Right. Kudos to Microsoft for picking up a good member of the community. I sincerely hope he'll be able to help. Whatever platform you use, spam and trojans diminish everyone's experience.

Still, even if Paul Laudanski's expertise is top-notch, he was but one piece of the larger community. This isn't quite like a government where someone leaves to work elsewhere. In those cases, a system takes over, pushes a person into the vacated position, and business continues. In this case, the community is now closed, the members scattered.

I sincerely don't want to paint all this as MS business-as-usual. Heck, Paul wasn't forced to except the position. Still, the result is awfully close to embrace, extend, extinguish. No, MS doesn't want more trojans or spam, but by Paul leaving, an entire community is gone.

Obviously, the internal cynic has prevailed here. Perhaps Paul will be instrumental is helping to create a security structure that benefits all O/S for many years to come. I sure hope so.

It's not completely unrealistic.

(( tl;dr - Find a one-man show who needs help with current workload and is willing to contract out. ))

Let me tell you my quick story: I've been in IT most of my professional life, having made a lateral move from printing (prepress) into working for a hard/software developer in the field. A few years later, after running my own show for about five years, I worked for a helpdesk.

I didn't like working at this helpdesk, but I kept chalking up my displeasure to personal concerns. In the end, I was trying to fit into a management role and I hated management. My anxiety and depression (as I am inclined to) kept building to a point where I literally walked out one day with a serious bent toward harming myself.

Despite my situation, I needed work. I set out to find work in which I could set my own schedule. Now, I _hoped_ for part-time work, but was willing to do full-time if that's all that was available.

The first thing I did is leverage _all_ my contacts. I interviewed with companies with which I already had worked with or employed people I knew. When they asked me about availability, I told them "I would prefer part time, but we can talk about full time."

One contact was a guy who was in the same situation I was during my business' run. I had loads of work, but didn't know how hire or manage people. I never really solved that issue, but he was committed to trying. I started working for him part-time. Today, I work 4 days a week at about 4-6 billable hours a day. The rate is generous.

Now, initially, the hours available were pretty low. (Considering my mental state, I was happy to have a lot of time out.) What's key, however, is that as I learned his customer base and their needs, the customers realized that my colleague's business was simply more available. So, the customers started making more requests and, now, the company has the ability to serve the requests. My hours increased and I can do more if I want.

So, like any other search, you have to network. You have to state what you want, but be willing to compromise. Be nice. Be humble. Be enthusiastic.