Leaving Gomez, what should I do next?

I’m leaving Gomez, my current employer, as of next Friday, July 25th. It’s been a great ride. Over the last ~2 years, with Gomez, and an additional year as the founder of Autoriginate/HostedQA, I’ve had a tremendous opportunity to work on really amazing products in the QA/testing/SaaS space.

But it’s also been tough, especially the frequent flights between Portland, OR and Boston, MA, and I’m looking to either pursue an MBA graduate program and/or move back to the San Francisco bay area, where I’m originally from. I’m on the waitlist at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business full-time MBA program, and if that doesn’t pane out I’ll be re-applying to several bay area schools next year while also looking for new opportunities in the bay.

I don’t have anything specific lined up. My plan right now is to spend the rest of the year carefully weighing my next steps. I’m looking at a lot of different options: grad school, another startup, joining a bay area company (ideally a startup focussing on consumer/social media), or possibly even doing something “out there” like joining the PeaceCorps or some other field work in an impoverished country. In the more immediate term, I’d likely be working on mioNews in between planning my next steps.

With that in mind, I’m open to hearing from my friends and readers about what I should do next. Find a job in Portland, OR or the bay area? Perhaps someone has participated in the PeaceCorps and has advise? Or perhaps someone is out there looking for help in software development and/or product management leadership at their startup? Let me know - the idea of so many options excites me!

4 Responses to “Leaving Gomez, what should I do next?”

  1. Blogbody » Blog Archive » Field volunteer work: Peace Corps vs Doctors Without Borders Says:

    [...] Blogbody Patrick Lightbody’s personal blog « Leaving Gomez, what should I do next? [...]

  2. Blogbody » Blog Archive » Re-waitlisted at Haas, again Says:

    [...] in August and I find it increasingly unlikely that I’ll be getting in. Fortunately, I have other plans. One of the many options I’ll be considering is re-applying to Stanford and [...]

  3. Blogbody » Blog Archive » Traveling to the SF bay area Says:

    [...] meeting up with a lot of people and companies, trying to figure out what the best place for me to go next [...]

  4. Yuan Cheng Says:

    How about moving to Beijing. You will love it :).

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