Leaving ThoughtWorks

I started with ThoughtWorks back in Brisbane, Australia in 2004. Though not a graduate developer (we didn’t hire graduates back then), I was one of the younger members of the company. I still remember being sat down by the then-Managing Director before starting with my first client, where he said, “We’re not really sure how you’re going to work out, but we’ll go on that journey together.” More than 13 years later, I guess everything did work out, and I’ve shared the same path with ThoughtWorks a long time.

Now, my path is heading in a different direction. I take with me many fond memories, many wonderful new friends and acquaintances, and a wealth of experiences. I have grown through working on projects across multiple countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, India, Germany, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, the USA), multiple verticals (including banking, charity, energy, gambling, government, housing, publishing, recruitment, retail, telecommunications, travel and valuable goods) and playing multiple roles (architect, cat-herder, developer, facilitator, leader, trainer and many more). I’ve been able to work with companies in their early days, when they hit growth and experienced scaling problems, all the way to large established companies looking to change and transform the way they build software.

I appreciated working with so many well-respected and well-known people such as Barry O’Reilly (Lean Enterprise), Dan North (BDD), Dave Farley (CD), Gregor Hohpe (EAI), Ian Robinson (SOA guru), James Lewis (Mr Microservices), Jez Humble (CD/Lean Enterprise), Jim Webber (SOA guru), Kief Morris (Infra-as-code), Liz Keogh (BDD), Martin Fowler (Martin Fowler!), Neal Ford (Speaker Extraordinaire), Pramod Sadalage (Refactoring Databases), Sam Newman (Microservices), Rachel Laycock (Head of Tech for N. America), Rebecca Parsons (CTO) – and I need to stop now as there are so many other people I will forget off the list!

I’m grateful to have seen the company grow across countries (15 countries & 42 offices), adapting to local cultures yet keeping the “core” culture of engineering excellence, passion and a love of learning. It’s this combination plus the magic of trust that let teams live up to ThoughtWorks’ reputation. I am also proud to see our values (The Three Pillars) discussed and seen first hand, how they influence management decisions. I realised early on, that there is a delicate tension in balancing these three pillars within local and industry constraints and that there is rarely a “perfect solution.” However I truly do believe the balance is signficantly better in comparison to other companies.

I’m particularly grateful to have benefited from learning from others, watching others grow, and helping others grow. I also learned that these are not mutually exclusive options!

Where to now?

An opportunity landed on my doorstep, taking me along a different path, and means I’m off to try something different. I feel excited about my new opportunity (more on that to come!) but also excited to watch ThoughtWorks continue to grow, evolve, and continue to have a positive impact on the industry.