It’s been very quiet on the Smiley Cat blog so far in 2015. The reason? I have been looking for a new job, which has occupied most of my free time in-front of the computer. The good news is that I have accepted a position based in Bangkok, Thailand. How about that for a change of scene from Austin, Texas?
My wife and I (well, mainly my wife) had been thinking about a move abroad for some time (although you could argue that being British I am already living abroad). We decided upon South East Asia and after that it was up to me to find a job that would get us out there.
After several months of trawling LinkedIn and various recruitment sites, I am very excited to be joining Lazada, an online retailer that is fashioned upon the Amazon.com model. In three years, Lazada has expanded it operations to six countries and is growing rapidly.
I will be joining the product team, which is based in Bangkok, helping to drive the development of the ecommerce platform and support the growth of each of the regional businesses.
I will certainly miss my friends and colleagues at Observint Technologies, where I have spent the past five years, and Austin itself, where I have spent the past eight years.
But it also feels good to be embarking on something new and to take what I’ve learned and apply it to a large-scale ecommerce operation like Lazada.
And, of course, I’ll be living in Thailand! The last time I was there was when I backpacked through South East Asia 20 years ago. There are still a ton of logistics to work through, such as selling our house and most of our possessions. Luckily for me, my wife is a star at executing on these sorts of things.
The only downside is that I fly out first (in just a few days, gulp), with my family coming out to join me once the house is sold. Fingers crossed that we won’t be apart for too long.