Apple hires RJ Pittman, former Google director of product management

Wed, Mar 17, 2010

News

With the Apple v. Google rivalry heating up with each passing month, it seems that the “gentlemanly agreement” between the two companies not to poach each others employees is coming to an end. Earlier this week,RJ Pittman, a director of Product Management at Google, announced via Twitter that he was leaving the search giant to join Apple. “My last day at Google. Incredible experience. Amazing people. Moved mountains. Next chapter. Hello Apple.”

The tweet has since been removed, but TechCrunch managed to get a snapshot of it via the magic of technology.

TC also managed to get a copy of an email Pittman sent to friends and family detailing his recent job transition:

Yesterday was my last day directing traffic at Google. It has been an incredible ride, and an amazing experience. Google is one of the most fascinating companies to work for. Working at Google scale is pretty incredible and the people are one of a kind, to say the least. It’s been an amazing 3 years of my career. It was very hard to say goodbye to all the people I call family at the Googleplex around the world. The company afforded me the opportunity to be ‘me’ inside the walls of a 20,000 person company that generates $20B in revenue. For that, I will always be grateful. I learned so much about the world, our users, and most of all…me. I left with a very heavy heart yesterday. Leaving was much harder that I expected. Admittedly, I’m feeling a bit useless today, my first day as a Xoogler. But I’m hoping this feeling will wear off soon. (Noogler is our term for a newly hired Googler, and Xooglers are the band of ex-Google alumni)

I was sprung from Google by a little company down the road that you might have heard of called Apple. Some might say I owe most of my career in technology to a little start up company that created the computer that I first learned to program, the Apple II, in 1980. By 1984, my life would be changed forever with the introduction of the most revolutionary creation of the decade, the Macintosh. A year later I would find myself spending more time with my first Mac than any other living being for my foreseeable teenage future. I’ve owned almost one of every Apple product released since then, and still own my first Mac that started it all some 25 years ago. In a strange but not so strange way, this is a sort of homecoming for me, despite never having worked for Apple. Life works in curious ways, and I love it when every so often it comes full circle. I couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead. They’ve created a pretty neat role for me, which I will be able to talk about soon after I’ve started working there.

You can check out Pittman’s non-updated Linkedin profile over here.

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