Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. I have something to announce. :-)
One month ago, I made a serious decision.
I decided to leave the company I have worked for 6 years. Microsoft is a great company. I enjoyed the wonderful time I had in the last 6 years. I experienced roles from engineer to business development manager, from developer to tester, from project manager to consultant, from trainer to team manager, from community buildup to partner buildup. The six years mean more for me than others. To be honest, it was not as painful a decision as I thought. I wrote in my farewell email: “The fruits don’t feel the pain when picked up after completely mature in autumn”.
I miss my friends there, the days and night I spent in the Metro Tower and everything I was so passionate. I started new things every year and every year is a fresh start for me. Six-year is not long, but it is by no means short in one’s life. I don’t know how many six years I have. I own deep appreciation to this company and to everyone I had obliged to work with. Now, I call myself an ex-Microsoft employee. :-)
The second day I left, I joined another great company: eBay. I will run the eBay’s new venture, Kijiji, in China. I was deeply moved when I talked with great people in eBay. Their passion to help people, the highest level of ethics, and their passion attracted me a lot. Kijiji is a online classified business, and it has the potential to change everyone’s life in China. I see more Ayi got their job via classified (although there should be some ways other than online to reach them); I see people in the same neighborhood stepping out of their doors and starting to meet each other based on common hobby (just as Kijiji, “village” in Swahili implies); I see more arts and gathering become prosperous in Shanghai, in Beijing and in all the cities we launched the site… It is an exciting new world for me to explore. I am honored to be able to lead the team to do something meaningful for people. The passion is there. I can feel it. There is something in common between Kijiji and this blog. Just like I built up this community with passion and the willingness to share, I believe Kijiji will be a community with greater impact.
I didn’t announce it immediately after the change. After about one month, I am pretty sure I figured out where I am going and feel comfortable to share the news with everyone. The senior management team supports me to continue the blog, and I definitely will. As you may feel, I wasn’t able to update this blog as often as before (I missed three days or four in the last month). If there is a post, you may find it posted pretty late (1:00 AM in the morning?) You know what to expect when a completely new business opens in a new market. I have my own commitment to the company and will devote most of the time on it.
If you like, please drop by to my new site Kijiji.cn, and post your classified. I will be happy to see more people mentioning it in their blogs – no matter positive review or negative. At least, you may feel some connection with the newly born site – there is something you are familiar behind this site. Drop me an email if you have any comment. You know whom you should yell to if something does not work well. I love to get your direct feedback.
My friends, my readers, I appreciate your support in the past and I am looking forward to your continuous support. I owe big thanks to everyone who read my blog, comments on this blog, and write about this blog. I will definitely continue. It needs some courage to disclose this in a highly competitive market and there are too much uncertainty in PR or legal perspective :-), so let me put the disclaimer, that whatever I expressed on this blog only represents my personal opinion, and does not present my employer. As always, I will continue the mission of this website: To bring first hand information to help visitors and expats to Shanghai. “Life is short. Let’s have more fun.”
