I quit my job. On Thursday I accepted a position at Small Energy Group and on Friday I gave my two weeks notice at Business Objects.

It wasn’t an easy decision, and a lot of factors played into it. The biggest is a chance to work on something that will have a positive influence in the world. Small Energy develops energy monitoring software that helps businesses reduce their energy consumption and lessen their environmental impact.

The other big factor is a chance to try something new. I’ve been at Business Objects now for just over 2 years – I’ve learned a lot, but I feel like I’ve been stagnating lately. It’s been a while since I worked on anything challenging and cool, and most of my time and effort seems to go into fighting inertia. You know the stuff that any large company with multiple software releases needs to deal with – bug fixes, integration work, build system organization, reverse compatibility issues, etc.. There’s also all the crud involved in the integration with SAP that hasn’t been entirely positive.

I’m looking forward to working at a start-up company, on something new and fresh with all the challenges that entails. I’m not looking forward to the long hours, but I think I’ll be able to find a good compromise.

My commute is set to change from a 10 minute bike ride to a 11 km, 35-minute bike ride over the Lions Gate Bridge and into West Vancouver. Small Energy has showers and facilities for biking – I was impressed to see a lot of their employees are avid bikers, including the CEO.

I’ll have a week or two off before I start work at Small Energy. I haven’t decided if I’ll go home to visit the family, or take the train down to Portland for a few days. I’m leaning towards Portland, but only because I want to avoid another flight this year.

Special thanks to Ben who provided an amazing reference for me! And to Graeme and Greg who first told me that Ian had moved to Vancouver to work for an environmental start-up. And to Ian, for providing that initial reference to the people at Small Energy.