Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Moving on… next stop: Google

I've decided it's time to move on. Yesterday I put in my resignation at Oracle. I'll be starting at Google in two weeks.

Why? Was Oracle such a bad place to work? Was it such a culture shock for a Sun employee that it just could not work? Could I not stand my manager? Could I not get along with my new co-workers?

If you're expecting a bitching session about big-bad-Oracle, I have to disappoint you. In the months that I've been at Oracle, I've come to the conclusion that it is a pretty decent company to work for. I like my manager, my co-workers are intelligent and pleasant, and the culture at Oracle is very similar as it was at Sun. So, honestly, no complaints there.

The reason for my leaving is that I've been doing SOA for 7+ years now. I've been involved in the complete lifecycle of two products: CAPS and OpenESB. Now, with my transition into Oracle, I was about to commit to a third SOA product. Before I dove into that, I did some soul searching, and realized that I ready for something new, something in a different field.

As I was looking for a change, I looked at what interesting companies there are here in Orange County. Google and Amazon came to mind. Google is said to be the engineering Valhalla, so I submitted my resume there. And surprise, surprise, I got an offer.

It's a big jump. It's starting from the bottom again… jumping into something brand new. Will I like the change? I'm eager to find out!

feelinglucky

21 comments:

Alexis MP said...

Good luck Frank with this new challenge. I'm sure you'll do good.

Kevin Schmidt said...

Congratulations. Best of luck.

jasonb said...

Congrats Frank. Hope it works out well.

Juraj K. said...

It's a win for Google, definitely. Wish you all the best!

MotoMark said...

Congrats Frank, best of luck, Google is lucky to have you!

Anonymous said...

Got to say Frank, you'll be missed, but a great move.

Best of luck, I'm sure you'll be a success at Google.

MarkF

Unknown said...

Congratulations and thank you for your hard work and commitment from a former SeeBeyond and Sun colleague. Google is pretty exciting these days, keep us informed on what you are doing there.

tuhin said...

Congratulations! Keep in touch..

jakubgrabowski said...

Congratulations Frank! Good luck @Google. I hope you will commit something to OpenESB from time to time... I heard that Google allows to work on OSS projects during work time;-)

Masoud Kalali said...

Good luck in this new leg of your journey. I find you a nice person in the only occasion we worked together (on your interview for DZone).
Now Google has recruited a nice engineer and Oracle in now one good engineer shorter.

Senthil said...

Congrats and All the best for your future.

Petr Jiricka said...

All the best, Frank. I am glad to have met you and worked with you.

Ron Ten-Hove said...

Good Googling, Frank! You'll be missed.

Unknown said...

Whever you want to say, this doesn't bode well for Fuji. Granted, it's open source and therefore will continue. But it is clear that with Sun out of the picture, there is only IBM left that is able to tackle the scope of this huge project. I hope they will apply resources to it.

Developer said...

You'll be missed. That's the right thing to do, and, I'm sure with your leadership talent Google will soon provide us great things.

Fred Aabedi said...

Hello Frank,
Congratulations and I believe you made the right choice and will like working at Google :-)
Best of luck and please keep in touch!
Take care,
Fred

fkieviet said...

All:

I was moved by the many messages with kind words and congratulations. Thanks!

Best,
Frank

fkieviet said...

Re vvvvvv (Terris Linenbach):

There are two events: Oracle decreasing investments in Fuji, and my leaving. I think the first event is significant, and given the first event, the second event not so much significant...

I don't think it takes a huge company to continue with Fuji: perhaps only a dozen developers could finish it quickly. This pales in comparison with products by Oracle or IBM that are built with hundreds of developers. Perhaps the future of Fuji is more viable with a small company than with a large one.

Frank

sysprv said...

AWESOME!!! If you ever meet Rob Pike and Ken Thompson, please say hello on my behalf.

Was there ever a chance of you moving to facebook? Brrrr :S

fkieviet said...

re sysprv:

Thanks! We've communicated many times on the OpenESB mailing list, but never got your name. Who should I tell Rob Pike and Ken Thompson said hello?

Facebook: rather not!

Best,
Frank

Phil said...

congrats frank! you inspired me to keep going :)