Today is my last day at IBM and I'm sad to be leaving. I applied to IBM in 2000, partly because I was impressed by the company's early support for the open source movement and partly because an IBMer visiting Warwick University had told us that, were IBM Hursley to be an independent software company at that time, it would have been the sixth largest software company in the world. Mostly, though, it was because IBM promised each student a beer in exchange for a CV. It should be noted that IBM never followed through on that particular promise, giving us instead a glass of wine each. A bit of a bait-and-switch, I'm sure you'll agree, but a classy one.
I only intended to stay at IBM for three years but ended up staying for nearly 14. There are many reasons for this and many things that I am still reluctant to leave behind. Hursley is still a great place to work with a wonderfully creative atmosphere. To work in a campus environment in the beautiful Hampshire countryside is something that I'll miss as I brave the sharp elbows of stressed London commuters over the coming months. Hursley itself is lovely, even if the locals describe IBM as "the funny farm". The greatest of the perks of working in IBM Hursley is the people. I've made some of my best friends here and I've had the privilege of working with some truly brilliant people.
I'm now off to Masabi to work in a much more startup-ey environment, which is both exciting and also rather scary. I'll miss IBM and my friends and former colleagues, though. You guys rule.
