Resignation from Matrox

I handed my resignation in on April 30th, 2010. Friday of last week. Friday because that’s when Matrox usually gives their employees their pink slip. If you feel that I’ve been absent from the net, this is why. That and a crappy game called Evony that kept me mindlessly clicking away while not at work. If you are a Matrox employee and you read this. My manager would like you to keep quiet until Tuesday so he can announce it himself, (but really, who are we kidding? This kind of thing can never be contained)

The financial disaster only served to delay the inevitable by a year. Originally, I was shocked into self preservation mode to stay on the job but as time went by, it became increasingly obvious to me that I can no longer work on a job where I can’t see any hope.

Hope: The deep rooted desire to be always improving.

When going to work is as easy as spreading peanut butter on toast, it is time to change. I’ve done similar things throughout my career, completely quit before I found the next job in the ladder. The period of intense change and rapid fire action always seems to bring out the best in me. My true character only reveals himself during periods of intense duress And before that moment, I am just average.

This time around is very different from previous rounds of quitting. You see, I am out of the rat race. Meaning I don’t need to work to support myself anymore. It doesn’t mean that I am extremely rich, just that I am richer and that I have the skills to deploy those money to support myself while earning more. It is a very well thought out event, I am not rage quitting nor did I get sick and tired of working (well a little bit of this).

To be honest, I did look for jobs throughout the year, the most notorious of which was a 3 days event with Intel which took me one month to prepare for. I had three interviews to get into the final 2 candidate and then they flew me down there for the final interview all expenses paid just like in those movies about hackers. Of course, I wasn’t good enough for them, it is the great recession after all and I was up against industry veterans that has 10 or more years of experiences. It was a position with their new pet “Larrabee” project that eventually got canceled. I am glad though that I didn’t make it, otherwise I would’ve been out of a job by now. This trip deserves a whole entry on its own and i am glad that I can write about all these now that all the NDA I signed will be annulled (As well as the Matrox ones).

What’s next?

There are two possibilities, both of which will finally allow me to focus purely on programming. 1. is to develop the automated trading platform and fine tuning the existing one so I can continue earning the rewards that I am earning from my investment. 2. is to get the team together and get started on making my game.

Before any of these gets done though, I have to sell my condo and all its contents as well as move to Vancouver. These are the things that are definitely going to happen. Quebec’s real estate is pretty much in a bubble. With the recent tax increases and a 60% debt to GDP ratio, it didn’t take me long to realize that Quebec is now locked into the financial death spiral. The beginning of the burst will be the rise of interest rates. I don’t want to time the peak, nor do I want to wait around for that. It just so happened that a lot of different factors coincided together for me to be able to finally say “Fuck it!”

Why Vancouver?

The choice for Vancouver is made after having been to most of the major cities in Canada. Vancouver is a place where I can shine the brightest as I have all the skills that naturally pushes me ahead of the herd. First of all, they speak English. Secondly, there’s a huge Mandarin speaking population so my mother tongue is actually a benefit instead of a hindrance in Vancouver. You remove the language barrier and you remove the biggest frustration that I face in Montreal.

At my age, it is no longer about developing skills against adverse environments or fitting in. It’s about deploying existing skills in the environment that favors me.