Moving to Boston — Can I Get a Woohoo? | Matthew Oliphant's usabilityworks.org

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— 21 June 2006 —

Moving to Boston — Can I Get a Woohoo?

I gave my notice at dayjob yesterday.

I have accepted a position at The MathWorks where I will be working on their .com presence. My start date is July 10th, but I likely won’t be living out there for a few weeks after that while we try to sell our house. Wanna buy a house? :)

I am looking forward to the change for a number of reasons. I’ve been at ~~dayjob~~ State Farm for 7 years now. Plenty long. I’ve been working on Web applications forever and it will be nice to focus for a while on an informational site with a more diverse user population. The MathWorks site also has a community aspect and a couple of blogs. I hope to get involved with that aspect of things as well.

In a way, I feel like my new job will allow me to play with design in a way I simply can’t at State Farm. No dig on State Farm, just not the right context for play.

Someone at the UPA conference asked me if I would recommend State Farm as a place to work. It was difficult to answer. The quick answer would be, yes. Except it’s a “yes, but…” from my point of view. It’s a great place to start a career, and probably a great place to end a career. It’s the whole middle part, which really is the biggest part, that doesn’t seem like the best place to be. Again, from my point of view. Which is why I am moving on.

MathWorks sounds like it will be a wonderful place to work. I have some worries (as if I couldn’t have worries about something!) that can only be allayed by working there for a while. If it turns out to be as good as it sounds, I will likely come calling to some of the people I know read here to see if you would like a new job. :)

I plan to not use the term “dayjob” on my site anymore. My new boss at MathWorks knows I blog and thinks it will be an asset. I agree. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have helped start Business Logs. ;) At the same time, I don’t foresee the need to start a MathWorks category on my site. If I get to that point then I need some room at mathworks.com/matthewsblog. ;)

Let me know if you live in the Boston area. MathWorks is located in Natick, MA which is about 20 miles West of Boston along the Turnpike. I have no idea where I will be living. Yet. All I know is that once I save up enough money to get a new laptop (my current laptop is dead, Jim), I will be getting a kayak and looking around for signs like this:

Kayak Xing

I have very few mental maps of the East Coast, and only one of the Boston area. I am West Coast, but my mom grew up on Long Island, so perhaps I will be able to fit in some.

If you live in the area, let me know. If you live here in Bloomington, seriously, wanna buy a house?

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This Jobs, Personal -related entry was written on Wednesday, 21 June 2006 . You can follow any responses with the comments feed for this entry. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

12 Responses to Moving to Boston — Can I Get a Woohoo?

Geof Harries eloquently responded with:

You sound pretty excited about the change, so many congratulations are in order. It’s always nice to shake things up and head a different route every once in a while. Perhaps every 7 years…

21 June 2006 at 10:45
Colin D. Devroe eloquently responded with:

Boston huh? Which means you will be closer to me. Now we have less of an excuse to get together at some point…

21 June 2006 at 11:12
beth eloquently responded with:

Congrats on the move!

P.S.
I tried to contact you some time ago via email and was unsuccessful. I got an email from Zach Inglis saying you referred him to me about getting settled in Columbus. I tried to email him back with some information, but I got a mailer-daemon at both of his email addresses. Do you know how I can get in touch with him?

21 June 2006 at 12:17
Matthew Oliphant eloquently responded with:

Geof: Much like we replenish our cells (or something like that) every 7 years?

Colin: I plan on having a habitation warming party. Consider this an early invite.

Beth: Thanks and I will pass this along to Zach. I did answer your email though; not sure why you didn’t get it…

21 June 2006 at 16:22
Zach Inglis eloquently responded with:

Matt, as i told you, Congratulations.

Beth, I too replied a few times. Thank you so much for your help, it’s changed from Colombus to Illinois, close to where Matt lives now :) Thank you again, truly appreciated.

21 June 2006 at 16:29
Mike Rundle eloquently responded with:

You already know how psyched I am for ya buddy, but this is seriously a cause worthy of celebration. You earned it MANY times over, and I’m just glad things finally seemed to work out. Great job man!

21 June 2006 at 23:55
beth eloquently responded with:

Perhaps I’m having some problems with my inbox, I got mailer daemons from both of you. Maybe it’s because I have all my mail rerouted to my gmail address, I’ll have to look into that.

Anyhow, good luck in the new places to both of you! :)

22 June 2006 at 7:40
Mike Stickel eloquently responded with:

Congrats Matto. Sounds like you’re invigorated to start working and that’s always a good thing. Once you get all settled I may have to stop by for a visit myself ;^)

22 June 2006 at 11:08
Dirk eloquently responded with:

Well, whaddya know, a lurker!

Congratulations man, I saw the sign up at your house and was wondering. We’re having a cookout for my lovely wife’s birthday Saturday night, stop by if you like.

22 June 2006 at 13:56
Nancy eloquently responded with:

MATT! Massachusetts?!? Wow. Do you remember when I was in Haverhill for one year? I miss you guys! Do you remember Rigel from Susanne Homes? She is now working at the school where I’m a dean. I hope you are all well. Write me! Tell Claire hi for me!

24 August 2006 at 23:08
Matthew Oliphant eloquently responded with:

Dean? Uh, WTF? ;)

I vaguely recall you hated it. Hope I cannot say the same. Really I do.

25 August 2006 at 11:27
Nancy eloquently responded with:

Dean…quasi administrator…twice the work (Master schedule building, student scheduling, discipline, etc), only a little better pay than a teacher.. ;)

And I did hate it, but it wasn’t all because of the geography. I’m sure you’ll all be fine! Being poor in a place with all that history is a bummer because you can’t ever go see any of it! Definitely go to Provincetown when you have time (tip of the cape). That and Salem were the two places I actually did get to see. (Salem was really cool, too)

26 August 2006 at 11:54