Carl the Zealot

At last, I have some awesome news! It looks like my job search is at an end. I have been given, and accepted, an offer at Palantir Technologies in Palo Alto, CA. They are an amazing company and they have made me a very attractive offer. Also, from my on-site interview, and the people I met there, I can tell it is a truly amazing place to work. The people are just great, the problems they are solving are interesting, and I know moving down there is going to change my life.

I am going to talk about the decision to move down there now, since once I decided that moving was an option, accepting any offer from Palantir was practically a given. The hard part of the decision (which I actually made 2 weeks ago) was deciding whether or not I was really willing to pick up my life and move.

I am a person who is resistant to change. I almost went to grad school at Purdue just because I didn’t really want to leave, or change. I could very easily see myself still living in student housing, playing in the orchestra, playing World of Warcraft every night, and attending classes or being a teaching assistant by day. That is where I would be if I hadn’t embraced the change Amazon offered – and thank goodness I did!

Moving to Seattle was scary – I didn’t know one single person here. No family, no friends, nothing but a job. I clung even tighter to my World of Warcraft security blanket. But as time went on, I met some of the best friends of my life. I adopted many hobbies to hang out with them (gaming, DDR, Anime), things which had already interested me, but I learned to take seriously and enjoy even more thanks to them.

Now, a few weeks ago, I was faced with another choice. As happy as I would have been to continue working for Amazon *forever*, stay in Seattle *forever*, I had to leave Amazon. That called everything into question. Just like graduation did for me at Purdue. I could take the “path of least resistance”, the “path of least change”, and try to stay in Seattle. Apply to job after job, not even caring what they do, so long as I could commute there from my current home… and that is in fact what I tried to do at first. Over time I realized, however, that I was not going to find a job I enjoyed as much as Amazon, and from the looks of things, I might not find a job at all for some time. I had to open my horizons to something more.

Still, I did not just decide to go to Seattle. What made me make the decision to go to Seattle was actually that Amazon recruited me on-camups, and made me an offer. The west coast sounded great, Seattle weather sounded right up my alley, how could I refuse? The change was too good to pass up, and finally it overcame my resistance to change.

Now a company in Palo Alto had brought me out for an on-site interview. They originally said “sure, come interview with us, maybe you can work remotely from Seattle”. That sounded pretty attractive – no big change there – so I went on the interview. In the end, they decided to make an offer only if I was willing to relocate. Once again, like Amazon’s offer, they really made me think about this big change I’d have to make. In the end, due to my reluctance to move, they decided not to make me the offer after all – even though I was still thinking it through. But what they did for me – what turned out to be invaluable – was make me seriously consider moving. After that, I started looking at other options. After talking to some friends in Palo Alto, they got me an interview with Palantir.

By the time Palantir made me an offer, I was ready to embrace this change, and so I accepted it. I am confident it is the best thing for both my happiness, and my career development (and probably my personal wealth as well). Unlike my move to Seattle, I have a couple friends in Palo Alto already, and even some family in nearby San Jose. Unlike my move from Purdue, however, I am leaving behind many dear friends as well. At Purdue, most of my other friends were also leaving to go start their lives in various places. This time, it is just me abandoning them. On the bright side, it will be easier to come back and visit. I could drive to Seattle in something like 10 hours, a short enough trip that I could drive up for a long weekend or something easily.

Another consideration is that I own my condo. I am going to have to sell it or rent it out or something. That makes things harder, but is “just one more thing to worry about” in the end.

I am very sorry I am going to be leaving so many friends behind in Seattle, but I hope we can stay in touch. I am sure I will visit. Also, I am sure they all appreciate my situation, that I am making the best decision for myself here, and it is fortunate that I am able to embrace this change. I think I have learned something from my experience accepting the Amazon offer. Change is good. It isn’t easy, but it is important. It is strange because I didn’t actually realize I had learned anything until just now, over three years later, thinking about the various similarities and differences of this situation.

I also want to thank my many friends here in Seattle for making Seattle feel like my home these three years. They rescued me from the grips of a video game that was sucking up all my time. They helped me learn and grow as an engineer, in ways I never could have without their help. They have always given me helpful advice, technical and personal. They have helped me experience music the way I did back in school, a part of my life which was missing once I moved here. They have made me feel accepted just the way I am, in ways I wasn’t sure was even possible before coming to Seattle.

I feel like a chapter of my life is winding down, and a new one is spinning up. It will be exciting times, of that I am certain. I thank all of you for your support!