November 2024 Newsletter
Message from the co-ordinators
October marked the end of an era for many, as the final group of people in the June redundancy announcement reached the end of their gardening leave notice periods. There were meet-up events in most of the office locations as people dropped by to return laptops and keys. We wish everyone the best of luck in whatever they’re doing, it’s a time of change for everyone (including those still around). We’ve seen lots of lovely support and encouragement in the alumni community, thank you to everyone for being such wonderful people, so please pop by if you need anything from a space to vent to advice and job opportunities. Here’s to the future!
London Winter Party
We’re pleased to be able to confirm that the London Winter Party is going ahead. We’re aware there was still some uncertainty from folks following our recent communications but we’ve hit our minimum numbers now and are looking forward to seeing you many of you in December! We’d still love more sign-ups though as we’ve got a whole series of extra things we could do with extra ticket income, plus, as always, the more the merrier! The deadline for signing up is Monday 2nd December as we need to submit pre-orders after that.
Local Upcoming Events
Cambridge
Cambridge are still having relatively regular meetups (just not organising them with much warning!), check out the #cambridge-events channel on Discord to see what’s goin on.
Enfield/London
A reminder that there are regular lunchtime sports still going on in Enfield. Check out the #enfield-london-sports channel on Discord if you’re interested. All abilities welcome and you don’t need to be a MSFT employee to come along!
Edinburgh
November meet-up
Our November meet-up will be held on Thursday 7th November, from 6pm onwards at the Pear Tree. React to James McDougall’s message either on the scoff-chat Discord channel or the General channel in the Whatsapp community if you want to attend so that he can book a suitable sized space.
December meet-up
Can’t make it down to London for the Alumni Community Winter Party? Well no need to worry, we’re going to be holding a second Winter Party in Edinburgh! It’s not quite December but this will be held on Saturday 30th November, from 7pm onwards at the Slug & Lettuce on George Street. Please sign-up at https://forms.gle/ET1JdCHzzfBkGiTz6 Monday 4th November to reserve your spot! Tickets for this event are £25pp and money should be sent to James McDougall at https://paypal.me/JamesMcDougall123.
Things you can get involved with
Get yourself a ticket to the London Winter Party! And while you’re at it, gather your friends and make sure they get their tickets too, all the details you need are at https://withjoy.com/metaswitchalumniwinterparty.
We’re looking for a new local meetup rep for the London and/or Enfield areas so if you’re interested in helping ensure regular alumni meetups happen in this area, get in touch!
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Events round up
Enfield/London
On the (nearly) final day of employment for many, hordes of Enfield folk descended on the Kings Head for a goodbye pint or five! Once again we managed to baffle staff by making the pub very busy on a random week night and it was a lovely send off for those of us leaving.
Cambridge
Cambridge also had an (approximately) last day pub trip. We’re not sure what they were doing to make the picture so steamy but it looks like a lot of fun!
Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s October’s meet-up event was held at the Causewayside office on Thursday 3rd October. We started the evening off with an opportunity to catch up over plenty of pizza and drinks, before Alistair Dundas led a presentation/open discussion on a series of new opportunities that various people from the office were embarking upon. It was fantastic to hear where ex-colleagues were going to be starting new jobs, as well as information about how they got these jobs and what they were most looking forward to.
A group of people also had a more spontaneous pub trip at the Brass Monkey on Wednesday 23rd October as many dropped by the office to return laptops and office keys.
Midlands
At the end of October, some of the Midlands office headed over to Leamington Spa for a pub trip and a few rounds of pool at Frames to mark several folks' last day at Microsoft.
Updates from the community
Jen & Peter’s Wedding
On 14th September, almost ten years after they met as new grads at Metaswitch, Jen Kitson and Peter Whiting got married! There were lots of current and ex-Metaswitchers among the guests, who enjoyed a sunny outdoor ceremony followed by garden games, archery, food, and an energetic ceilidh. There were plenty of nerdy touches too: a book swap, a table quiz, and even a database joke in Peter's speech! Having retired their Wedmin spreadsheet, which at the last count had over 40 tabs and 361 "Next actions", and spent a week in Bath to relax, Peter and Jen are now settling happily into married life.
Metaswitch T-Shirts
Most of the Metaswitch T-Shirts have now been collected, if you ordered one and haven't collected it please do so, or contact Nick Weeds if there are any problems (check Discord for contact details).
We have a few spare Unisex Metaswitch T-Shirts left over in sizes S / M / L / XL. If you would like one of them, please contact Nick indicating the size required. First come first served. Nick will post T-Shirts to you in return for a donation of £16 to the Trussell Trust.
Job updates
Ibby has left his job and started a PhD! His update:
I was emailed around a month ago by an academic that I clicked with a while back saying that the university had randomly found funding for me. I've been thinking about doing a PhD ever since graduating 3 years ago but found it difficult to get funding, so it was a fairly easy decision to accept the offer but it's still coming as a shock and I'm excited to get started.
About a dozen people started at Nvidia on the 1st October, congrats to them all. We look forward to hearing about the Nvidia Christmas panto!
Ant Hayward has started at AST SpaceMobile, developing payload software for their satellites.
Other updates
Richard Underwood completed his Kilimanjaro climb last month (evidence below) and raised over £2K for Cancer Research! He wanted to say a big thank you to all those that donated and supported.
If you have any updates that you’d like to be included in the next newsletter then email metaswitchalumni@substack.com or message Alice Walker on Discord! There’s also a #job-and-life-updates channel on Discord if you want a more low-key way of sharing news and keeping up with others.