The End of an Interesting Week

These past 10 days between exams and PEY have been quite interesting. I have to admit though, the first 3 were recovery days where I essentially just lounged around. Since then, I've been out and about running errands, shopping, volunteering and exercising.

Speaking of being out and about, I have an update on Science Rendezvous. Unlike how I would have imagined it, the day was very cold and wet. Luckily, the sun came out just in time for us to start our leg of "The Amazing Science Chase". Unfortunately it was not as amazing as the name suggests. The hardest riddle was essentially *blah blah blah "Hart" *blah blah blah. This clearly represented Hart House. Similarly, we were to make an electromagnet to pick up "radioactive material", but instead, everyone chose the more simple and obvious approach of attaching duct tape to the end of a stick and jabbing at it. Though the competition wasn't "amazing" (har har har), it gave me the perfect opportunity to do an activity with my friends before we went off to PEY. Our team, Team Bahen, ended up 2nd.

On a different note, Tuesday and Wednesday were days that I volunteered at Gr8 Designs for Gr8 Girls at the St. George Campus. It was a great program that introduced the grade 8 girls to some of the many sides of computer science and hopefully cleared up some stereotypes (*cough glasses wearing nerds hacking out of a basement *cough). The first exercise that they did was to create a madlib. Using Python, they wrote stories and replaced words with input from the user. It was a great success regardless of how many "breakup letters" there ended up being. The second programming activity involved something called Scratch. Using it, they were able to simulate actions of sprites. Also, they were introduced to basic loops and conditional statements through a drag and drop system. To top off the day, the girls were taken around the Bahen Center and shown the Dynamic Graphics Project lab. Special mention should be given to the group leaders (female students from the University of Toronto's Computer Science Department). Also, Michelle Craig should be acknowledged for her work in preparing this event and supervising it. This is a great program and I recommend schools enroll next year's grade 8 girls in it.

As a final note, tomorrow will be my first day of work at Red Hat. Hopefully this will be the start of something great.

To The End And To A New Beginning

After finishing my exams for this year, I am now preparing for my transition from being a student to being a full time employee for the next 16 months. I have 10 days of free time before my PEY starts, and hopefully I can enjoy them with my friends before we separate into our respective companies.

As well, there is time to partake in some activities which I did not have time for due to exams. On Saturday, I will be participating in "The Amazing Science Chase" held at Science Rendezvous. It is sort of a mystery and problem solving scavenger hunt which is nicely put together as a team competition. It really reminds me of the Envirothon competitions that I participated in during high school. My wonderful team is composed of myself, Veronica Wong, Stephen Khuu, and Calvin Wong. Hopefully we can take home first prize!

PEY at Red Hat

Last week Red Hat invited me to interview for a software developer position. They sent me an offer which I accepted after a few days of consideration. Today, I officially signed my acceptance letter and am Red Hat bound (starting May 15). Wednesday consisted of a tour of their facility in Toronto and allowed me to meet some of the other employees. The conversation and the overall work environment was quite enjoyable. I am looking forward to starting work and am glad that someone else that I know will also be working there, Calvin Wong. For now, I have only my finals to worry about.

PEY Part 2 & Finals

I've been quite busy over the last month with school work so I haven't posted anything for a while. Here is an update on my PEY status.

After getting the offer at IBM, I thought about it very carefully. Unfortunately, the job description given to me during the interview was not at all what I thought it would be. After a week of thinking, I decided to decline the offer. Declining offers may seem like I am being picky, but a 16 month commitment is a big deal. I want to make sure that I am happy with my decision.

With the decline of that offer, I decided to go into round two of PEY. Today I finished a phone interview with The Canadian Institute for Health Information. The position is to develop reusable tools to improve health systems. The interview went well, and I will get a response sometime next week.

On a similar note, I have 2 interviews tomorrow; one with Red Hat, and another with IBM. Hopefully they go well. Wish me luck :)

Also, what is just as fun is the fact that tomorrow is the last day of classes. So everyone knows what that means...last minute assignments and FINALS!

PEY Update

I'm just going to update everyone on my current PEY status. I recently declined the offer from Environment Canada. After careful thinking and looking over the details sent to me, I realized that the job didn't suit me as well as I initially thought it did. However, I wish Environment Canada and the student who fills that position all the best.

Regarding the interview with Mindblossom, I thought it went very well. After talking with the staff, I was very impressed with the quality of work that they produce. Also, the work environment felt close, but not suffocating. Unfortunately, I was not extended an offer. On the other hand, one of my friends, Veronica Wong, got the position. It is something right down her creative ally. Good luck Veronica!

On Tuesday, I was interviewed by IBM for the Eclipse/Java Tooling Software Developer position. I didn't think the interview went as well as it could have due to my nervousness. They apparently saw something about me that they liked and extended me an offer. I thank them for that. The description seemed interesting to me considering it involved something that I use very often in my programming, Eclipse. Looks like I have a lot of thinking to do again about my decision. Note to self: Do the IPATO test (I've heard stories about browser issues).

The Good With The Bad

Good news! I recently had a reply from Environment Canada and they have given me an offer for a Software Developer position. As soon as I receive the details, I will decide if I want to pursue that job.

On a similar note, this Friday, I have an interview with Mindblossom, which is design based company. The position's HCI, statistical and interpersonal opportunities interested me quite a lot.

School-wise, I am just coming off of reading week and entering a very busy period. Next week I have 3 big assignments due and a midterm. Hopefully I will be, for the most part, unscathed.

I recently posted my group's project write-ups for CSC318 - Design of Computational Media. They currently aren't uploaded how I want them to, but they are still there and accessible at the side. I'll fix this when I have time.

Beaten and Bruised ... I Must Go On

After a very long night completing an assignment, I find myself preparing for a job interview with Environment Canada tomorrow. The job is a software development job involving weather tracking and/or data mining. The next 15 hours or so will be divided into preparing for the interview and recovering from last night. Hopefully, it goes well for me tomorrow.