I've come to believe in two things in life hard work and karma and looks like both of those have aligned for you.

    On the other hand if this is an April Fools Joke then GGRRRRR

    Tim Park 1 April 2008
  7. Avatar for Ken Egozi

    Joining the evil empire ... ;) Congrats dude. Let's hope that you'd have enough time to keep blogging, and coolify Linq4SQL even more.

    I wonder what roles did you pass when choosing the L4S one.

    Ken Egozi 1 April 2008
  8. Avatar for Damien Guard

    The other roles were a Senior Technical Evangelist for ASP.NET and a developer role on the ASP.NET/Silverlight team.

    Both were great opportunities too and I'd have been happy in any of the roles but the lure of writing production code on something as new and cool as LINQ to SQL plus the ability to do some evangelism on it too tipped it.

    Damien Guard 1 April 2008
  9. Avatar for Kezzer

    Good to hear this. I won't see you before you leave so best of luck to you and your career. Make sure you get us some pictures of the sights ;)

    Someone's going to have to replace your role at the GSDF also!

    Kezzer 1 April 2008
  10. Avatar for Adrian Ritchie

    Congratulations. I'm with Steve in wondering why it took so long to blog it (although I suspect I know).

    My only worry know is who am I going to bug about best programming practices?

    Adrian Ritchie 2 April 2008
  11. Avatar for Goldsacs

    Well done. Thought it was an April fools, great to see it isn't.

    Goldsacs 2 April 2008
  12. Avatar for Simon

    Congratulations, and welcome! What a great role!

    Simon 3 April 2008
  13. Avatar for Simone

    At first I thought it as the usual Aprils Fools... but seems like it's not. Congratulations

    Simone 3 April 2008
  14. Avatar for dies-el

    Hey Damieng, congratulations!

    2 out of 100 #webdev's heading to MS ain't bad, eh?

    dies-el 3 April 2008