2005 - 2010: Commission Junction

After returning in 2005 from our 5 1/2 year family sailing voyage in the South Pacific, I needed a job.  And so I did what any normal out-of-work computer programmer would do: I sent résumés all over the place.  We were living in Carpinteria, chosen because both our kids were going to Cate School nearby.  The problem with Carpinteria and nearby Santa Barbara, however, was they had very few companies that needed software programmers, especially older ones that hadn't done any programming for 5 1/2 years.

So I started to research how the industry had evolved while I was gone, and I came upon a new method of software development that was coming into vogue: Agile.  The more I read about it, the more excited I got.  I signed up for a course in Agile, and became certified as an Agile Scrum Master.  With this certification under my belt, I applied for a job at Commission Junction, in Santa Barbara.  As luck would have it, they were looking to convert their software department to Agile, and I was their man.  They hired me to convert their Engineering and Product Management departments (40+ employees) to the Agile methodology, responsible for training, mentoring, and proselytizing.  It was the perfect match for me.  I was with them for five years.