My Life at AV-BASE: Part II

It has been more than seven years since I first joined AV-BASE Systems and now it's time for me to go. I have submitted my resignation and I will be leaving near the end of November to help found a new company. I wanted to give all of you a letter explaining how much I have loved being with this company all these years, and explaining why I am leaving. You can feel free to talk to me about all of this as well.

My Life at AV-BASE: Professional Growth

I started as a student programmer and I've come a long way from there. I eventually took on various roles that included: junior programmer, senior programmer, design team, project manager, director, QA Team lead, with plenty of Tech Support and Training thrown in.
I have been Project Manager at least four times. That shows both the growing process for AV-BASE as a company and the growing process for myself. If there's anyone that is an example of what not to do, it's me. I used to come into work at 6:00 am and leave at 2:00 pm. I used to come to work in jeans and a t-shirt and put my feet up on my desk. I used to have really smelly pizza pockets that stunk up the whole office and I used to whip Skittles out the window in Lambeth. Heh.

The key that allowed me and AV-BASE to succeed in this growth process is that we did try to grow together. There were no problems so large that we couldn't deal with them. As long as I listened to my bosses and their advice, I would be fine. As long as I realized that there were better ways to do things and I improved, we were able to move on from there. My technical skills improved, my professional skills improved, my logical thinking improved, my interpersonal skills improved, my management skills improved...well, I doubt that there is any part of my professional life that has not improved since I joined.

I am eternally grateful to Bert and Helen for the opportunities that they have given me all of these years. I am the man that I today because of their generousity, because of their support, because of their corrections and because of their leadership.

I love this company and I love the people at AV-BASE. I joined the company when there were only five people. Within a year we had doubled in size and we had to start renting a second office in Lambeth. After a few more years we doubled in size again and we decided to move to Unit 10 in London. Then we had to expand and take over Unit 21 and now we're expanding again to take over Unit 13 as well.

Scott is the only one that has been at AV-BASE longer than me and he joined back in 1996 when Bert and Helen were still working out of the airplane hangar at their house. Soon after I joined, Dejan came in 2000 and Lindsay joined later in 2001. I've had numerous close friends come and go during that time. We have even seen babies born to many of our staff over the years. The growth of our company just hasn't stopped and I expect AV-BASE to keep going strong for many more years to come.

My Life at AV-BASE: Part I
My Life at AV-BASE: Part III