Au revoir, Londres (for 3 months)

I have been offered, and I have accepted, a contract position working for a young British startup called upmysport, based in the mountain town of Chamonix, in South-eastern France near the border with Switzerland.

I’ll be living in Chamonix for three months, working alongside an old colleague from Huddle and one of the other co-founders, after which I’ll return to London and continue what I’v been doing since I started this foray into independence.

Upmysport, for those who do not know, is a marketplace for sports instructors (including snowsports) whose goal is to inspire more people to reach their potential by making it easier to find and book the right instructor, course or class.

Back in November 2013 when I began as an Independent Software Developer I did not know quite what I would be doing over the following few months, but I did not expect I would spend much time in the Alps. It was not part of my plan, but then again, not many things were.

Luckily, I will be armed with a MacBook, a snowboard, and plenty of body armour, and hopefully there will be more to learn during my stay than just a lot of new things about mobile app development. I am massively excited, but also massively terrified. Despite being a life-long traveller to various countries and born ex-pat, the prospect of working abroad is a little bit new to me.

Nevertheless, I’m really looking forward to it. There’s a great team to work with, and a great problem to help solve. I have no doubt that the next three months are going to be a hoot, full of challenges, surprises and lots of fun.

If anybody has any tips about working abroad, or lives in Chamonix and fancies a beer when I arrive, that’d be great :)

Common French phrases which are useful for programmers are also welcome.

Heckle me on Twitter @basicallydan.