HackDays Vancouver (HackVan)

HackVan was last weekend, on Friday the 23rd of March and Saturday the 24th of March 2012, and it was awesome! I had a great time, took first steps into mobile development & was amazed by what the Vancouver tech community can accomplish in few hours!

HackDays is an event that takes place across several cities in Canada. Last weekend it was here in Vancouver and located at A Thinking Ape. The event began on Friday night by having a mixer in Electric Owl where participants got to know each other and form teams. On Saturday at 9am, 100 developers gathered to begin the coding day! Eight sponsor APIs (Yellow Pages, FreshBooks, TinEye/Idée, iQmetrix XQ, HootSuite, Shopify, Twilio & PhoneGap) had representatives there. The rule was to implement something using at least one of the sponsor APIs in few hours and present it to the other teams and the judges for a chance to win prizes.

It was such a nice event and I would recommend everyone to check it out. Special thanks for all the organizers and I am looking forward to next year's event!!

Finally done searching!

After more than 7 months of extensive search, I am finally done!! :D

"Interviewing & Dating for the Techie : Playing the game" by Jeremy Hutchings

I would like to thank Jeremy Hutchings for writing this nice post: Interviewing & Dating for the Techie : Playing the game! At this moment, I am currently going through interviews, from the interviewee's side. I normally evaluate the outcome of my interviews and I sometimes really think that employers don't consider the points Jeremy has written at all anymore! As I wish what he is saying would be the way to go, I am so pleased to know that these concepts still exist and are believed in by someone other than myself and the other interviewees! So again, thank you Jeremy! 

Here are some extracts from his post that are really highlighting the points I am talking about:


> "So what if they don't have the specific skills now, if they are the right people they will learn them." 


> "There is a balance between skills in the work place, and more importantly in teams. Personally I rate the ability to communicate (ideas, questions, learning, etc) and the desire to learn very highly."


> "Interview for future potential, not just current limits. If you don’t, you are limiting both of you from the outset. You will loose the good people, as they will get frustrated. So think about their future as well as the organisations when talking."


> "If a person can’t get excited about a topic that is core and relevant to the company then it’s a warning flag. Even if they can’t explain the exact details there and then, given passion they’ll put in the hours to learn. It’s the mindset it’s the passion, if they don’t have it move on."


> "I look for the understanding of logic itself, and how it is applied and used in real world contexts. A programming language (mostly) is just a tool, solving the riddle is the prize."


> "I do it in PHP, you do it in ASP; meh, we both go to the bar !"


> "I appreciate the power that comes from understanding how everything works down to the CPU and assembler level, as I studied it throughout my life since I was 9, and at university for years. Though I don’t expect every developer to know all of it, all of the time."


> "We (developers) tend to get rather good at what we do in the moment, I might not know Erlang now, though give me a challenge and some time.  It’s the ability to learn and adapt to get a problem solved, that I look for."


Quoted text written by:  Jeremy Hutchings

It would be nice to know your opinion about those points!

"Vancouver, the heaven of living and hell of job market."

"Vancouver, the heaven of living and hell of job market."
By Shandong Han.

#Vancouver #VancouverJobs

Sadly, I agree.

This was written by a friend on LinkedIn, in a message for me, wishing me luck in my job search in Vancouver! 

You shouldn't stop the job hunt during the Holidays!

According to an article I just read, if you are seeking a job, you shouldn't stop the job hunt during the Holidays!! -> Looking For Work? Keep It Up Through the Holidays http://on.wsj.com/u5xu1