Saskatchewan Plates

I’ve applied for Google’s full-time conversion process. I’d like to say I have a pretty good shot, but I honestly have absolutely no idea what will happen. It’s one of those things I really don’t want to get my hopes up about. I’ve been told I should know whether or not I got an offer by the end of September. That means, I need to know what the rest of my options are on the exact same time-line. Time to start sending out emails.

So I’ve been trying to compile a list of very cool technology companies to get my foot in at before I hear back from the big G. This list is incomplete and I’m definitely relying on the wisdom of the crowds to fill it out – read: post up suggestions.

The big guns
Microsoft (Particularly the Vancouver office)
Apple
Amazon
Yahoo!

The old jobs
Business Objects
RIM (Only if I can get on this project)

The up-and-comers:
Facebook
Kaleidescape
Pandora
The Feedroom
Any Vancouver Start-up (Now Public comes to mind) – Depending on the job, a Vancouver company could probably have me for 5-10k less a year.

What other great tech companies are all over your respective radars?

So interviewing for my final co-op term has come and gone.

You can head over to CS and the City for a full explanation, but I know that we’re a generation of kids who desire instant gratification so I’ll deliver the punch line:

Google

Shuffle Your Feet by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

I’ve been kicking around the though of doing my boss’ job. More specifically, whether I would be capable of doing it. I realized that, I remind myself and my team members on a somewhat regular basis that I’m a co-op student. It’s my scapegoat if I’m slow to complete a task, or when I make a rookie mistake. I wonder if I could step out of that shadow and into a roll with any larger amount of responsibility?

Maybe I should flex the management muscle as a co-op while I still have the chance to walk away unscathed.

Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie

3 days down, 100+ to go. Of course it’s way too early in the term to begin speculating (or counting days), but screw it, I’m going to anyway. And I’m currently predicting a let down.

I got into work Tuesday to find that, without even consulting me, they had switched me off my original team and onto another one. My new team deals mainly with the backend portion of the application. It’s benificial because I will finally be doing some C++ on a work term, including some very nifty C++ <-> Java interaction with JNI, but to be honest, that’s just not the direction I see my career headed in.

I could throw a stink and try to get switched back, but I don’t want to be labeled as someone who gives up on these sort of things easily. And I’m good friends with a number of guys on my new team who I definitely do not want to alienate.

So I’m conflicted. I’ve got a sort of wait-and-see attitude as it is. Who knows, I might find it really interesting. The problem is, I have a sneaking suspicion that I won’t. I feel like it’s a bit late in the game to be testing the waters.

It also seems to me that, while all my friends have landed amazing jobs at companies all over the globe, the last thing I should be worrying about is if I made the right choice.

After looking into the terms of my co-op agreement and the university’s class schedule, I’ve found out that I finish work on April the 28th (Death Cab and Franz play in Vancouver that night, should I go?) and I start school the very next Monday on May 1st. That means I will be hopping a plane directly to waterloo (via toronto) on the 29th. Thus there will not be a typical tri-annual stop in Saskatoon for a week and a half of acting badly. This has little to no effect on the Waterloo people other than the fact that you must help make up for my missing party week.

My team lead at work has started to drop hints about having me come back for the next work term. This is good in that, if I accept, I’ll have a little bit of leverage to negotiate a week or two buffer zone in August before I start to hang out in Saskatoon. This is also good because I really like Vancouver and the company I’m with.

It’s not so good because after this, I only have two terms left or two more opportunities to explore the job market with little or no consequence. And although I had said last term that I was looking for a smaller startup, I think this next co-op cycle will have me looking to land a job at the big names in software development: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Sun, etc. Someone I can tell people I worked for without having to explain to them what they do. So if I decide to go hunting again this spring, I have a target in mind, albeit an elusive one.

Then for my last term, who knows. Go back to a company I’ve been with (like say the one I’m with right now), try to land a big name company again if I failed this spring, or possible find some smaller company that will let me tele-commute in exchange for a lower pay scale. Then I can finally chill for the last summer before I graduate. That would be nice.

Slow This Bird Down by Boards of Canada

There’s this girl I see every day when I walk to school. Each time I pass by, we look up and exchange glances. Sometimes I think that I should add a nod or a smile, something to indicate that I recognize her, but then I catch myself. Realize that it’s pointless. I’m just one of a hundred different guys that walk through her gas station.

There have been enough events involving women in the last four months (especially recently) to get me questioning where my I stand in terms of goals and such. This whole confidence thing that I, for the most part, like to think I have down, really falls all to shit when I try to muster and apply it to the fairer sex. It’s like highschool all over again, except that this time, I’m not chasing air. It seems like there is the opportunity for a tangable relationship around every corner. And yet, everytime I have to make a choice about it, I just take the safe and secure road out. I mean, lets be fair. So those of you who met me post-secondary know, I chased a lot of women in highschool, usually against my good guy friends (justified) recommendations and just ended up getting hurt as they predicted. I think to some extent I’m just trying to avoid those more painful times, but maybe in some sadistic way, I also enjoy the fruitless chase. Either way, I’m not sure how to remedy it. Maybe I just need to talk it out. Anyone know a good shrink?

What the hell am I talking about? I’m only 20! I don’t need a damn shrink!

And I’ll be 21 in less than a month. Weird.

I’ve really been enjoying the new Boards of Canada album. When I think about it, “Music Has The Right to Children” was probably the last CD I bought and that was a full year ago. The new album “The Campfire Headphase” manages to keep enough off the hinterland who’s who sound but still come up with a set of tracks that doesn’t sound like any of there (4?) other albums. The only problem is that the new album plus my recently received “Design Patterns” is an instant formula for sleep. Mimma and Lisa tried to deliver a pie today, but this dangerous combination managed to put me out to the point that they successfully walked into my room undeteceted. I’ll have to make sure to avoid it on my upcoming road trip.

Speaking of which, the friggen’ check engine light came on on the matrix the other day. Out of all the times in the world to have issues. I can’t even get it in until next Monday. I just hope it’s nothing serious. The plan is to hit the road as soon as I finish writing my final exam on the 20th. Weather cooperating should put us up near the Sault by the end of the day. Another full day of driving on the 21st will probably get us close to the canadian border, probably Fargo. Of course, weather permitting. I ask that you guys dash your dreams of a white Christmas at least until you get word that I’ve made it home successfully.

Also, I’ve had it posted on Radio one for a while now, but so you know, Jarrett and I placed 5th out of 44 entries in that A.I. Battle a month or so ago. That was a good enough placement to make us recipients of two unwearably small “Let’s Get Nerdy” Microsoft t-shrits, a copy of visual studio student edition and a copy of map point 2004. Not to shabby if I do say so myself.

Other than picking up our winnings, today was my last day of classes and I handed in my last two assignments. There was also a Sun developer seminar, but it was unremarkable for the most part. My first exam (Algorithms and Datastructures) is Thursday and tomorrow I’m going to dig in and start studying like a mad man. Two weeks tomorrow, I’ll be writing my last one (AMATH – in which I cannot seem to do wrong) and heading out.

So all that leaves is my inactivity disclaimer (to be honest, I’ve been pounding out some content the last few days havent’ I?). Don’t worry, you won’t be missing anything, exam times don’t exactly lend them selves to be fun times, plus the majority of you are probably writing exams at the same time. Even then, I’m going to miss the place.

I was looking at my flickr pictures as I was contemplating this post. The last two (and a third) years, have been pretty kind to me. It’s going to be tough without these guys, Kenshi going to Japan, Alex M going to Mexico and Jarrett going to Germany. And Alex and Jarrett are both going long enough to become offstream with us. And myself heading to Vancouver. Though there’s talk of visitors for me. Gee says he’s coming. Alex P will be in Edmonton and says he’s coming. Shahnaz talks of coming (but she’s just a tease). Jayme (who may or may not be a reader again) is also excited to have me down there and Tim is only an hour or so south. I also landed the job with the real cutting edge web dev team I wanted. All in all it looks to be a pretty solid work term. It’ll just be nice to get back here and spend the summer swimming at the quarry and drinking beer on my roof.

Good effort on the recap Sean? I think so. Do me a favour, to those of you co-oping along with me, raise your glasses, we’re half way done this crazy thing (plus or minus finals).

Pretty much exactly what I had hoped for? I think so,
sean

After much deliberation, I have decided to take the offer from Business Objects. In the end, Business Objects was able to move me to a team more in line with my career goals (aka web dev) and my parents prefered Vancouver. This will allow me to drop off the car at home during the Christmas holidays and probably switch the Toyota for the Honda when I come back to Waterloo in the summer.

I hope that the guys at iUpload aren’t resentful, I’ll definitely be applying there next term. Doing this sort of web development on a day to day basis would be awesome to say the least.

Anyway, the job is downtown Vancouver. If anyone has any recommendations on bars or restaurants, or needs a roommate. Let me know.

I’m half way done my co-op program now. Three work terms behind me and three ahead. I guess it makes sense that my problem of no offers has been replaced with a new problem of too many offers. Let me break down the offers for your consideration:

• iUpload – Job consists of web development for a relatively small company that makes corporate blogging software. I would be working in Burlington.
• Business Objects – Job is UI development in Java for a relatively large company that makes business intelligence software. I would be working in Vancouver.

Read the rest of this entry »

Two interviews have come and gone, iUpload and Business Objects. Both went well. I got two more coming up on Tuesday, Convedia and Quarry Communications. Convedia and Business Objects are both Vancouver based, which would be nifty. iUpload is in Burlington and Quarry is here in Waterloo. I also got no from Kaleidescape which sucks, but there’s not a lot I can do. Brad got it instead. I still have about 8 companies to hear from, including Apple. A few of them are in California, a few in Waterloo and one more in Vancouver. Hopefully by the end of next week, I’ll know where I stand in terms of possibilities, and where I’m headed another week or two after.

I’m preping for the co-op thing. This is the best turn out I’ve ever seen. There are almost 400 different positions open, all of which close on Sunday, when another batch opens. Even Apple’s got an official posting! I assume this is what it was like before the bubble burst.

Even though I’ll apply to the big guys (Google, Amazon, Microsoft), I’ve already found the company I want to work for. A small company in Waterloo that makes some really nifty gadgets. I talked to both the guys in charge of interviewing today. I hope I got my foot in the door, because to be honest, I don’t really want to waste my work term. I really want to work for a little company and get worked into the ground. No more of this 9-5 crap.

Of course, all my energy is going towards trying to guarentee I at least get an interview, so I don’t have a lot of time to actually do my assignments. It will probably cme back and bite me in the ass, but I know it’ll be worth it. I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about a prospective job.

Of course, I could be getting excited about nothing, which has been known to happen, but I’m hoping the dice come up Sean.

Wish me luck.