Lots of things have happened since I last posted en entry. I went to Vancouver again and to New York once more. The person from Microsoft I interviewed with contacted me (much to my surprise) to tell me he had been impressed by my performance (!?) and wanted to cut the red tape and have me work for Microsoft should I feel that Amazon isn't the right place for me. Also, things progressed on the Google front and after two phone screens, I got flown to an on-site interview with the company of my dreams.
I arrived in San Jose on Friday night. Even though I saw buildings bearing the logos of Sun, Oracle, Yahoo and such, it was hard to fully realize that I was in the middle of it all - the heart of the technological empire. That night, I slept at Ricky's place, on the carpet.
The next day, I visited San Francisco with Ricky and Do-Yong, a Korean intern at Google. On the 75-minute train ride from Mountain View to San Francisco, I learned that Do-Yong got flown-in by Google; given 5000$ of relocation money and paid one month of rent. All this for a mere three-month undergrad internship!
It was nice to walk the streets of San Francisco again. However, this time around, I was not there as a tourist but as a prospective resident. The perspective is immensely different. This time around, I noticed more the high number of junkies and bums; the oddness of the transit system and the relative "desertedness" of the city. Of course, the place is light-years beyond Seattle, but it is no New York and the quality of life over there doesn't compare to that of the average Canadian city. I'm starting to realize just how much the American Dream is just a sham.
On Sunday, I visited Google's headquarters with Ricky. There really is a lot of food free for the grabbing over there. And good stuff too! Many cafeterias and many kitchens stocked with lots of ingredients for people who prefer to cook themselves. Lots of snacks. Lots of free laundromats; a gym; a piano; electric scooters; electric cars (that you can take to run errands at the other end of town), ... It's pretty cool. Being there, we made sure to benefit from the free dinner. I had salmon with rice and salad.
The place looks almost too good to be true. Many people were there even though it was a Sunday probably because it feels nicer to be there than alone in a plain apartment cooking for themselves. I was a bit nervous, though. I was thinking about all the changes moving yet again would mean. Also, Mountain View isn't a great urban center. It's just plain Californian Suburbia. If I get a job with Google, I'll try to be assigned to a position in NYC. That would be the dream job in the dream city. I couldn't ask for more than that.
On Monday, I had my interview session. I interviewed with four people and had lunch with a fifth. For three of the four interviews, I gave a performance of a similar caliber to that of my phone screens. For the fourth, I think I fared a bit better. All in all, I think I did well and I have the feeling I will get an offer from Google.
So, my life keeps on changing. I can't wait to know where I will be in two months!
2007-09-26
Vancouver
I just spent the week-end in Vancouver.
Vancouver is a little gem just waiting to be discovered. At about just 2.2 million people in its metro area, you'd think Vancouver would be a forest with a few people shacking up here and there, totally outnumbered by moose. Not so. For it's size, that city packs quite an urban punch.
The downtown core is densely populated and full of high-rise condo towers. The city has a light-rail system in place along with buses and commuter boats. The population is as cosmopolitan as it gets. People actually have a sense of fashion here, contrarily to what I had been told.
You can actually go to the bookstore at 21:40 or get dinner past midnight. Little, basic stuff like this which characterizes decent cities is not something I get at the moment in Seattle.
Being in Vancouver reminded me of what a city should be: dynamic and active. That's when I fully realized how unhappy I am in Seattle. That's when I took my decision to leave Seattle.
Then, I was faced with a difficult decision: what to do next? Should I apply for jobs in cool US cities like NYC and San Fran? Should I apply for jobs in nice cities in Canada like Vancouver and Toronto? Should I go back to Montreal? Should I apply for jobs on other continents? Should I just fuck it all and go around the world?
Sylvia possibly will have a job offer in the Seattle area because she met me. I couldn't have lived with myself if she had come to Seattle for me (even partly) and I had left right after. I also couldn't let Sylvia make her career and life decisions based on me as I'm at such an unpredictable juncture in my life right now that all bets are off as to where I'll end up in the next few months. So, we broke up. It was hard, but it's surely the wisest thing to do. Odds are we would have ended up being a long-distance couple otherwise and neither of us wanted that.
The morning after the break-up, I had an interview with Microsoft that was supposed to last the whole day. Microsoft are the ones who paid for my trip to Vancouver as this is where the interview was taking place. They were interviewing a bunch of Canadians for jobs in Seattle.
Maybe my decision to leave Seattle, the break-up and all its implications made me have a lousy night of sleep, but I had difficulties getting up (the truth is, I always do) and I arrived 5 minutes late for the interview. It got noticed and I got a comment on that. How can people actually be punctual at 8 in the morning anyway? At any rate, the interview process started. I was to meet four technical people and an HR person.
The first person I talked to is a software design engineer director. There was some chit-chat before the technical questions were thrown in. That chit-chat somehow led me to compare the quantity of crackheads in Vancouver versus that of Seattle; the fact that I now work for Amazon and my current salary there. Then, he asked me how I would proceed to read variable-length application messages from a TCP socket. I answered not so badly, but really not that greatly either. The question was not difficult, I just wasn't "in it" at that point. He also asked me what kind of processor instructions I could use to implement multi-processor memory access synchronization. I got to admit that this question was a bit heavy for me at 8:30 in the morning.
So, when came the time to see the second interviewer, she told me some jive about how Microsoft has a "hands off" policy towards new Amazon employees and that since I've been working for Amazon for less than six months, they can't hire me. I think they just didn't want to bother with me given the combination of my salary and my lackluster performance with the first interviewer. I was free to go to back to bed.
Vancouver is a little gem just waiting to be discovered. At about just 2.2 million people in its metro area, you'd think Vancouver would be a forest with a few people shacking up here and there, totally outnumbered by moose. Not so. For it's size, that city packs quite an urban punch.
The downtown core is densely populated and full of high-rise condo towers. The city has a light-rail system in place along with buses and commuter boats. The population is as cosmopolitan as it gets. People actually have a sense of fashion here, contrarily to what I had been told.
You can actually go to the bookstore at 21:40 or get dinner past midnight. Little, basic stuff like this which characterizes decent cities is not something I get at the moment in Seattle.
Being in Vancouver reminded me of what a city should be: dynamic and active. That's when I fully realized how unhappy I am in Seattle. That's when I took my decision to leave Seattle.
Then, I was faced with a difficult decision: what to do next? Should I apply for jobs in cool US cities like NYC and San Fran? Should I apply for jobs in nice cities in Canada like Vancouver and Toronto? Should I go back to Montreal? Should I apply for jobs on other continents? Should I just fuck it all and go around the world?
Sylvia possibly will have a job offer in the Seattle area because she met me. I couldn't have lived with myself if she had come to Seattle for me (even partly) and I had left right after. I also couldn't let Sylvia make her career and life decisions based on me as I'm at such an unpredictable juncture in my life right now that all bets are off as to where I'll end up in the next few months. So, we broke up. It was hard, but it's surely the wisest thing to do. Odds are we would have ended up being a long-distance couple otherwise and neither of us wanted that.
The morning after the break-up, I had an interview with Microsoft that was supposed to last the whole day. Microsoft are the ones who paid for my trip to Vancouver as this is where the interview was taking place. They were interviewing a bunch of Canadians for jobs in Seattle.
Maybe my decision to leave Seattle, the break-up and all its implications made me have a lousy night of sleep, but I had difficulties getting up (the truth is, I always do) and I arrived 5 minutes late for the interview. It got noticed and I got a comment on that. How can people actually be punctual at 8 in the morning anyway? At any rate, the interview process started. I was to meet four technical people and an HR person.
The first person I talked to is a software design engineer director. There was some chit-chat before the technical questions were thrown in. That chit-chat somehow led me to compare the quantity of crackheads in Vancouver versus that of Seattle; the fact that I now work for Amazon and my current salary there. Then, he asked me how I would proceed to read variable-length application messages from a TCP socket. I answered not so badly, but really not that greatly either. The question was not difficult, I just wasn't "in it" at that point. He also asked me what kind of processor instructions I could use to implement multi-processor memory access synchronization. I got to admit that this question was a bit heavy for me at 8:30 in the morning.
So, when came the time to see the second interviewer, she told me some jive about how Microsoft has a "hands off" policy towards new Amazon employees and that since I've been working for Amazon for less than six months, they can't hire me. I think they just didn't want to bother with me given the combination of my salary and my lackluster performance with the first interviewer. I was free to go to back to bed.
2007-09-15
Day with Xumin
Today, Xumin, a girl who used to work two cubicles from me at Motorola in Montreal, came to see me. She lives in the greater Seattle area.
We had brunch together. We talked about the experience of moving to a different city. Although she acknowledges the problems Seattle has, she says it's the city she's enjoyed living in the most so far because it's in the middle of nice hiking spots. Too bad for me I'm not as much of a hiking enthusiast as she is.
She showed me a spot where you can get a great view of Seattle. She also brought me to the Ballard locks, where you can see a bunch of salmon fraying their way back upstream to lay eggs where they were born. It's fun to see all the salmon jump upstream (and up specially made "stairs") . You can watch them from the top of the locks and also from windows next to the "stairs" located in an underground center that's got information about salmon. We also saw a sea lion.
We drove a bit around a few neighborhoods. Then, I went for pizza and went back home.
We had brunch together. We talked about the experience of moving to a different city. Although she acknowledges the problems Seattle has, she says it's the city she's enjoyed living in the most so far because it's in the middle of nice hiking spots. Too bad for me I'm not as much of a hiking enthusiast as she is.
She showed me a spot where you can get a great view of Seattle. She also brought me to the Ballard locks, where you can see a bunch of salmon fraying their way back upstream to lay eggs where they were born. It's fun to see all the salmon jump upstream (and up specially made "stairs") . You can watch them from the top of the locks and also from windows next to the "stairs" located in an underground center that's got information about salmon. We also saw a sea lion.
We drove a bit around a few neighborhoods. Then, I went for pizza and went back home.
2007-09-10
Two Weeks as a Seattleite
Ever noticed how "Seattle" rhymes with "shit-hole"?
Seattle truly is the cesspool of USA's North-West. It's filled with mutants, junkies, drunkards, people with strange disabilities and freaks in general.
Even the "normal" people here suck. They tend to have a sense of taste and fashion equal to that of mis-adapted high school teenagers. Never have I seen so many badly-dressed, tattoo-bearing, purple-haired, I-just-took-my-shower-last-week people in my life in one single city.
There is no subway system here. People have to rely on buses. In the downtown core, the buses are free to use. You might think this is a good thing. But, don't forget Seattle is beggar / freak land. Since buses are free, you get to see all the freaks on them. It's hard to see a normal person on the buses.
There is no grocery store in downtown Seattle. Not one. What kind of city is this? In fact, there isn't much in Seattle. It's no wonder everyone who has to work here just ends up having a car and moving to the suburbs.
On a typical Friday night, you'll see less people on the streets of Seattle than you would on a Tuesday night in Montreal. Seattle is dead. Nothing to do here. Most shops and restaurants are closed when you get out from work. So, you have nothing to do but just go home.
Of all the American cities I've been to, this is one of the worst. The only advantage I can see of living in Seattle is that I don't have to pay state taxes on my income.
Oh, in case you're wondering, I got my luggage back.
Seattle truly is the cesspool of USA's North-West. It's filled with mutants, junkies, drunkards, people with strange disabilities and freaks in general.
Even the "normal" people here suck. They tend to have a sense of taste and fashion equal to that of mis-adapted high school teenagers. Never have I seen so many badly-dressed, tattoo-bearing, purple-haired, I-just-took-my-shower-last-week people in my life in one single city.
There is no subway system here. People have to rely on buses. In the downtown core, the buses are free to use. You might think this is a good thing. But, don't forget Seattle is beggar / freak land. Since buses are free, you get to see all the freaks on them. It's hard to see a normal person on the buses.
There is no grocery store in downtown Seattle. Not one. What kind of city is this? In fact, there isn't much in Seattle. It's no wonder everyone who has to work here just ends up having a car and moving to the suburbs.
On a typical Friday night, you'll see less people on the streets of Seattle than you would on a Tuesday night in Montreal. Seattle is dead. Nothing to do here. Most shops and restaurants are closed when you get out from work. So, you have nothing to do but just go home.
Of all the American cities I've been to, this is one of the worst. The only advantage I can see of living in Seattle is that I don't have to pay state taxes on my income.
Oh, in case you're wondering, I got my luggage back.
2007-08-26
Moving to Seattle
Today, I moved to Seattle.
I didn't get much sleep because I was packing late into the night. I made ALL the material possessions I have fit into two checked luggage pieces and two carry-on bags. It's while I was packing that it truly hit me that I was starting a new life in a new country, a new city, a new social and professional environment... I got anxious thinking about it all.
Sylvia took me to the airport. When I went to check my luggage, I was told that even if I paid an extra they were above the maximum weight limit allowed. I had to remove some items from my bags. I was very thankful that Sylvia was there and could bring the stuff back with her. She'll fly over to Seattle in a few days for a job interview, so she'll be able to carry my excess items with her.
Then, I flew over to Vancouver where I would catch my connecting flight to Seattle. Before going through the US customs (which are located in the Vancouver airport), you have to retrieve all your checked luggage. I waited almost two hours for my bags. Only one showed up. Essentially, this means half of ALL my material possessions are gone. This does nothing to alleviate the anxiety. Hopefully, the airline will find my luggage and all will be OK.
I didn't get much sleep because I was packing late into the night. I made ALL the material possessions I have fit into two checked luggage pieces and two carry-on bags. It's while I was packing that it truly hit me that I was starting a new life in a new country, a new city, a new social and professional environment... I got anxious thinking about it all.
Sylvia took me to the airport. When I went to check my luggage, I was told that even if I paid an extra they were above the maximum weight limit allowed. I had to remove some items from my bags. I was very thankful that Sylvia was there and could bring the stuff back with her. She'll fly over to Seattle in a few days for a job interview, so she'll be able to carry my excess items with her.
Then, I flew over to Vancouver where I would catch my connecting flight to Seattle. Before going through the US customs (which are located in the Vancouver airport), you have to retrieve all your checked luggage. I waited almost two hours for my bags. Only one showed up. Essentially, this means half of ALL my material possessions are gone. This does nothing to alleviate the anxiety. Hopefully, the airline will find my luggage and all will be OK.
2007-05-22
My Travel Blog - Rationale
The last time I mass-mailed a bunch of people with one of my trip reports, one of the recipients made me realize that a blog might be more suited to communicate my travel stories.
Indeed, using a blog, I can now simply email a link to an entry instead of a lengthy message. Also, people who did not receive prior trip reports can browse through them if they are in a blog. Moreover, using a blog gives me the flexibility of writing one or more entries during a given trip (when the events are still fresh in my memory) rather than writing only once I'm back home. If some are really interested in knowing the latest twists of my adventures as soon as I write about them, they can subscribe to the blog's feed.
Indeed, using a blog, I can now simply email a link to an entry instead of a lengthy message. Also, people who did not receive prior trip reports can browse through them if they are in a blog. Moreover, using a blog gives me the flexibility of writing one or more entries during a given trip (when the events are still fresh in my memory) rather than writing only once I'm back home. If some are really interested in knowing the latest twists of my adventures as soon as I write about them, they can subscribe to the blog's feed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
