David Kitchen

After almost 7 years working with Project Server and SharePoint I am moving on.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been given some complex problems to solve for a range of great clients including some great work for the Home Office in the UK, several major banks including Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston (London and Boston), Credit Suisse (Zürich), and Bank of America. I’ve also enjoyed challenging engagements with in other industries such as manufacturing, health & pharmaceuticals and local government.

I’ve had  the very rare opportunity to work closely with Microsoft via the Developers Advisory Council and during my visits to Redmond I’ve only ever felt welcomed and that the relationship between myself representing a Gold Partner and the developers of SharePoint has always been stimulating and highly rewarding (it’s pretty awesome seeing suggestions and feedback appear in a mass market product less than a year later).

All of this makes leaving my current employers a hard thing to do, especially on the eve of SharePoint 2010 as these are exciting times. However the time is right for me personally though, and I’ve been offered a position with Yell Group as an architect within a newly formed research & development lab.

As with all new phases in a career the future remains an unknown. It’s both very exciting and a little daunting. The technologies in use will move me from .Net, C# and SQL Server and towards SAP, WebSphere, Oracle, and Java. If I get my way hopefully it will include Clojure too and lots of mobile stuff particularly around Android.

So to the readers of this blog, expect more Java, Clojure & Android and less SharePoint in the future and wish me well. And if you happen to have sharp SharePoint and C# skills and are looking for work in London get in touch swiftly as the department I am leaving currently has 2 positions open.