Ten Years at Esri Canada

It’s been ten years since my first day at Esri Canada. I’m not sure exactly what to post about that. While it has been ten years, it hasn’t been ten years of going to the same place and doing the same job day after day. The Victoria office has been in three different locations in that time, I spent almost six of those years working from home mostly, and of course now I am at the Calgary office. My job has changed as well: I was hired for my GIS programming skills, and now I hardly do any programming at all. I have moved out of for-loops and into capacity planning, security and architecture advising. That’s both good and bad: I know that what I am doing is broadly more valuable for the company, but any change that sees me working in Word and Visio more than ArcGIS is not all good.

Things are very stable for me right now, which is something I find comforting. It allowed Tammy to negotiate hard to get the right situation at her job, and it means we can plan ahead. I don’t think that the changes are ending now, though. We’ll see where the next five years takes me.

Updated

They surprised me at work today: everybody gathered in the boardroom at lunch and Brian said a few words and presented me with my 10 year award. I didn’t realize that except for Michelle, I’m the longest-serving person in the office, and that includes the VP and the Regional Manager. I sent an email around afterwards:

You all kinda caught me flat-footed today with that presentation. I really appreciate all of you taking the time.

It’s been ten years, but in some ways it doesn’t feel like it. Esri Canada has always challenged me to grow and take on more responsibility, so it has never gotten boring. The move to the Calgary office (already 19 months ago, can you believe it?) has been great, and I’ve enjoyed working with all of you. I have felt very welcome, and you have kept me busy and off the streets.

I am cc’ing Harold, because he was the guy 10 years ago who hired me, and six years before that took a chance on a kid in the Timberline GIS department who thought he could code.

Here is a photo of my 10 year award (repaired: the base was separated from the statue when it was presented).