OpenIDLeaving Yahoo!, going freelance
Last Friday was my last day at Yahoo!. I’ve had a fantastic time there, and will really miss working with Tom, Paul and the many other superb Yahoos I’ve had the privilege to meet.
I’m leaving for entirely personal reasons. The plan had always been to move out to the US for the job, but it became clear that my girlfriend would not have been able to move with me. When it came down to it I decided my relationship with her came first. We moved in together several months ago and our quality of life has been enormously improved as a result. Even the lure of San Francisco (and the best burgers in the world) can’t compete with that.
As of today, I’m going freelance. I’ll be working for three days a week for Torchbox, an excellent web development company based near Oxford that specialises in sites for charities and the public sector. The other two days are available for freelance projects; please drop me a line (simon @ this domain) if there’s something I can help you with.
I’m also looking forward to investing time in projects of my own. 2007 will be an exciting year.
Congrats, Simon. Yahoo! will certainly miss you. Thanks for all you've done there to better the web!
Best of luck to you with the transition!
Bernie Zimmermann - 15th January 2007 02:11 - #
Yep, freelance is certainly the best way.
Just make sure you look out for time suck -- give your personal projects the time that they deserve!
Cameron Adams - 15th January 2007 02:25 - #
Great news, Simon. Kick some ass!
And listen to Cam, personal projects are so vital. Nurture them
Good choice :) I'm sure you'll love the freelance world, I do.
Just to belabour the point, make time for personal projects. ;)
Congrats for making the jump and all the best.
Jonathan Snook - 15th January 2007 03:22 - #
Yay! It's better out here. You're going to love it.
Simon, whats happen with your RSS feed? After some time there are visible XHTML tags right in posts.
Max - 15th January 2007 03:42 - #
Best of luck to you Simon. I am sure you will continue to have a lot of success.
Adam Platti - 15th January 2007 04:07 - #
A tough choice I'm sure, but congrats! It will likely be much easier for you to find compelling work than another Natalie. You can always visit for conferences and conquer another 10x10.
OMG! Yahoo! is history!
I'm selling. The sky is falling!
Peanut Butter - 15th January 2007 06:39 - #
All the best!
Perhaps now things will get busy in the Django/Python Web Apps route :-)
Exciting news Simon, and a great decision. Good luck!
Olly - 15th January 2007 09:05 - #
What mattb said. Being freelance is about being free. My personal project this morning is decorating the spare room.
Congrats Simon! Working part-time sounds a good approach - having made the transition without that source of regular income I'd do it differently next time!
Good luck Simon.
I hope 2007 is a great year for your freelancing and personal projects =)
Hopefully see you in the not too distant future!
Mark Swanborough - 15th January 2007 10:08 - #
Giulio Piancastelli - 15th January 2007 13:58 - #
But it sounds like you made the right choice, which certainly wasn't easy.
I'm sure we'll bump into each other someday...
Sounds like a good plan! Good Luck.
On the intersection of charities and DjaNGO (!), don't forget we did some work for Greenpeace using it, which you saw briefly at one of Sam's gigs. It's GPL'd and we have some good experience which we can share, either 1-1 or via ThoughtWorks.
Cheers!
Duncan Cragg
contact: initial concat surname at my company domain.
Duncan Cragg - 15th January 2007 16:28 - #
Congrats on taking that step. I trust there will be some juicy Django work mixed in with personal projects somewhere.
Good luck. I hope I too can take that step at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Brad - 15th January 2007 17:05 - #
Congrats, Simon. Do well! ;o)
Ms. Jen - 15th January 2007 17:55 - #
congrats!
I recently discovered you blog because of openid and i'm sure you are going to become THE openid freelance! ;-)
Power to you. May 2007 be your year. :)
Cheers from Munich,
Carlo
As much as I'll miss your visits to SF (and the prospect of living in the same town again soon), this sounds like a great development and I couldn't be happier for you. Can't wait to see what you and Nat get up to (on the web, cheeky).
Another freelancer! It is the way to go today. It give me time to scratch my own itch and get involved with good projects.
Congratulations Simon, how will Mr Coates cope?
Best wishes for the future
Ged
Ged - 16th January 2007 06:05 - #
Congrats and good luck! It's nice to see another talented developer on the freelance train.
Welcome to freelancing, enjoy the ride :)
Congrats Simon. Good decision. You know we (Google) have an office in Oxford too ;)
Marcus - 16th January 2007 14:11 - #
Congratulations!
depi - 16th January 2007 17:26 - #
Nicely done! I'm really looking forward to seeing some exciting things coming from here :)
Steve - 16th January 2007 22:15 - #
Good on you Simon. Nat's a lovely girl and you guys make a great couple. Hope to see you around more.
Ian Forrester - 17th January 2007 00:42 - #
Good luck with life ahead....
Radoslav Stankov - 17th January 2007 10:35 - #
You are so sound. Best of luck!
Janette - 17th January 2007 18:57 - #
It is a very respectable decision to leave Yahoo! to balance your personal life. I have been doing that for a year or so, it is not easy everyday, but I cannot imagine myself going back to the "normal" way now.
Best wishes!
Loïc d'Anterroches - 18th January 2007 14:15 - #
Good luck, Simon.
Don Park - 18th January 2007 16:59 - #
Congratulations, Simon, and welcome to the freelance workforce! I can't wait to see what interesting projects emerge from your freelancing.
Michael Moncur - 20th January 2007 11:25 - #
Great decision, wish you all the best! Keep up the good work :)
good on ya.
(hey, re all the "Make time..." comments, i heartily recommend "Life Balance" from http://llamagraphics.com . it's awesomely (deceptively) simple and powerful and flexible. free trial but i bought my copy within 2 days and i still use it daily 7 years later. no financial interest, just a very happy customer.)
Saltation - 22nd January 2007 11:35 - #
You will miss SF but Oxford is nice too (although I should declare an interest since I live and work in Oxford myself :-) ).
Congrats, Simon.
All the best on the freelancing. It can be very rewarding!
Congrats Simon!
Frank Wiles - 9th February 2007 19:25 - #
Well done. I'm sure you will have a great career.
You made the right decision :)
Exciting news Simon, and a great decision. Good luck
ceviri - 14th July 2007 22:34 - #