A New Gig
As many of you may have guessed based on my weblog post about interviewing, I’ve been in the market for a new job recently. My current gig with Software Update Integration (a branch of Mac OS X QA) at Apple has been a great experience, and I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to people like my boss, Dennis Gately and my colleagues Andrew Wooster and Peter Ammon, who moved me to California and gave me the biggest break of my life. In many ways, their willingness to take a chance on me has had a decisive impact on my life, and I have benefitted enormously from the time I’ve spent with them.
Even so, I came to Apple almost exactly two years ago with one goal in mind–to eventually do development work on a shipping Apple product–and I’ve never lost sight of that. Thus, while I’ve been working to ensure the quality of Mac OS X updates, I’ve also been looking around for an engineering position that would be a good fit for me. Today, I finally accepted an offer for what I think will be a fantastic opportunity: an engineering position on the Soundtrack Pro team.
I’m excited about this position for a number of reasons. First, it will be an opportunity to finally devote my full attention to what I consider to be my real interest and forté: Cocoa programming. Second, in the long-term it could give me exposure to some fascinating programming topics I’d be unlikely to encounter otherwise (e.g. real-time programming, signal processing, Core Audio, etc.). Third, it gives me an opportunity to reconnect with one of my earliest uses of computers (I’m fond of telling people that my first use of the Internet was to FTP guitar tablature from OLGA, and my favorite thing to do with my old Amiga 500 was to spend hours with my friends constructing primitive mashups using a crude, serial port-based sampler). And lastly, corny (and vaguely Marxist) as it may sound, it allows me to be a part of the ideology that, in my estimation, has always made Apple special as a company: the quest to democratize creativity by bringing powerful production tools to the masses.
Many thanks to Corey Peterson, Dan Schimpf, Jason Marr, and everyone else on the team for giving me the opportunity. I look forward to learning a lot from you and, as my colleague Jonathan Deutsch is fond of saying, exceeding your expectations.
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:13 pm
I know you’ve already heard this from me, but I’ll say it again: congratulations!
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:25 pm
Congrats, Buzz!
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:57 pm
Congrats! I’m sorry we’ll lose you in Mac OS X Engineering, but I’m looking forward to seeing all the cool stuff you end up doing on Soundtrack.
August 3rd, 2005 at 12:44 am
Wahey! Congrats!
August 3rd, 2005 at 2:27 am
Good luck, mang, I can imagine this is a very exciting thing. Although, being selfish, perhaps Apple could use some iPod cash to have you cloned or something so one of you could also stay at QA?
August 3rd, 2005 at 3:51 am
Congrats, Buzz.
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:39 am
Congratulations, Buzz.
Yes, you’re right: making creative tools available to the masses without alienating pro users is what Apple does very well. Also, it’s amazing to see what Apple has done especially in the pro(sumer) audio department after failing to properly support that market only a few years ago.
I’m sure you’ll have lots fun in your new job, dude. Enjoy it!
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:00 am
Mazel tov!
-Scott
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:30 am
Congratulations — I enjoy reading your Cocoa insights, and suspect I will enjoy them even more if they become more related to Soundtrack Pro — it’s an amazing program, marrying the power of Logic and the ease-of-use of GarageBand makes sound editing and design MUCH more fun!
August 3rd, 2005 at 8:12 am
Time for a Cocoa Cake:))) I am happy to hear you will get to do what you really like!
August 3rd, 2005 at 8:18 am
A life without risk is a life without purpose.
If you can get paid to do something that you enjoy each day, you are truely a blessed person.
Congratulations!
August 3rd, 2005 at 8:23 am
I was worried when I read the first few sentences of the entry, that you’d be moving away! So glad that you are moving forward with your career, and so glad that you are here to stay! Congrats!
August 3rd, 2005 at 8:45 am
Congrats!
Wow- you’re going to be getting into some very cool and interesting code there. It must be very exciting.
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:07 am
Congrats again Buzz! We’re gonna miss you!
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:09 am
> though I’m not sure if they’d want to be named, so I won’t
It’s always good to be cautious, but I’m not that shy
Welcome to the team!
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:21 am
Congratulations! I hope the new gig is fulfilling.
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:42 am
Congrats Buzz!
I can certainly understand and relate to the desire to do “development work on a shipping Apple product”. I’m rooting for you on your “quest to democratize creativity by bringing powerful production tools to the masses” — it’s quite a noble quest.
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:49 am
Congrats, Buzz! And welcome to the team.
I’ve been on the team for a year now (plus a 3 month internship) and have absolutely loved it. The Soundtrack team is an awesome group of people. We’re looking forward to you joining us.
As I told you in our interview, I discovered your blog a couple years ago just as I was coming out to CA for my internship. It was great reading someone else’s experiences about moving out here and it’s cool to finally meet you and get to work with you.
August 3rd, 2005 at 10:10 am
Congratulations Buzz - sounds like a lot of fun. Good luck!
August 3rd, 2005 at 10:17 am
Hey congrats! Sounds like fun!
August 3rd, 2005 at 11:02 am
Congrats and good luck Buzz! I’m sure you’ll do great things!
August 3rd, 2005 at 11:49 am
Congratulations! And thanks for reminding me about OLGA…
August 3rd, 2005 at 11:51 am
Congratulations from me too! And I echo what Courtney said - I’m glad you’re staying here.
August 3rd, 2005 at 1:46 pm
You don’t know me, but congratulations!
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:05 pm
Buzz, I’m happy you found a new job, but I’m even happier that you’ll be staying at Apple! (And I see I’m not the only one to express that sentiment.)
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:09 pm
You definitely deserve this promotion Buzz! We’ll miss you on our team though.
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:22 pm
Woo, congrats! That’s a super cool product to be working on!
August 4th, 2005 at 8:19 am
Totally cool. I find myself in much the same situation: Dream job and new technologies. Congratulations
August 4th, 2005 at 10:34 am
A word should be enough: Congrats!
August 4th, 2005 at 11:46 am
CONGRATS!
August 4th, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Congratulations. Good luck.
August 6th, 2005 at 8:50 pm
Hey, congrats.
Although I wonder what will become of my beloved Software Update now that you are flying the coop.
Chaos, I tell ya! Chaos!
August 8th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
Congrats, dude.
I moved from shrink wrap apps to custom software and framework stuff a few years back, and it really changed how I looked at software. Here’s to hoping that you have the same epiphany in the other direction!
Scott
August 14th, 2005 at 10:06 pm
Ooh sweet job! Hey can you make sure you put in multi-track recording into an update to STP? Which means more than 2 tracks! I use STP for post-production of a podcast and would love to use it for recording too instead of moving files from GB over. Logic is way to intense for me at this point (and more expensive)
December 25th, 2005 at 12:59 am
I’m happy you found a new job, but I’m even happier that you’ll be staying at Apple! (And I see I’m not the only one to express that sentiment
December 25th, 2005 at 3:13 am
Congratulations — I enjoy reading your Cocoa insights, and suspect I will enjoy them even more if they become more related to Soundtrack Pro — it’s an amazing program, marrying the power of Logic and the ease-of-use of GarageBand makes sound editing and design MUCH more fun!
December 29th, 2005 at 5:43 am
discovered your blog a couple years ago just as I was coming out to CA for my internship. It was great reading someone else’s experiences about moving out here and it’s cool to finally meet you and get to work with you
January 4th, 2006 at 12:52 am
I can certainly understand and relate to the desire to do “development work on a shipping Apple product”. I’m rooting for you on your “quest to democratize creativity by bringing powerful production tools to the masses” — it’s quite a noble quest.