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Posts Tagged ‘career’

My Last Week in Canada

(Miscellaneous) June 26th, 2011

So, if you follow news about social media or Canadian startups, or any number of major news outlets really, you’ve probably heard that PostRank was acquired by Google. Well, I’m along for that ride too and so very soon I will be moving to the Bay Area to work for Google in their Mountain View headquarters, the Googleplex.

I was down there these past two weeks for Noogler orientation — yes, they call new Googlers “Nooglers”. It was quite a rush; there are so many things to learn at once and two weeks isn’t nearly enough to get a grip on it all. It’s pretty much like this. And by most accounts, it will probably continue to be like that for the next couple of months. But it’s also incredibly exciting. As Ilya writes in the PostRank blog post, this is our chance to really push the boundaries of social media analytics and bring our groundbreaking work in the field to millions and millions of users. While I can say nothing of what we’re cooking up at the moment, I assure you (perhaps just as everybody else is) that it will be truly awesome. Read the rest of this entry »

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Another New Chapter

(Miscellaneous) May 7th, 2010

Today is my last day with the Society.

After this, I’m packing my things and moving to Kitchener/Waterloo because I will soon be joining my good friend and perfect pair (programmer), maplealmond at PostRank. I’ve got a place to stay temporarily but will be starting a very serious apartment hunt soon after my first day at the new job.

I’m excited at the opportunity to further expand my current Ruby/Rails skills and learn even more new ones while working on a team that is strongly dedicated to producing top-quality code. This new gig will also give me a chance to apply my skills to problems surrounding social media, a topic I’ve become deeply interested in since I’ve been networking with many social media professionals in Toronto.

That all said, I have liked working on this project with the Society and I will miss the people who I’ve been working with these past 11 (or so) months. Particularly, I will miss my manager, who has been excellent to work with. Together, we have achieved a lot in a relatively short period of time. I will miss many others in Toronto, including my family, my friends, and various social groups that I have met with from time to time. I may find myself unable to attend Rails Pub Nite; I will miss every single one of you!

Last Friday Karaoke shall continue, but there will be a special session this month. I’ll be at Anime North on the last weekend of May so I’ve decided that Last Friday Karaoke will be on the second-last weekend of May instead. It turns out that will be the weekend just after my birthday, so Last Friday Karaoke will become Second-Last Friday (or Saturday?) Karaoke, Birthday Edition.  ;)

The Japanese Learner continues to pod-fade, even after PodCamp TO 2010 got me so fired up to do it again. Hopefully I can find some people interested in recording the show with me in Kitchener/Waterloo. With commuting to/from work eating up way less of the hours in my week, I can squeeze in some more Japanese study and podcast work.

I have also been working on a new secret pet project. Hints: it involves Rails 3, GitHub, and has prompted some contributions to Wynn Netherland‘s octopussy, a Ruby wrapper around version 2 of the GitHub API.

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: where one adventure ends, another begins.

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Looking Forward to 2010

(Miscellaneous) December 31st, 2009

2009 has been a year of turbulent change for me.

Near the beginning of the year, I decided that I needed to switch gears in my career. I made a very dedicated push towards becoming a full-time Ruby developer, leaving my comfortable position as a J2EE web content management and identity management specialist. My leisure time was consumed with sharpening my Ruby skills and learning new technologies. I made Rails Pub Nite a monthly ritual and networked like crazy on just about every networking site I could. I followed a number of job site feeds and sent out many cover letters and resumes.

Finally, my break came from a very unlikely source: Facebook. I posted to a Ruby on Rails group on Facebook to advertise my skills and experience and offer my services. This was seen by the Systems Manager at the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, who asked me to send her my resume. I did so gladly and not too long after that I was asked in for an interview.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Back from Ruby Job Fair

(Miscellaneous) June 9th, 2009

In short, Ruby Job Fair was awesome!

The turnout from the Toronto Ruby community was excellent and I made and strengthened a lot of professional connections.  I even got some compliments on my display and print-outs!  Just in case you missed them, I’ll be posting them here soon.

It did feel like there were more developers than people looking to hire developers, but this was just the first of what I’m sure will be many such events.  In any case, I did hand out a lot of my brand new business cards and a few of my resumes.

I can’t wait for FutureRuby!

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Ruby Job Fair

(Programming) June 6th, 2009

Ruby Job Fair will be held today from 11am to 6pm at the Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto.  At this job fair, Rubyists looking for work will be presenting themselves and their skills without computers or smartphones.  We’ve been asked to leave our MacBooks at home.  Instead, our presentations will be made in old-school Science Fair style.

It’s a unique premise for an event that I’m pretty sure only Pete Forde’s imagination could cook up and I’m proud to announce that I’ll be taking part in it.  I will have a posterboard and two binders showcasing my skills and previous work and I’ll also have an extra special surprise.  What’s the surprise?  Stop by and see!  =)

Hope to see you at the Job Fair!

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