Some decisions are harder to make than others. Career decisions are some of the most difficult. There are many diverse criteria. Job satisfaction. Intellectual stimulation. Camaraderie. Remuneration. Opportunities for growth. Even sticking with the status quo is a type of decision.

As a child, I was convinced that I was going to have a career in music. But when I was in college, I realized that I enjoyed studying math more than practicing my violin. So a career in engineering would give me more satisfaction and stimulation than music. And the average career in engineering pays much better than the average career in music! So the decision was quite simple - and I am still completely satisfied with my choice. (I still get satisfaction as a part-time musician, but it's hard to be a part-time mathematician.)

After college, I went to graduate school to study operations research - applying scientific methods to decision making. After obtaining my Ph.D., I worked several jobs in optimization: finding the best solutions to complex decisions involving thousands of decision variables and constraints. After 10 years, I needed a change, so I joined Dwaffler to work on high-level, strategic decision making. Decisions that involve fewer choices, but complex, non-mathematical relationships.

However, I recently had another difficult choice: an opportunity to rejoin the field of optimization with an exciting new company called Gurobi Optimization. The founders of Gurobi are long-time friends of mine - including a classmate of mine from graduate school. And they made me "an offer I couldn't refuse".

It was a difficult decision. I've enjoyed working with Dwaffler customers - seeing a different perspective on decision making. And I was very stimulated by the vision of my talented partners at Dwaffler. But I couldn't refuse this offer, so I am leaving Dwaffler to join Gurobi Optimization.

I believe that the rest of the Dwaffler team will continue writing on this blog for a while. If you also want to follow my writing, I post frequently on Twitter. I plan to start writing again on my personal blog: Greg's Rants. Compared with the Dwaffler blog, my personal blog has more opinion and more emphasis on technology.

This was a difficult decision. Dwaffler has a great approach to decision making, supported by some useful technology. I still think it should be used nearly everywhere. And I plan to do so.

Image credit: gingerpig2000