Modified by Henrik Ingo from
original picture by "Just Taken Pics'" @ Flickr. CC-BY

I haven't written much on this blog related to my work. There's a simple reason: Apart from some welcome exceptions, my work at Sesca is not at all related to Open Source. And even when it is, we are not supposed to talk about our work much in public. Also, as a manager my work is rather boring sometimes, not something I'd want to write about.

All of this is about to change though. On Monday I will start working as a Sales Engineer (or some call it "pre-sales consultant") for MySQL! Here's a list of things I'm looking forward to:

1. So I will be working for one of the absolutely top Open Source companies in the whole world, whose product is running half of the Internet. I should feel at home here!
2. I will have a purely technical position, somebody else will be worrying about budgets and stuff :-)
3. I will be working with very advanced technology, primarily the MySQL Cluster (and in particular the Carrier Grade Edition). Previously I've been working with databases for not too intensive websites and mainly focusing on things like the KISS principle, being standards compliant (for portability and maintainability), and perhaps some simple backup script somewhere. Now I'll be at the other end of the spectrum, consulting database setups for 100 million customers, 99,999% availability and debating whether SMALL INT or TINYINT will be the appropriate choice for optimisation. I'm looking forward to becoming a MySQL Cluster guru!
4. At MySQL people work from home, using online communication tools. I know I will enjoy this, I had a 50 minute commute (times two, each day) to my current work. What a waste of my life it was.
5. Not only the working from home, but I know I will be at my best working with people over the Internet with email, chat and VoIP. I somehow never got to like having 5 face-to-face meetings in one day.
6. My first week I will travel to Florida for the MySQL All Company Meeting and in February to 3GSM in Barcelona. While feeling a bit guilty about leaving a mother and small baby at home... well, I'm sure I'll enjoy these sunny trips :-) Overall my work as Sales Engineer obviously will involve some amount of traveling, which in another situation might be a positive thing, but I'm a bit lukewarm about that right now. OTOH, maybe in 6 months or so, my wife and son could start accompanying me on some trips, then we'd really be enjoying the benefits of it all.

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About this blog... The focus of the book and blog has been quite non-technical. In my MySQL job it will be quite normal for me to post highly technical stuff - say a lecture I'd given - somewhere, and for better or worse I intend to use this blog for that too. I hope there will be room for everyone and a fair balance of all topics.

All work related stuff will be tagged "MySQL". I wonder if I should have a complimentary tag for everything else, something like "Not Tech"?