OK, so it’s not like I made it on HeadlineNews or something... but it still feels good to see your name in the headline for a news item. And it feels even better when the news is coming from your employer - VelocIT Hires Steve Harman.

Admittedly, this is somewhat old news, but I just noticed the announcement yesterday so it’s exciting (to me)! Besides, I’ve been meaning to blog about this transition for a while now and this gives me an excuse.

The story

As the news items says, I was introduced to VelocIT (pronounced: vuh-los-ĭ-tee) by company co-founder Phil Haack. Phil is also the founder and self-proclaimed benevolent dictator of Subtext - the open source blog engine. I joined the Subtext team in mid 2005 and apparently my work was well received. In mid 2006 I was approached by three guys in trench coats and they made an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Ok, so the three guys were Micah, Phil, and Jon... and they weren’t wearing trench coats - but the offer was pretty sweet:

• work from home
• work on exciting projects
• work with cool technologies
• work with some fun and super talented folks
• work for a young and driven company

What’s not to like about that? The answer is... nothing!

Joining in on the fun

In August 2006 I decided it was time to join in on all of the fun the VelocIT team was having, so I left my position at JPMorgan Chase and went solo. I started off my work with VelocIT as an external contractor but after a few months I was brought into the fold as a first-class employee - and I’ve not looked back since.

I think the environment here at VelocIT, and the great experience I’ve had thus far can be summed up by a comment that Phil made to me a few weeks ago:

By the way, we have to talk sometime about how this day job of yours is intruding on your OS contributions.

Funny how backwards we are. I’m not worried about your extra curricular activities interfering with your work. I’m worried about your work interfering with your extra curricular activities.

Now how awesome is that?