Well, after 1000 days at the most valuable company in the world (AAPL), where roughly a sixth of my time there was spent writing iOS software, I’ve moved on.

 It was a BIG surprise for many of my closest friends and family. I’m sure they thought I had my dream job. Being a Genius was cool – got to work with some great technologies and learned a lot about customer service (this is really a customer EXPECTATIONS service) – but it had a few drawbacks for me personally.

1. I wrote software for iPhones and iPads before I joined Apple. In fact, I had six apps in the App Store. My new gig is exactly this: write software and when you’re done, write some more.
2. The busiest days in retail are Saturday and Sunday. Well, Saturday and Sunday are important to me in my ‘God Job’, as director of Music for a Catholic parish in Northborough MA. There were always internal conflicts for me, that tended to interfere with my responsibilities and desires to be at Church and play, and at the same time, prevented me from attending the popular ‘Sunday Morning Training’ sessions held for the Family Room at the store. Sigh.
3. The hours are quite constant: 8-5, M-F, in software engineering. I missed having dinner at home, every night! As a genius, my shifts would vary, and my dinner hour would too. Sometimes, it would be at 7 pm, other times at 1 pm, depending on when I started my shift.
4. Finally, the pay is more for software engineer than computer repair consultant/technician. 

I do miss lots of things at Apple: the stock purchase plan, the mall specials (Auntie Anne’s pretzels were $1 for mall employees on Tuesdays), and the product discounts. Sigh. 

One of my friends asked me if I would work part-time. Part-timers have to work weekends and at least one night during the week. Those are tough to fit into my very busy life. As much as I would like to stay with Apple, I just can’t find a way to make it happen. Oh well. 

Some other good things about moving on:

• I can talk about what it was like to other people.
• I can write software with abandon.
• I can wear my Apple gear outside of the mall without feeling weird. 
• I can give my honest opinions about the products and the competitors’ products.
• I have BOTH days of a weekend in a row!
• I can write stories in this blog without worrying about offending my employment agreement (with Apple). 

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