Today I celebrate 25 years with CBN. 25 years. Sometimes I have to let that sink in. I only know a few people who have had that kind of longevity with any company, well, other than a decently large number of my company-mates, who have been here considerably longer than I have, that is.

In my case it hasn’t actually been 25 years in a row. I started there in 1994, and It was my second professional job. When people ask me why I stay, there is always one major reason. It has been a place I have liked to work every single day. I also feel like we make somewhat of a difference in the world.

Okay, perhaps to be honest to my self and to sate the appetite for correctness of the super nerd in my head I must rephrase it as: I have liked nearly every single day. No matter where you work or what you do there are days that make you grumpy.

3 separate stays

Five years there, 2 years at a educational software startup. When that ended (which is a story in and of itself), I went back and stayed 20 more years. I then took another very public facing side trip with Redgate Software’s Simple Talk property. And then that opportunity ended earlier this year and I came back one more time.

Now, after just being back for 5 months , my cumulative time reaches exactly 25 years today, Nov 7, 2025. Within these 25 years, we split off into a consulting company, but we were still basically the same company. I bring up that consulting company because as it was ending in 2008, my boss at the time said:

“You need to leave. You are going to destroy your career here.”

I keep coming back for a reason

Look, I won’t even suggest I couldn’t have made more money elsewhere. But I will say I can’t imagine working with a nicer group of people doing great things for the world. And they have always given me the support I needed to make sure that I did not “destroy my career”. I became a Microsoft MVP working there. I continued being one until after I left . (I stopped being one few years ago, after some down time due to a string of orthopedic visits and the fact that my community contributions were then part of my job.)

Over these years I have worked with many technologies and have stretched my skills beyond what a lot of people get the opportunity to do. Currently, I am building some neat things with graph tables in SQL Server and inching my way into learning Microsoft Fabric.

25 more?

Of course, that might be an exaggeration. I started here 30 years ago, but I wasn’t born 30 years ago. But if I am still working in the year 2050, I will have no hesitation to say it may be right here at CBN.

I have continued to grow my knowledge while working with wonderful people and I expect that to continue as long as I continue clicking the keys on my keyboard.