Has it already been June of last year since I posted to my blog last? Time flies!
As I mentioned in my previous post I started a new job after 14 years at the same company, which was a very big step for me. After 8 months on the new job I realized it just wasn't exactly what I was promised or looking for at this time in my career. On President's Day weekend I saw a posting in LinkedIn for a Microsoft BI Consultant with Pragmatic Works and jumped at the chance to work for a premier Microsoft Business Intelligence consulting firm. To be honest at the time I didn't think that I had a chance at getting this position, not sure if it was low self-esteem or just feeling that I lacked certain skills, but I decided to try anyway. I was contacted immediately on President's Day and went through both the initial and technical interviews on that day. After a couple of weeks I got an offer from Pragmatic Works!
For those that don't know Pragmatic Works is a very well known Microsoft BI/SQL Server consulting company based in Jacksonville, Florida. The company is built on a core of each employee giving something back to the community, which is how I got to know the company many years before even considering applying to work there. All of the consultants are encouraged to respond to questions in the MSDN and BIDN forums as well as blog and of course present at events throughout the world. This is one of the keys to why I wanted to work for Pragmatic Works, as I have started to contribute more of my time to the SQL Server community and wanted to make that as much a part of my career as everything else I do.
So, you may be asking, does that mean Steve is relocating to Jacksonville? Not necessary! Pragmatic Works is growing so fast and has clients across the country, having me in the Denver area is actually a great asset for them. When I am not traveling on client site, I will be able to work from home. This presented another new challenge for me since I did not have a home office at the house before now. Thankfully we still had a spare bedroom, which I have now converted into a great home office where I can look out and see the mountains.
I am very thankful for all of my past accomplishments because they would not have prepared me for the amazing opportunities that I have now and I look forward to all of the new challenges that will be coming.
This should be the start of new entries in this blog on a very regular basis going forward. so stay tuned!
