I recently became an employee after a few years of being a hired gun/nerdherder/developer.
For the last year or so I’ve been working to develop a web application for a small, local company. Eventually, the thought of leaving them once they didn’t have a pressing (and somewhat expensive) need for me grew so painful that I “offered” myself to them a few months ago. Thankfully they also wanted to keep me around (maybe as a mascot??).
So now I’m the CTO of a small high-tech company that produces hardware and software to help people improve their athletic performance. They are called GPSports and they/we are going to release a bunch of new and exciting products this year. It should be as much fun as I’ve ever had in my professional career.
Its nice to have a home again, especially in a small and exciting company, and to be committed to more than just the project I’m working on. There is nothing like being able to quickly feel the effect your work has on a company. (It is better when the effect is positive rather than negative but either way you know your alive.)