Really. The papers haven't been signed yet because we're waiting on the results of a background check, but I already know what the results of the background check are going to be (it's amazing what bribing a few government employees can get you), so I've been "OK'd" for the announcement.

I work for Microsoft.

I was until getting off the phone with the recruiter a few minutes ago.

I had a chance to take one hell of a cool position, so I took it (more on that in a minute).

Very few people have ever asked me why I was an independent contractor.

Did I enjoy it? Yes - very much. The pay was good, I set my own hours, and to paraphrase The Kinks, a contractor "flits from job to job just like a butterfly." It was fun, but being a contractor has its limitations.

I found that although my billing rate increased steadily, the work itself didn't change much. I'd show up one day at some company, drag and drop a few controls onto a form, and then go away, never to be heard from again. The technical challenge didn't change much, and the only real advancement seemed to be the bottom line. The problem with that is that once you've figured out that money isn't everything, you begin to realize that you might not be in the perfect position.

I liked running my own "business," and I learned a lot about taxes, the IRS, local government red tape, and so on. If I had to set up a small corporation now, I know how to do it. That's pretty cool.

But, one of the main reasons I was an independent is that I knew nobody would hire me without a high school diploma or college degree, regardless of what I knew. My resume would get tossed from the pile immediately. Why, when there are ten billion other people on the planet who have the paper credentials, should a manager even bother with me? There's already too much to do, and I couldn't blame anybody if they were to gloss over me.

So, I carved out a little world for myself with Blyth Consulting. Rather than trying to get hired on, it was now my job to sell myself to companies. That arrangement worked out pretty well because of some strange aspects of human psychology. For example, if you charge a certain amount of dough for your services, people are more inclined to think that you're worth it than if you come in begging on your hands and knees for a job. It's weird, but time after time it proved true.

Now, four years later, my resume is in order, I have the experience, and the paper credentials are no longer as necessary as they once were. I no longer have to go it alone.

After working at so many places, my desire to finally become part of a team grew. It's exciting to show up someplace, stick around for a few months, and then go away, but it also feels like the only long term goal is getting paid, and that wasn't fulfilling enough for me. I wanted to work with other people to effect some sort of a change over time that went beyond just getting a data access layer written, or whatever.

And, of course, there was only one company for me...

Had you asked me a couple months ago what one of my ideal jobs would be, I would have told you that I wanted to:

- Travel

- Present on technical topics that I care about to audiences

- Help create material for the presentations

- Build long term relationships with coworkers/colleagues/whatever you want to call them (friends)

- Interact with the community

I also would have told you that I didn't think the job existed. These are things that I've been paying to do. The blog, .NET Rocks, DevDays (Hartford/Boston), TechEd, and so on, were all paid for out of pocket (although entrance to TechEd was free because I did a couple sessions with Carl). I paid for the transportation, the meals, various expenses, and sometimes the hotel rooms, so that I could go out and "spread the word." I enjoy it that much. As of this month, I think that, for the first time in years, my net income for the year is actually zero. I've spent quite a bit on shuttling myself around.

Then, perhaps a month ago, I started hearing about a position opening up at Microsoft for an "MSDN Presenter." Jim Blizzard talked to me about it, and Scott Hanselman mentioned it as well. When I first heard the description, I was kind of floored. It was like Microsoft was offering a salary for someone to do what I was paying to do. After a little bit of deliberation with myself, I came to realize that it was probably the perfect position for me right now. It meets the above criteria, and I'd finally get dental/medical/sick days/vacation. Pretty neat.

That's when Jim put me in touch with Paul Murphy. Things just sort of happened from there, and I am now one of the b0rg.

I had been thinking for a good long time about working for Microsoft. I saw Don Box at TechEd, and asked him how he was liking it. He just smiled and said, "I love it." There wasn't even the slightest hint of anything to the contrary in his voice. Obviously, Don's a happy camper.

Granted, I'm not doing what Don's doing - not even close - but I've met many cool people from Microsoft, and I can honestly say that I'm so excited that it's hard for me to write right now. My synapses are lit up across the board. I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight.

I started using Microsoft products when I was about six. The first "real" bits of coding that I did were with MS BASIC v1.0 on the IBM PC. I actually learned from examples that Bill Gates had coded himself (donkey.bas, for example, taught me how to use XOR to draw graphics on the screen without erasing the background, which was crucial for the crappy little games I was writing). Microsoft has been a part of my life the same way most kids grew up with Coke and the Disney Channel. I never really thought that I'd be working for them because of my rather unconventional background, but I'm seriously pumped that they're willing to bring me on board in spite of this. It's the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition that I thought would never be realized.

In short, I'm lucky I haven't wet my pants from the excitement. This is seriously cool.

I interviewed in Dallas for the position on Monday. While at the airport waiting for my flight out, I was sitting in a restaurant with a friend of mine. Watching people go by, I saw a familiar face, but thought that my brain must have been playing tricks on me.

I said, "I think Miguel de Icaza just walked past."

I ran out of the restaurant and tracked him down. There, sitting in the terminal with a McDonalds cheeseburger, was Mr. Mono himself. I was already in a good mood from the interview, and running into him just made things that much cooler. As DonXML mentioned in a recent post, occurrences with one in a million chances happen 295 times a day in America, and I think this serendipitous meeting counts (and I wonder what the other 294 were).

Here's a photo of me with the guy who got .NET to my Macintosh, two days before learning that the Mother Ship would beam me up:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some celebrating to do :)