Ewan's Corner

Posts Tagged ‘work’

From the Scobleizer – very useful tips in general!

Ever wonder what it’s like to get a job at a big company? Well, our HR department invited me over to spend a couple of hours talking about interviewing. The third part, just posted today, was a mock interview where we did a whiteboard code session so you could see how the interviewer and interviewee think through an interview question.
Part I — What is it like to interview at Microsoft?
Part II — Riding the recruiting shuttle
Part III — Mock whiteboard session
I’ve interviewed a couple times at big companies now and find the process is similar to Microsoft’s, so many of the tips are useful too.

Recently the Flash team @ work decided to thank a truly good-guy co-worker who is always helpful, cheerful and willing to go the extra mile to assist us. He’s part of the Desktop Support team, which means he gets some really horrible assignments :)… since he’s rather fond of good whiskey, we bought him a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black to take on a much deserved break. This was his wonderful reply.

YoYo Flashers.

Last Monday, guess what I did ? I got up very early from bed in my log cabin in the beautiful thick pine forest that touches the beach of Cape Vidal and ate my meusli. I then took my mountain bike, my wife and her bike to the beach where the tide was receding and the sand was rock hard near the water’s edge. Ever seen Cape Vidal’s coatline ? F*ck me – its nice ! You can see south until the sand meets the sky because the beach reaches 1 km in width and there are no peninsula’s. You also cannot access the beach for about 35 km from Cape Vidal southwards because the dunes become dense Amazon. So we kicked into high gear and cruised effortlessly south at about 25km/h amazed by the solitude and the expanse of the place. Not a friggin soul. And then we were joined by a huge kudu that tore out of the Amazon and on to the beach next us and galloped across the sand in confused zigzags for a while till it found another opening back into the dense undergrowth. For over an hour we watched a perfect day starting, being joined by Duiker and Kudu in this way.

I realised as I looked out to sea, that this ocean was going to offer some serious surfing over our pending week here. Backline thundered down about 300m out and the waves broke VERY favourably for riding purposes. So back to the log cabin for a big fat fry up feast breakfast, and then time to load the surfski (which is very long and thin like a canoe, as opposed to a waveski which is short and fat) on to the car and off to the launch area of the beach. You know what its like that first day you feel truly healthy and full of energy again, after having had flu. That was this day. It was awesome ! There is no price that equates to feeling healthy again !

That was totally terrifying, trying to get out to sea. Surfkiis are very fast but don’t like waves. Especially not tidal waves. They are meant for cruising behind backline. But you gotta get there. So I thought I timed it right, went for it and realised at that horrible moment that I had got it wrong. I watched a beast developing and coming towards me as I paddled frantically out to sea, straight at it. Obviously the trick is to get over it while it is still a swell. I didn’t. Until you get past backline there are rocks directly under the water surface and at the moment that I realised the approaching monster was going to smash the living f*ck out of me I stopped paddling and looked pensively down into the water at those rocks. I was 250m from shore and this is also shark infested water. Fishermen on shore pull them out almost daily – there are no nets.I got smashed in the chest and face, lurched with my boat backwards, thrown upside down, my head bashed the ski, and then the ski was violently removed from me so that the monster could tumble-spin and hit me without some great heap of fibreglass inhibiting it. I was without air and without any idea of orientation for yonks and two things were going through my mind. I need air and I’d love to keep not hitting any rocks. Eventually I was released. My head was bleeding but that was all. My surfski made it all the way back to shore – I had to locate my paddle and make my cumbersome way there independantly. It was awesome ! I had been in a war and survived. I stood bent over on the beach with my hands on my knees to allow a large percentage of the Vidal ocean to pour out my nose, and probably the very last green gooey remnants of my flu too. I felt exhilirated. My head wound was mild actually and there is only one thing to do when you fall off a horse ….

I went for it again, and again I was 250m out and thought I had mistimed it. There are no words to describe how scary it is to know that what has just happened to you may happen again. I paddled hard – very hard and made it over a very big dude with inches to spare, but that was it. None would break further back than that. It was mandatory for me to stop and turn my head to watch that wave smash its way down and away from me, and ofcourse it was mandatory for me to ram out my middle finger at it in aggressive jubilation and scream “F*ck you – I beat you you f*cking bastard !!!!” I paddled straight out to sea for about 3 km and the water was like glass behind backline with astonishing visibility. Apart from the sea still sporadically gushing out my nostrils (which is unexpectadly cleansing and rejuvenating in a sick kind of way) I was in heaven. The sun was well up and this was a day for a tan. What a paddle, and I made it back in safely too.

Sam, my wife, was rocking. As I returned to the log cabin, I found an animated note from her saying I had to get to the area of beach where we had started our cycle earlier. I found her there with our diving gear (no tanks, but the rest of it). She had found a series of reefs in a protected section of ocean near shore that was more brimming with fish life than Aliwal shoal. It was incredible. We dived and snorkelled for a full hour amongst a myriad of gyrating colour. Nice one bruv va !!! It really was beautiful. I lay in the sun with her for a while and looked out across those white dunes, amazed that more people don’t come here. But lying in the sun ends when you see dolphins suddenly. They were lazing around just behind the big backline break, in that calm glassy water, and I dashed back to the cabin to fetch the short fat waveski. The dudes were still there when I got back and I decided to paddle out to them right from that spot which wasn’t a launch area. But I really didn’t have too much respect anymore for the protection that a launch area was supposed to offer. I made it out with absolute ease and was surrounded by these beautiful creatures that were actually nudging my ski as they caressed around me. I spent a full half hour amongst them, and when I eventually bode adios and turned back to catch a wave, three of them turned and came with me. I caught a beautiful wave (which waveskiis are designed for, unlike those long things) and for the entire ride, those 3 dolphins rode the wave with me. I have never experienced that before. I know it is fairly common, but I have never had it, and will never forget that connection I had with those animals for those 30 minutes. The holiday makers that had been tanning along the beach were standing near the waters edge and were all watching those dolphins, I noticed. They must have seen me ride that wave with them too then – what a rush ! And what a wave – it was a great great wave – honestly one of the nicest rides I have ever had, even excluding the dolphin factor.

Sam made us an awesome lunch accompanied by beer bread that she potjied up in the pine forest outside our cabin and then we decided to shower and catch an afternoon sleep. We went to bed (didn’t sleep of course) and all I can say is that those surroundings are perfect for going to bed with your wife and not sleeping ! The main bedroom has its own door leading straight on to a wooden deck looking into the forest, and its nice to “not sleep” with that door wide open ! Awesome !!

I had brought some gym weights with me because I wanted to get fit this holiday if I could shake the flu quick enough. Even brought a gym bench, pull up bars, the works. So with the flu clearly gone and the short daylight of this time of year meaning that at 3:00pm we had just 2 hours of daytime activity left, Sam slept (as in properly) and I had a great gym work out. I went for a run on that deserted stretch of beach to the south after that, and even drove the surfskii back to the beach for one last paddle just before sunset. That was truly amazing – the waves were gone and it was like silk out there. There hadn’t been a breath of wind all day.

I returned to shower (we had an outdoor shower in the forest and one indoors – I used the outdoor one) and then settled in for a bit of SQL. This was another aim of mine for this holiday – to start to get to grips with Microsoft SQL. I had the books and laptop and hit it hard for 2 hours till 8:00pm while Sam read a book next to me. It was an excellent study session, and now with the mind and body belted into a beautiful state of peaceful relaxation, it was time to crank up a braai on the deck and slap the thick slab of rump on.

Flashers, as we sat in our deck chairs watching the coals redden, then cooking the meat, chatting, eating, playing a few games of cards and, still in our deck chairs, side by side and hand in hand with Pink Floyd powerfully seranading us through an incredible speaker system from the lounge that we moved on to the deck – as we did these things for the four hours that we were on the deck that evening, we sipped a top class whiskey out of expensive glasses that I brought just for the stuff, and with lots of ice. Yet another experience on this day that was like heaven. We had drink after drink – we must have eventually had at least 5 drinks each, and somehow we didn’t get drunk so much as high. Pink Floyd went from good to inexplicably phenomenal and Momentary Lapse of Reason gave me goosebumps, took my breath away, and then made me cry. Twice. We slept around midnight and I have no idea whether I dreamt or not. It doesn’t really matter.

I have been racking my brains to think whether I have ever had a better day than Monday the 14th of June. I don’t reckon. And this is just a quick thanks for the whisky !

I work here.

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Update July 2006:

Since this post keeps getting around 11% of the recorded 1st entry hits on this blog (according to Google Analytics) I think it’s time for an update, and a FAQ to answer the most common Derivco-related questions I receive.

• Firstly, the website is no longer in the “cheese” category :-) The current Derivco.com website is a huge improvement on the 2003 version.
• Yes, it is a fantastic place to work – I’m not being facetious, it really is a world class company. Brilliant people (plenty of highly intelligent geeks), exciting and ever-changing projects, beautiful location and fun environment.
• Yes, Derivco is hiring in all sorts of areas. See the website for details. I am however biased towards Flash ActionScript developer candidates :-)

Since Derivco’s address is already easy to find, check out the office and surrounding Forest Park via Google Earth [alternate link] (choose to run the linked KMZ file if you have Google Earth installed, and it will fly you directly there). If you don’t have Google Earth installed, then install it (!) – or use Google Maps instead (lower resolution though, and not nearly as fun).

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Update September 2006:

Derivco vacancies / positions are not currently listed on the Derivco.com website, but you can find them via Google or on sites such as Career Junction (search for “derivco”).

Derivco Offers Bursaries

Derivco is offering Bursaries for the 2007 academic year for students studying towards a Bachelor of Science degree with majors in Computer Science, Mathematics or Statistics with an average of 75% per subject taken and who will be studying for either their 2nd, 3rd or honours year in 2007.

We are also looking for bursary students who will be studying to their 2nd, 3rd or honours year in the 2007 academic year in the areas below or any other relevant Project Management/ Business related area, with an average mark of at least 65% in the subjects taken.

* BComm IT
* BComm Economics/Finance
* Business Administration

Students who will be studying towards their 2nd, 3rd or honours year in BComm, BA or BSoc Sci in Human Resources Management in 2007 are also invited to apply as we will be offering bursaries in this area as well.

Should you know anyone who would be eligible to apply please contact Vukile (Vukile.McKenzie@derivco.com) or e-mail their CV as well as the most recent copy of their results to bursary@derivco.com.

Please note that you need to be a full time student at a Tertiary Institution in order to take advantage of this offer.

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Update March 2007:

I posted an entry with some of my job interview opinions, experience and suggestions for all those who ask. Use at your own risk: Job Interview Opinions.

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Update September 2007:

Derivco wins IT Company of the Year (KZN) at the Computer Society of South Africa (KZN Chapter) gala event.

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Update August 2008:

Derivco is now a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and is a platinum sponsor at Tech-Ed 2008. Check out the new Flex derivco.com site.

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Update late August 2008:
Hiring for IT positions is on the go again – Derivco IT is looking for skilled IT people at all levels. Head over to www.derivco.com, email your CV to cv@derivco.com (remember to state what specific or type of position you are applying for) or ask questions here.

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Update November 2008:

Derivco will be hosting a SQL Server Enterprise Architectural Summit in December. Speakers are Stuart Ozer, Gert Drapers and Thomas Kejser (members of the Microsoft SQL Server dev team and of SQLCAT – SQL Customer Advisory Team).
See the Derivco site for details and to apply (only experienced DBAs considered :-)

If you have any general questions, post a comment below and I’ll respond when I can. You can also email me directly if you prefer.

Usual disclaimer yada yada applies – I may love working @ Derivco, but I don’t speak for the company or any of its clients. This blog is my personal scribble area, everything here is from my own viewpoint and is often written by an insane Perl script anyway. I am not responsible for any comments left on this site or post either, so don’t get any funny ideas.