Looking for a job has certainly changed since the last time I actively searched for a job.

My entire job search consisted of this blog post, and this tweet on Twitter. (Ok, I did send a couple of e-mails, but it sounds better if it’s just the blog and Twitter). Within 2 hours, I had 4 serious inquiries and 11 in total by the end of the first day. That’s pretty good, considering that I live on an island outside of Seattle, and not in the Bay Area. Interestingly enough, only two of those inquiries were from companies with physical offices in the Seattle area.

Having a blog turned out to be quite important. At least one opportunity came via e-mail with a preamble that went like this: “You don’t know me, but I’ve been a reader of your blog for a long time”.

Until about 2 weeks ago, I talked to a lot of people on the phone, and went to California two weeks in a row for in-person interviews (those of you following along on Twitter already know this — it’s sad but true that Twitter has eaten into my blogging). I feel very fortunate that the four companies that I preferred the most were all fine with the notion of me continuing to work remotely. All four of these companies were doing really interesting stuff. It just goes to show that you don’t have to live in Silicon Valley in order to have access to interesting work opportunities.

I’m going to save the identity of my new employer for tomorrow’s post. But in this post, I would like to say “Thank You” to everyone who contacted me with a job opportunity, and to those who dropped me a note just to find out what was up or how I was doing. It’s nice to know that you have friends.