Many years ago when I worked for a company that went under while I was still working there (I was tossed overboard by being laid off along with other employees who didn't happen to own any stock in the company) I vowed to myself that I will always know when it was time to go. To not stick around when the signs around you point to leaving. That time has come for me at my current job with VerticalScope

I handed in my two weeks' notice yesterday morning to my boss. He seems to be taking it very well, congratulating me on finding a new job that works out better for me. He says I will be missed. While the cynic in me rolls it's eyes and thinks this is less than sincere, I do appreciate being told that. I have enjoyed my time at the 'Scope but I have found a job I just couldn't turn down.

I had been looking recently to change jobs for two reasons: reason #1 was to move into a job with a leadership position, reason #2 was to try and find something closer to home. Through my friend Derek I found out that iloverewards was hiring PHP developers. I went to a job fair after work one day. I had some interviews over lunch. I received a job offer. And then something happened.

The day after I got the job offer, I received an email from Cal Evans, the editor of Zend Developer Zone. He knew what was going on with me, but said that he knew someone else who was looking to hire a PHP developer and that even though I had an offer I should at least listen to what this person had to say. The person? Daniel Kushner. Ex-Zend employee, he was now working for Syneron in their e-business unit. 2 phone conversations. A nice lunch. And another job offer.

There's that old song "Did you ever have to make up your mind?". I was seriously stressed. The iloverewards offer was a senior one, a chance to spearhead development and lead a team of inexperienced developers through the madness of development. Just the type of challenge I was looking for. But the one from Syneron, well, I couldn't pass it up. Work from home 3 days a week. Work on some very different things in the medical field. Travel to California once a month. Daniel works from home as well, so I imagine there will be lots of phone calls and text messages (maybe I need to upgrade my phone to a Crackberry now?) Travelling an hour by car to the office twice a week is better than the 90 minute+ commute I currently have via public transit. I'll be a lot more relaxed, and better able to focus on the tasks at hand. As supportive as my boss at VerticalScope was about letting me work from home on occasion (and super understanding about family issues), they couldn't match that.

So, I'm very excited for the opportunity to work with Daniel and the e-business unit there as we go into uncharted territory when it comes to the health industry and the use of modern web technology. I'm going to be trying to solve some very interesting problems for a group of people who really don't know much about technology, and don't really care what technology is being used. It just has to work.

So, I start at the new job March 12th. Wish me luck! And Derek, I'm sorry it didn't work out for me coming to work with you. Maybe somewhere else down the road we hook up again.