It’s been two years since I left my first repressive employer, Opera Software, which means that I am finally free of all non-competitive agreements as of today. Of course, disclosing that fact might in itself be against said (or non-said) agreement. So I’m not saying it’s the case, just that it might be. Anyway, it’s cause for celebration.

I was young and free, still enrolled at university, and eager to put my l33t coding skillz to use so what was I to do? No, looking back I realize – thank Providence – it was a good decision. It kick-started my career and set me off on an an interesting path.

But let me tell you kids: non-competitive agreements and the like are bad. Stay away from them and stay away from companies that will only offer you employment after signing one. I was lucky, but I don’t think most people are. Of course, whether or not they’re enforceable is another matter, especially when the nationality of the parties and the country where work is carried out are all different. But it smells of bad employment practices.

I was actually contacted a little more than a year ago about an interesting employment opportunity that I would definitely have been interested in if it weren’t for said (or non-said) agreement, so it’s not just all hypothetical. And regardless of the probability of such an unmentionable agreement being upholdable in court, I am a man of my word when signed in triplicate under witness and after review by lawyers. And specific knowledge of the Opera source code wouldn’t have been an advantage either – so it’s all just self-flattering from the oppressive party’s part.

Not coincidentally, today is also two years since I joined my second repressive employer, Picsel Technologies (also known as Picsel Research, Picsel Malta, Lescip, Picsel Holdings, Lescip H, Picsel Trustees, Lescip Seetrust, not to mention the Geurnsey-based Picsel Group Holdings, and a number of other names). Picsel was fun in many ways. If I get the salary they still owe me it’ll seem even funnier. But at least they didn’t require me to sign anything oppressive.

If you’re interested in understanding what happened to Picsel, a seemingly flourishing mobile software technology company, there’s a site for that. Highly recommended reading.

Anyway I’m better off now, thanks largely to these two repressive employers. Happy independence day!

So Friday was my last day in the office at Picsel Technologies. Not just because the office is moving, but also because I’ve resigned. I now have two weeks to get some real programming done before starting my next job on June 1. What that is I’ll get back to later.

I’ve been at Picsel for a little over one and a half years. At many times I have for various reasons not thought that I’d make it to a year there, so I am satisfied with having endured for this long. I’ve learned a lot, both some good engineering practices and also how not to run a company, which might come in handy some day. (Hint: if you’re going to run a company with authoritarian top-down management, it’s important to put smart people at the top.) Working with Picsel’s excellent technology has been a pleasure. I’ve seen things done that I wouldn’t have thought possible before. I hope the technology ends up somewhere where it can be put to good use.

I consider myself very fortunate to have worked at both Opera Software and Picsel Technologies. On the surface they look very similar (enough so for Opera’s lawyer to fedex me a very unfriendly letter when I was leaving) but they’re actually complete opposites. By working with similar kinds of projects (mobile applications for Japanese mobile operators and manufacturers) but with completely different approaches, I’ve gotten unique insights into what works and what doesn’t. Balancing the priorities between technology, products, processes, customers, and employees is essential. I’ll give it a little more time before I write about it though. I am going to utilize this knowledge in my future career.

Anyway, a company is just a shell with logo and a legal department. What matters are the people in it. And the people are what has been the best part of working at Picsel’s Tokyo office. I’ve met the most incredible, competent, and friendly people at the office. Most of them are not there anymore though, so it doesn’t make sense for me to stay either. But the connections I’ve made at Picsel Tokyo, both personal and professional, is what has really made the time there worth while. I consider myself lucky to have worked at Picsel!

So far I’m quite satisfied with my change of workplace. Although I still only work with Japanese mobile phones, which is probably one of the most interesting thing one can work with, I now get to deliver to all the major operators, manufacturers, and platforms. The engineering processes at Picsel are pretty solid, and the quality of the software is sincerely impressive, which makes developing software there feel meaningful.

The training, on the other hand, was of more varying quality, but at least included some new and interesting material towards the end, even stuff worth putting in the resume. Scotland, however, is frankly one hell of a shit-hole, especially I suppose in December, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to set foot anywhere near it, which includes the whole of Britain, and possibly all of Europe as well. After a few years in Japan, it’s hard to take the rudeness, impoliteness, and untimeliness one has to endure in the outside world.

I combined the two mentioned matters and did a presentation and demo developing a chat widget using the freshly-released Ajax Messaging Library. Well, it’s in early beta quality with many features planned but not yet implemented, but it works! Even on stage (except for a small bug, hehe). Anyway, it’s out there now! I’ll write more about it later.

P.S. I did the presentation in my socks; my shoes were drenched this morning by Typhoon no. 4.

I’ll also have a presentation on The Days of Web Standards 2007 on 14~15 of July. My presentation is on Sunday the 14th at 14:30. It’ll be a bit longer and also on widgets (although this time too I’ll try to sneak in as much talk about web application development as possible without Marketing noticing). I’ve got some pretty nifty ideas for a live coding session and demo… I hope someone will attend. Anyway, there are many very interesting speakers scheduled…