Making it Easy to Do Good Work
Time has flown, but it’s now been six months since I quit my job at Microsoft. That’s nothing compared to the 22 years I worked there, but still a minor accomplishment. I won’t rehash the differences between Microsoft and Unity – so I’ll just say it’s a different and (for me) pleasant experience. I spend a chunk of my time recruiting and hiring, and one thing I tell candidates about working at Unity is that “it’s easy to do good work here.” I emphasize that the work itself isn’t easy – the work is plenty difficult. It’s just that there are few obstacles (office politics, politics, micro management, etc. getting in the way of doing great work.
I’ve been here now just long enough that I have some idea of what I should be doing. Which, of course, means that I’m realizing how much work there is to do. But I’m up for it, it’s challenging, it’s fun, and it’s easy to do good work here. I still have a huge amount to learn, but it’s more exciting than the day I started.
The change of pace has also (apparently) been good for my health. My blood pressure – which had been a solid 120/70 into my early 30s had slowly climbed over the years – peaking out at a pre-hypertension level of 138/80 in my last two years at Microsoft. Two weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my bp is almost back to my two decade old norm at 122/70. It’s a small victory, but one I’m proud of.
In the next six months here (and beyond) I’ll work a lot on moving our Services org to rely much more on monitoring, usage analytics and testing in production. There’s a ton of work to do, and really hard problems to solve, but we’ll get it done.
Of course, if you want to be part of this journey with me (no guarantees on improving your health), I have openings in Bellevue, San Francisco, and Helsinki.