Considering that laws prevent kids from working much, and that many people try to retire by age 65, it's a big deal when a person spends 10 years with a company.  Unfortunately for Yahoo, that means it's also a big deal that Madhu Yarlagadda, a vice president of engineering, is leaving for Skype after more than 11 years.

Yarlagadda got his start at Yahoo when the company acquired MyQuest (which he founded) in 1999.  Since then, he's worked on different global homepages, Yahoo Communities, Yahoo Messenger, and Yahoo Mobile, among other things.  His latest duties covered "Integrated Customer Experiences."

Starting sometime this month, he'll begin to handle "global oversight of Skype's engineering and development initiatives," however.

Yarlagadda explained the move by saying in a statement, "I am excited to be joining Skype at this critical stage in the company's evolution.  It will be a real privilege to build on the many core strengths of Skype's global portfolio as the company continues to deliver groundbreaking customer experiences on new platforms and devices."

Which could be construed as a slight directed at Yahoo (or not) depending on one's mood.

Anyway, on a somewhat related note, Kara Swisher observed earlier today that Joanne Bradford, former SVP of U.S. Revenue and Market Development at Yahoo, still hasn't been replaced, even though she left the company almost four months ago.