Deciding to change jobs can be one of the most difficult decisions you can make. At Dell I was part of one of the world’s most recognisable technological brands and was doing something that I enjoyed. So in that case why did I tweet earlier this week that I had left Dell?

Why I left Dell

In my line of work I have been extremely fortunate that it was a customer facing role, this meant that as part of my day to day job I was noticed by a number of different companies and it wasn’t unusual to be approached by a number of these companies to join them. On top of this there are recorded activities that I do in the community as well as blogging and having a presence on LinkedIn. All this means that people can asses you for roles whilst you sleep.

What does all this mean? Well basically there had been so much interest outside of Dell that I began to wonder whether I should move on. Then out of the blue I was approached by another company that I respect very much.

So what’s next?

Well I’m excited to announce that I’ll be doing exactly the same thing! I’ll still be blogging (OK, I’ll start blogging again), presenting at various events and evangelising solutions for SQL Server. The only difference is that this time I will be working for SQL Sentry.

SQL Sentry, but aren’t they an American company? Why yes they are.

Will you be moving to the US then? No, I’m proud to announce that SQL Sentry are expanding out of the U.S. and I am one of two new employees to be hired based in the UK in order to help expand a great solution set into the EMEA region.

When does all this start?

I’ll be flying out to Charlotte, North Carolina in the U.S. this weekend to meet up with the SQL Sentry team for a week. It’s a really exciting opportunity for me to work with some people that I have admired for a long time. There’s no doubt that it will be an intense experience as the SQL Sentry team really know their stuff. I’m really looking forward to contributing towards making SQL Sentry the de facto standard for monitoring SQL Server.

A word about my former employers

I have the utmost respect for what my former colleagues are doing at Dell and will at times still recommend noncompeting products. There are no hard feelings on either side and I’d like to thank all those that pulled together a counter offer for me and made my time at Dell so enjoyable.