There is a while since I didn’t post anything on my blog… so, what happened in the last month?
Vancouver (and in general North American) IT job market in my field started to be really good; in the past you could find one-two UI/usability positions at a few months. But in the last period, there was a bunch of good offers.
On the other hand, despite the fact that I worked for a very good company, I was pretty tired to work only using Microsoft technologies and build applications for the military. I was looking for something more open and peaceful so I decided that is time for me to make a move in my career.
I had 4 companies who looked interested in my services and finally 3 written offers.
If you count that, here in North America to get an offer, usually you attend in between 2-5 interviews/meetings till they make the offer, you can see why I couldn’t find any time to post. I barrenly could handle eLiberatica conference day by day tasks…
Making a long story short, finally I accepted Navarik offer and now I’m their new User Interface Developer. After this first week working there, I learned again what a big difference is in between a company who is using Open Source technologies and one that is using only proprietary technology. Maybe are the people; maybe is the business model or both, but I love to work for companies like Navarik. Before was Sxip, where I found a similar atmosphere and culture, and I missed it a lot after I left, one year and a half ago.
So, now I’m back in the world of open source (Navarik is using LAMP solutions), working at application for maritime industry, having great colleagues, a funny and open environment and wide perspectives.
And this is exciting and I feel really good.
Ah, finally a spicy thing: at the start, Dave Shea (the father of CSS Zen Garden) dealt with UI at Navarik; and this is great because they have very high standards there, but is also challenging.
That is for now, I’m going to come with more details about how is to work for a company doing business with OS/FS.
The employees and developers should understand the difference: it is about freedom, openness and recognition versus closed, very structured and totally limited way of doing your job.
