Monday, June 30, 2008

The Last Day.

Today is my last official day as a Borland/CodeGear employee. After today, I will have been a Borland/CodeGear employee for 6021 days, or 16 years, 5 months, and 25 days. What is interesting about this is that tomorrow, I will continue to drive to the same building, ride the same elevator, and unlock the same office door. The only difference will be that I will be employed by Embarcadero. It has certainly been an interesting ride in my many years at Borland/CodeGear.

For some perspective, I started when the Borland stock was around $80 a share (ouch). The new Borland Campus wasn't completed. Borland occupied a reasonably large number of buildings throughout Scotts Valley. If Borland didn't occupy some or all of a building, chances are Seagate did. To move between the various buildings, there was a continuously running shuttle bus service for Borland employees. I also remember the clout that Borland had locally. When we (my family and myself) first arrived and were looking for someplace to rent, when asked where I worked and I said Borland, suddenly we were at the top of the list without any kind of other checks. It was pretty nice.

After today, there will be no official presence of Borland in Scotts Valley. The only thing linked to Borland will be name on the lease they maintain on part of this building that was once the Borland Corporate HQ and campus. Embarcadero will sub-lease the space we currently occupy from Borland.

Even though there have been many things Borland has done over the years that I firmly disagreed with, they've also done some pretty good stuff too. I've learned so much more than I ever could have imagined about software, the software industry, developer tools, frameworks, and compilers. I've also had the pleasure of knowing and meeting many folks in the industry from all around the world.

Tomorrow will start a new chapter with new challenges and opportunities. I'm sure it will take some time until the dust settles, the cultures merge, and things settle down to the right groove. Don't expect any earth-shattering announcements or radical changes immediately out of the gate. This is a new experience for nearly all involved, so some period of acclimation is bound to take place.