Since it’s taken many by surprise, I thought I’d post a note on here to explain why I’m leaving Countrywide at the end of January to go and work for Reapit. It’s a huge change for me as I’ve worked at Countrywide for almost 9 years including the years spent in Kent.
For those who don’t work in the estate agency business, Reapit (http://www.reapit.com) will be an unfamiliar name. They’re a software company who write products for both estate agency sales and lettings and are currently the second largest company in that market. I’ve been working with two of their products for the last 5 or 6 years while at Countrywide and also have several years experience using their website management offering, ReapitWeb.
Their head office is in London but we – my previous boss Gary Barker (who left to join Reapit about 6 months ago) and I – will be opening an office in Milton Keynes which will make my daily commute a little over 20 minutes.
In many ways I’ll be doing a similar job to that which I’ve been doing for the last few years, the difference being I’ll be working for new and existing Reapit customers and providing the service I’ve always wanted to provide at Countrywide but have rarely had the time or resources to do so.
It also means I will be able to re- widen my job to cover all the things I enjoy doing whether that means rolling out software, writing custom screens, creating websites or helping solve technical issues.
Some would say I’m a jack-of-all-trades but, borrowing someone else’s medical analogy, I prefer to describe myself as a GP (General Practitioner) and not a Specialist. I thrive on variety, particularly at work, and progressively narrowing my horizons was frustrating me.
I’ve loved working at Countrywide and am leaving on very good terms, but it’s time for me to move on. I’m looking forward to new challenges while sticking with something I already know I’m very good at and with people I enjoy working with.