canadiancreed

Being usually on the other side of the equation, I found that it's pretty hard for a developer to break into the Perl world. To give a personal example, of the languages that I did when I was doing the whole schooling thing (Perl, Java, VB6), I enjoyed coding in Perl the most. Dont' know what it was, it just "clicked". But because folks that were hiring had no interest in new grads at the time (post dot-com bubble), I had to settle for PHP shops since they were the only one hiring. Even nowadays with years of experience with development (sadly still with PHP mostly), applying to Perl jobs gets the "sorry not interested" reply.

Maybe I need to know Ruby or Python? :D

For most of my previous employers, if I ever heard...

"Hey, they just released a new major version of $LANGUAGE today. Can you go upgrade it on all our production servers?"

I'd probably fall out of my chair from shock. Most employers that I've had tend to stick with the version of software that they honed their skills on and were hellbent against upgrading at any cost. (Note: Most of my former employers developed on the LAMP stack, which doesn't help PHP's rep much I suppose)

Remembered to bring my towel and it proved quite useful for an improv trip to the beach. Amazing how happy people can be when you come to their rescue with a dry towel

Well not all of them play in the US.

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=tor&sv=1

An interesting role and a location that is of intrest, but I wonder if you'd consider folks applying from outside the US or not?

I had similar difficulty with their SDK in early 2010, back when BB was still a force in the market. Nothing makes developing more fun then you're entire IDE crashing, closing, and deleting all non-saved data. Getting it setup wasn't too bad (it still had some quirks), keeping it running was a bloody hassle.

"Who knows 10 people who have a Blackberry?"

They still have decent usage in Canada, so find some Canadians?

I'd go one step further and say that if a startup can't be bothered to be personal in their dealings with their potential employees, is it really a company that you even want to bother applying too? In my latest search there were jobs that looked great, but since they were with recruiters I was either leery or didnt' bother at all. Too many headaches and hoops to jump through, and in the area I'm in right now it's a buyers market for talent

As someone thats' just finished going through a job search, one of the biggest turnoffs that I found was companies that made you jump through hoops to even get to the interview stage. Whether it was dealing with recruiters (who with few exceptions were not worth the time to talk too), annoying applicant sites like jobvite or telos (my personal fav...not), or having to give your resume through their homerolled system that never parsed your resume right and you had to bring it with you anyways to the interview, it does nothing but sour people on your company. Doubly so for folks that are looking to get in on a startup.

A startup should be hiring themselves, they should be meeting with potential applicants themselves, and they should realize that people that are looking at startups are usually doing so because they DON'T want the trappings that the megacorps have. Throwing up barriers right at the offsets will scare the A and B level talent away to your competitors, and all you'll find is the C level talent, and the megacorps leavings.

My preception is mostly for the Canadian market, but for Canadians, Toronto is the place that I'd tell folks looking to get into the industry that they should go. I've worked in Ottawa, Montreal, and Atlantic Canada beforehand, and the amount of action going on in TO dwarfs all of them put together. Tons of companies, tons of potential opportunities, it's the best place in Canada to get started if you're into the IT sector.

Full disclosure: I currently work in the GTA. I also loathe living in the city, especially Toronto (I'm not a city guy, but you go where the work is in Canada so...)

If you're looking for an exciting opportunity and know Java, give Jordan a call. Was speaking with him about this very same job and he's got some great ideas and is a pleasure to speak with.

I completely agree with you, and this article says exactly what friends of mine have been telling me for years. Unlike most folks that fit into the Gen X/Y mold, I cant' stand living in cities, perfer living in the country, yet also enjoy being in the IT industry which makes things difficult at best. And after living in the suburbs (Kanata, ON), small towns (Perth ON, Belleville ON, and now Charlottetown, PEI) for over a decade and change, to paraphrase the Game of Thrones, "You move to the city, or you starve". Small towns not only have a small market for prospective job hunters, but if you lose a job for whatever reason, your'e hosed. Yet if the company you are working for in Toronto downsizes you, you can have five interviews the next day. It's really no contest, and unfortunately for myself, it's the way it's going to be for decades to come. Moving to anywhere outside of the larger cities will hurt in the long run.

I'll second this. I had this happened three months ago, the owner walked into the office, sat down and apologized profusely, and handed me a months severage. No advanced warning, no slowdown of work, jsut boom, you're done. Doesn't pay to be comfortable.

If you're a young person looking to buy a home, you need to have your head examined. Doubly so if it's in Toronto or Vancouver. From research I've done into this, it's really better to just rent, and will be barring either legislation expelling speculators out of the market, or the housing bubble bursting.

And also, what talentdeficit said.

As that system has done with six exceptions since confederation (Laurier in 1900 and 1904, Borden in 1917, Mackenzie King in 1940, Diefenbaker in 1958, Mulroney in 1984). In fact ruling parties having over 50% of the votes in Canadian election is the exception rather then the rule.

The only way to make sure the general populace vote = ruling party is to have an American style two party system, and frankly, I've heard very few good things about that. IMO Canada has a decent balance; parties on the fringe either adapt or assimilate, and all parties gravitate to the political centre if they want success. It saves having two powerful parties for long, and prevents the dog breakfest of some countries where there's 15 different names on the ballot.

Which is a great micro example of why startups have an uphill battle here as opposed to other jurisdictions. Sadly I dont' see that changing at all, barring a radical house cleaning.

Depends on how you interpret it. You are correct in that you can't coyright facts, but I'm sure the lawyers that Canada Post has hired will argue that since Canada Post created/authored the postal codes, it has ownership of that data and therefore can be copyrighted. The rest is just a combo of spin and waiting for the sued parties to be bled dry.

If a country that is more capitalist and copyright mad then we are has no issue providing postal data, that our crown corporation has their panties in a twist is a cruel joke. Just adds another reason why I'd never use Canada Post for anything anyways.

Which sadly isnt' surprising. The combination of it being something that would only affect a small group of people (basically anyone in the IT industry building location-aware applications), and the media's ADD-like ability to concentrate on issues will keep it from ever seeing the light of day.

I don't know what this government has against the tech industry in this country, but it must be some serious loathing with all the BS coming down the pipes

Had a similar experience when learning languages at the school I went too. There tehy started out with Perl (ya I dont' know why either), then VB6, and then ended with Java. It's probably the only time I've ever looked at Perl or java so fondly, and the VB6 experience was so bad it tainted my opinion of the .NET platform for years afterwards.

Yes there was.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/service-oriented/nasa-retires-its-...

I'd say it's a mix of that, protectionism, and 1930's isolationism being mixed into a healthy, toxic brew

They'd have to adapt to a 21st century mindset. That the internet is here, it's not going away, and the old way of doing business is dead. "Too big to fail" companies/organizations usually dislike that sort of radical change, as we've seen for years and years with the RIAA/MPAA.

Would you consider remote workers?

To those sending me resumes, thanks, but I'm looking for work as well.

Sounds like a great setup and interesting project, but if your'e applying from outside the US, you can't get past the address field unless you lie about being in the United States.

SEEKING WORK - Remote only

Have experience in a multitude of languages (PHP, Java, Perl, Flex, and C++ in order of experience)

Loves projects that use SVN and git for source control

Most professional experience is in the back end web development realm, with some "moonlighting" with desktop and mobile application development

MySQL and MSSQL experience, with some exposure to Postgre and Oracle

Looking for long term projects of at least six months or more.

gmail : creedis

That kind of reminds me of when I applied to the RCMP here, they had a psychical test where you ran a course (figure eight, going over stairs, bars, etc...) six times, then had to carry weights over a certain amount of distance all within four minutes. When I applied, I looked at it and thought "piece of cake".

By the time I was done I was similar to yourself. I dont' even remember the last part of the test, just that I somehow did it and ended up in a chair with folks around me having that look that makes you wonder if someone should be dialling 911. They hook you up to a machine after the test to check your blood pressure and what not (I guess to avoid having people pass out afterwards?). I had to wait there for a 1/2 hour because the damn thing kept thinking that I had no pulse, which didn't help everyone's expressions (I was so out of it I thought it was funny)

Thankfully I passed with two seconds remaining, but the ole brain reinforced the idea that maybe doing police work just wasn't in the cards for me

That's assuming your local jurisdiction has a spine. I have multiple .com and .net domains all done through Canadian registars, for the sole purpose of not wanting to deal with the BS that is going on down south. If what I'm reading is true, they can be pulled offline whenever someone gives the word go and they're gone. I have no faith that the local courts will do anything of use, especially with the current government that we have. I'd be hard pressed to think of any western nation that would.

With the political climate in Texas, I'm sort of surprised it didn't become another brick in the wall for the successionists in that state.

"Country A has weapons of mass destruction, and is the only country known to have used two of those in a war, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, just as the war was ending and the enemy was surrendering."

Actually the statement that they were surrendering is erroneous. Peace overtures were being felt out before Hrioshima, with the last being the Potsdam Declaration. This was rejected by Prime Minister Suzuki with the following statement...

"The only thing to do is just kill it with silence. We will do nothing but press on to the bitter end to bring about a successful completion of the war."

Now consider the time that this is occurring. The armed forces of the Empire of Japan have, for four years (and for other nations like Britain, Holland, France and China, even sooner), showed that they will fight for every last scrap of land, and die trying. To be taken captive was a grave dishonour, while death in service to the Emporer, a shoulders highest achievement. Predictions for a conventional land invasion like Normandy were predicted to cost millions of allied troop lives, based on the experiences that they had witnessed first hand over the war.

Even when the first bomb was dropped, there was resistance to accept the terms provided, due to the belief that the United States could not have more then one atomic bomb. This was believed due to the difficulty of constructing one at the time from Japan's own research team. Even when Nagasaki was bombed, and the USSR invaded Manchuria days afterwards, there was resistance to accepting the Allies terms. 50% of the cabinet wanted the terms changed to allow Japan to disarm itself, and try it's own war criminals, and there to be no occupation of Japan. All of the cabinet demanded that the emperor's position not be touched. In fact, if the emperor's position of power could not been guaranteed, there was no opposition to continuing the war to the very end.

There's a lot of things that the United States, I mean Country A's, foreign policy can be lambasted for, especially as of late. But to revise history to fit a narrative is no better then those that gloss over the failings of the past when stating it was superior to today. To do so places your argument on a foundation of fine sand, ready to crumble the moment someone blows in facts that contradict your statements, like usaar has done in the statement below mine.