[Insert David Bowie Song Title Here]
I’ve hinted over the past couple of weeks that there were big changes coming to the House of Quatermain. This has been in the offing for about the same amount of time—barely two weeks—but those weeks have been full of uncertainty, for one reason or another. The main issue involved my close and extended families, but those have now been resolved, at least for the present.
So what’s the news? Well, as of October 3rd I will be working at Apple in California!
I’ve been prompted a number of times to re-apply to the same group which offered me a job in 2009, that of Retail Engineering (the same guys who produced that nice iPad-based kiosk you can see in your local Apple Store, the App Store iOS application, and similar). Shortly after WWDC this year I found myself missing San Francisco enough that I decided to go and interview there on Canada Day (July 1st). Two days later they offered me the position of lead developer on their next big project. I’ve not heard much detail yet (and I couldn’t disclose anything I had heard, obviously) but suffice to say that it sounds like a very very interesting and fun project on which to work— something I can really sink my teeth into.
There are ~46’000 H1-B visas available right now, so I’m pretty confident that I’ll not run into the same problem I hit upon last time (namely fulfillment of the yearly visa cap). Assuming that all goes according to plan, I’ll be entitled to work in the US from October 1st 2011. I’m not certain yet, but I imagine we will travel down a couple weeks ahead of that date so we can get the house-shopping out of the way before I have to start working.
With that in mind, I’ll be very interested to hear any information on good places to live around the San Jose area, preferably close to Infinite Loop or one of the various Apple shuttle buses (or failing that, a Caltrain station so I can reach the shuttles that way).
It’s going to be quite the adventure— I’ve wanted to live in the bay area since I visited there over ten years ago, and now it’s finally going to happen! I already have plans for some things I’m going to try and add to iOS 6 (official Apple API for a grid view, anyone?) and the next release of AppKit/Foundation, assuming they’ll accept what I write. The job will likely involve creating these things anyway, but you know me— why make a large component if you’re not going to fix it up for general use? So hopefully that will happen, and will aid my lofty ambitions at the company. I fully intend to be on stage at a WWDC keynote before I retire…
For now though, it’s time to sign the papers and get documentation prepared for a visa application. Wish me luck!
