Not even two months after being laid off, Duane Forrester has announced he’s back at his old position with Bing as the senior project manager in charge of webmaster outreach.
Restructuring within Microsoft at the end of October this year led to several top Bing positions being eliminated, including Forrester’s. Judging by the outpouring of support for Forrester there was no doubt he’d land a new job before long, but who could have predicted he’d get his exact same job back in under two months’ time.
Following the lay off, Forrester says he considered positions with companies like GoDaddy, eBay, Nike, Amazon, and was even tweeted a job offer by the TSA. However, he was not content to take just any job:
“Moving your career forward is a difficult task. Sure, you can “take a job” but will it bring satisfaction? And what are you measuring satisfaction against? If you have no income, any job offering a paycheck will appear satisfying on some level, and may be what’s needed at the moment. But have you identified what will make you truly happy?”
Forrester expresses that what would make him most happy is being able to continue doing more of what he was already doing with Bing, and now it appears he will get to do exactly that.
In addition to resuming his responsibilities of posting on Bing’s Webmaster Tools blog, Forrester will continue to work with the webmaster team on improving tools and services, while taking on additional responsibilities of working with Bing’s API:
“I’m also going to be spending time working with folks on the API side of the house, seeking ways to grow engagement with our data-level opportunities for businesses. It’s no secret that the data-layer will continue to be one of the most important aspects of search moving forward. The trick is helping businesses understand how to access it and leverage it for their own success.”
We’re certainly pleased that Forrester is back doing what he loves, and look forward to seeing what he brings to the table in 2015.
