About two months ago, after 2.5 years, I left Microsoft.

Microsoft is an amazing place to work for. It’s conformable, balanced, challenging and educating. I feel like the factors of my maturity and interests, the challenges I had to face and the people I worked with, combined perfectly to make it an amazing adventure.

So why am I leaving?

A lot of times, good opportunities don’t meet you exactly when you’re looking for them. I didn’t look for a new job, but a few months ago, my new boss, Guy Glantser (blog|twitter) asked me if I wanted to join Madeira as a Technical Evangelist.

What does it mean?

My role is comprised of 3 major elements:

1. As a Technical Evangelist, my job is to evangelize SQL Server and Madeira. In other words, my job is to get the word out about SQL Server and Madeira’s services. I speak, lecture, write and teach about SQL Server. This is awesome, since I already did all those things on my free time anyway.

2. In my business role, I manage the global activity at Madeira. We’re the top consulting company in Israel, and it’s time to be on the global radar too. We already have a few international clients, but we want to take it to the next level. It’s a big role, with lots of responsibility. For a technical guy like me, it’s certainly not easy and challenging, but I learn every day and slowly but steadily becoming better on this side.

3. Last but not least – I’m not leaving the technical stuff. I’m a senior consultant to Madeira’s clients.

How’s the evangelism part going?

It’s actually pretty good! As I’m writing this, I’m in the UK and on my way to SQLBits, where I’m about to present two of my sessions: Query Progress Tracking in SQL Server and Things You Can Find in the Plan Cache. In October, I will be flying to Belgium in order to present Query Progress Tracking in SQL Server at SQL Server Days.

I’ve also recently presented for Dell, the Pass Performance Virtual Chapter and the Pass DBA Virtual Chapter.

In addition, I have a lot of plans for more presentations and blog posts.

You may have also heard about SQL Server Radio. It’s currently in Hebrew, so you may have a slight problem understanding us. We’re going to fix that really soon. In a few weeks, we are going to launch the international version of the radio!

We will release 2 English shows each month. We hope you’ll like it.

What about this blog?

This blog will continue to be on the air, but new posts will be posted on the Madeira website, where we have a lot of other great posts by our consultants under the Blog section. I know I’ve been a little quiet in terms of blogging lately, but fresh stuff is coming.

See you soon,

Matan