Merry Christmas and Happy New Year~

I don’t have much exciting news to share this time around but since I have some time, I guess I’ll update this blog.

First off, I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and will have a fabulous new year! I checked out some boxing day sales but I didn’t find anything. I’m not a big shopper so I mostly just walked around. The malls were packed with people and I find that a little hard to shop. Future Shop had some amazing TV sales but I already have a very nice HDTV at home and I recently got a 20 inch monitor. I think I’m all set.

This is the second time this year that I picked up someone’s wallet on the ground. Twice that I returned their wallet. Usually when that happens, I would wait around to see a person with a panicked face running around trying to find their wallet. I returned her wallet and she was relieved.

My Microsoft interview date is officially set. It’s going to be on Jan 17 for a SDET position. Travel details to be confirmed but I’m so excited to see what Microsoft is like. I’ve been hearing all these great stories about doing an internship in Redmond and all that. Even if I don’t get the offer, I think this will be an excellent opportunity for me to just see things. And also, Microsoft treats their candidates well. I’m given 3 days and 2 nights and a very big budget for meals! =D It’s going to be one chaotic week since I’m also flying to Edmonton for the UCOSP code sprint the following weekend. I’ve booked my flights to Edmonton and they are extremely expensive… It was looking at 400 dollars for a roundtrip.

Less than 1 week to school, and I feel ready. Next term is going to be difficult in it’s own ways. I’ll be doing 4 courses and UCOSP and playing Ultimate for UBC at the same time. I’m also a TA for APSC 160 again so I will also have a source of income. Time to also land a job for co-op summer work term. I wonder where I’ll end up this time!

Exams are over! Microsoft Interview + UCOSP

I haven’t really had a chance to blog in the last bit as I’ve been extremely busy. Now that exams are all but over, it is time to relax and figure out what I should do for the winter break.

Recapping this past term, it had a bunch of ups and downs. I only had 4 courses but I also worked two part-time jobs and played lots of Ultimate during the first half of the term. It wasn’t as easy as I thought but was very manageable when I was being discipline. This was a very Ultimate-filled for the first half of the term where I went to Sectionals (Burlington), Regionals (Ripon, California), Nationals (Sarasota, Florida) and Sundodgers (Burlington). Having to leave school for an entire week for Florida was challenging but situations like these only teach me to be even more organized. I guess not having to write the Stat 200 midterm that conflicted with Florida helped me as the midterm was deferred to the final. CPSC 310 was not the most interesting course but I learn lots about software engineering. It was great to get to work in a group project for the Eclipse Instance Messenger.

On a more exciting note, I had my Microsoft phone interview this morning with one of their University recruiters. It went okay I guess but I stumbled on some answers because I was a little too nervous. I sometimes don’t really like phone interviews because the interviewer can not see you. I think my personality is one of my assets and phone interviews blind that. However, I feel that an experience recruiter would be able to oversee that. Luckily for me, I was told during the interview that I will be going to Redmond for my next round of interviews! I’m nervous but excited at the same time!

On another exciting note, my application to join UCOSP (Undergraduate Capstone Open Source Projects, ucosp.ca) went through and I am accepted! This will be a very interesting opportunity for me to do some software development work outside of school and work. I’ll be enrolled in CPSC 448 (Directed Studies) at UBC in order to join UCOSP. There will be a huge learning curve but I felt that this is a too appealing opportunity to pass up. I’ll be headed to Edmonton next month to attend a code sprint and meet my teammates across Canada.

Looks like my flying expeditions continue!