Started working at NEC/HNSX Supercomputers
Rather quickly after being hired at Calculus, I decided that it wasn't really the best place for me to work at, after being told I came in late to work by a manager (I came in at 10am instead of the 9:30am maximum time), after having worked until the wee hours of the morning.
I remember being one of the last to leave work on my last day, as the weather was really bad and people were given a break to leave early, but I stayed until 6pm or so (pretty late by the standards of that place) to finish hacking my last piece of work there. On the bus ride home (it was in Laval, and I took the bus to the Henri-Bourassa metro, and then to the Laurier metro, near my place of the time), while the bus was stopped under electrical lines, a chunk of ice fell on the roof of the bus, denting the sheet-metal. This bad weather would get worse and worse, and would turn into what became known as Ice Storm of 1998. I had planned some time off, but ended up roaming about to some friends apartment, and then hosting a few other "refugees" from the South Shore at my place afterward.
Getting hired was a bit of an adventure too. I went to the interview, and was rather perplexed by the first part of the interview, which was more them pitching their company to them than asking me about myself. The second part was thankfully more "normal", but I was kind of weirded-out already. Being still a bit young and everything, I was all dressed very carefully, but in the bus on the way back home, I noticed that I had forgotten to shave!
Turns out it didn't matter much, as a few days later I got a call from the headhunter who had found me the position with an offer. Again, I was spooked, as she asked me if I found it good, and I started saying "I don't know...", meaning to finish with "but it's better than what I have, so I'm good with it", but before I could say that, she interrupted me to tell me that she'd call back later. An hour later, she called again, and the offer was a few grands higher. Easily the easiest negociation I ever went through.
Turned out to be a pretty laid-back job, but still learned a lot. Basically, they didn't mind too much the lack of experience, as all this super-computer stuff wasn't taught much and training was going to be on the job no matter what. There were very nice toys, weird HIPPI networks and cabling that looked like it could kill a man. There was barely enough work for one person, most of the time, but due to the high requirements of the stand-by duty (maximum time between call and arrival of analyst, and such), we were two, so I got to work on all sorts of personal projects, such as Mozilla and co-founding a game development company.
A great time, for sure!
I remember being one of the last to leave work on my last day, as the weather was really bad and people were given a break to leave early, but I stayed until 6pm or so (pretty late by the standards of that place) to finish hacking my last piece of work there. On the bus ride home (it was in Laval, and I took the bus to the Henri-Bourassa metro, and then to the Laurier metro, near my place of the time), while the bus was stopped under electrical lines, a chunk of ice fell on the roof of the bus, denting the sheet-metal. This bad weather would get worse and worse, and would turn into what became known as Ice Storm of 1998. I had planned some time off, but ended up roaming about to some friends apartment, and then hosting a few other "refugees" from the South Shore at my place afterward.
Getting hired was a bit of an adventure too. I went to the interview, and was rather perplexed by the first part of the interview, which was more them pitching their company to them than asking me about myself. The second part was thankfully more "normal", but I was kind of weirded-out already. Being still a bit young and everything, I was all dressed very carefully, but in the bus on the way back home, I noticed that I had forgotten to shave!
Turns out it didn't matter much, as a few days later I got a call from the headhunter who had found me the position with an offer. Again, I was spooked, as she asked me if I found it good, and I started saying "I don't know...", meaning to finish with "but it's better than what I have, so I'm good with it", but before I could say that, she interrupted me to tell me that she'd call back later. An hour later, she called again, and the offer was a few grands higher. Easily the easiest negociation I ever went through.
Turned out to be a pretty laid-back job, but still learned a lot. Basically, they didn't mind too much the lack of experience, as all this super-computer stuff wasn't taught much and training was going to be on the job no matter what. There were very nice toys, weird HIPPI networks and cabling that looked like it could kill a man. There was barely enough work for one person, most of the time, but due to the high requirements of the stand-by duty (maximum time between call and arrival of analyst, and such), we were two, so I got to work on all sorts of personal projects, such as Mozilla and co-founding a game development company.
A great time, for sure!