It's Official

I did it. I made my decision. I made my decision based on the outcome of the poll. Not really, but it did end up that way.

Mike is going to work on the iPhone.

I set my start date for the 14th of July. That gives me some time to finish up my life here in Provo and get myself down to Cupertino to start. I am really excited to begin my adult life. It was a blessing to have two options to choose from. As I pondered where I wanted to be in life and where would make me the happiest, I decided I would go to Apple. I am sure I won't regret my decision. The position I am taking is the perfect blend of engineering and software. I also get some fat discounts on cool Apple stuff.

Thanks to everybody for a great 5 years in Provo. I made some friends. I made some enemies. I made some really good friends.

My Final Blues Jam

As some of you know, for the past year I have been going to the monthly Blues Jam out in Spanish Fork. It started last summer after I bought my Stratocaster. I went once and had an awesome time. It was a chance for me to get out and play with some other crazy-good musicians, and occasionally some not-so-good musicians. I learned a lot about performing. I learned about playing songs I had never played before. I even learned about just rolling with the punches of a bad performance. It was great. Through the jams I was able to release the building blues machine inside of me and learn a lot about the blues in general. My thanks go out to Curt for hosting and providing the wonderful facilities at the Boothe Bros. Theater in Spanish Fork.

Unfortunately my ultimate best performance ever at the jam wasn't recorded. Cindy and Taylor know what I am talking about. I did have some other quality performances. Here are a couple of them:

And finally, a picture of those who were good enough friends to come enjoy my final performance.

Apple or Microsoft?

I am being faced with a tough decision. I was recruited by Apple and by Microsoft and they are now both offering me positions. I know, it is pretty cool that I have offers with both but I am having a hard time deciding which to go with.

Apple is located in California, down by San Jose. I would be working on the iPhone, which is pretty dang cool. The offer they gave me was good. I would be living rather well, even considering the cost of living down there. Microsoft is located in Seattle, also an awesome city. I would be working on the Windows Kernel and Virtualization team which would also be some pretty awesome work. In certain aspects, the offer from Microsoft is better than the offer from Apple. I mean that in terms of compensation and benefits. For me it has always been a dream to work at Apple. They make cool products and I generally use most of their stuff. Microsoft makes products which millions and millions of people use so you could argue my impact there would be greater.

I now have 6 days to decide.

I'm trying not to think about money in this case but more about the actual work because that is what will make me happier in the end. The only problem is that the money is definitely a factor.

Alright, I'm back in Utah...for now.

I just returned from a rather long trip. Including my family reunion last weekend I have spent 7 of my last 8 nights in hotel rooms.

I was recruited by a few places to go interview for full-time jobs after I actually graduate. One being Apple and another being Microsoft. I survived the phone interviews and made it to the on-site visits. On Tuesday I flew out to San Jose California to go to Apple, which is located in Cupertino. I arrived there around noon Pacific Time and picked up my rental car:


It was a nice Toyota Camry. I made sure it had GPS so I wouldn't get lost as I roamed around the countryside. That was definitely a good choice on my part. I drove to Cupertino and checked into my hotel:


I stayed at the Cypress Hotel for a couple nights, and with the exception of no swimming pool, it was quite nice. I spent the afternoon checking out the surrounding area. Here are some pics:



After that Seth and Eliot both came down to visit. We got some food at a respectable restaurant and then watched the new Rambo movie in my room. Rambo is one tough mother.

Anyway, on Wednesday I interviewed all day at Apple. I met with 16 or so individuals on the iPhone team. How was it you ask? Really awesome. The guys were way cool and really excited about what they were doing. That, for me, made me more excited and a lot more laid back during the interview process. All in all it went well, and we are working through the offer process right now. So I guess it looks pretty good.

That night I went to dinner by myself and then went back to my hotel, packed up my stuff and got ready to wake up at 3:15 to drive to the airport for my 6:00 AM flight. Ugh. Here is what I saw when I arrived at the gate:


Yeah, not too busy. Anyway, then I flew back to Salt Lake to await my flight to Seattle. While there I received a couple phone calls from Apple to discuss the next steps and then I just kinda hung around until my flight at 3:00.

I made it to Seattle and got my rental car. They gave me a Ford Escape so I felt at home driving around:

I checked into my hotel, The Hilton in Bellevue, and bummed around, I was really tired. I had dinner at the hotel and went to bed early since I had another day of interviews on Friday with Microsoft.

I woke up and went to the interviews which started at 9:00. The interview process was a little less intimidating then others I have had. Instead of a million people, I met with 5. I can't forget to mention that when I first got there and was waiting to meet with my recruiter I was playing rockband. That was pretty cool.

It was a good day. There were some problems I got lost on, but all in all I felt ok about the day. The team was cool and the project was very interesting and right down my alley.

If I get offers from both it will be a tough decision to make. Both jobs have their benefits. Both projects are awesome. Both locations are awesome. In any case, I'll be busy thinking about that for the next few days.