Life updates
Posted: May 4th, 2018, 11:33 am
Hi folks.
I haven't posted in a really long time, and I'm sorry about that. In the fall of 2015, I was working as a web application developer for the Government of Canada, and I had no possibility of job advancement because I had no post-secondary education. I got permission to take a two-year college program called Internet Applications and Web Development because the description closely matched the job I was doing, so I was able to argue that it would make me better at my current job. My true motivation was to get a better job.
After three of four of semesters, I returned to work during the gap between semesters and learned that I was no longer an application developer; I had been transferred to another team that was shortstaffed. This team did no programming; they developed requirements and gave them to the programmers. Since I was the only unilingual member of the team, the meetings were conducted in French, and I got to sit there and look pretty. Worst of all, my request to return to school for my final semester was denied. I chose to quit my job to continue my education, and I've been unemployed ever since.
Anyway, I finished my last semester at the end of April 2017 and graduated with Honours! I can now call myself a Web Developer.
Then I applied for the job pool for the type of job that I really wanted, and I got in. Then the waiting game began, and never ended. The job pool is available to any manager who needs to fill a position, and it lasts for a year. Over the last year, I've had many interviews, and they've picked someone else every time. I realized, by the end of the summer, that I could be unemployed for a while, and thought about what to do with my spare time. I noticed that there was considerable overlap between the program I had graduated from and a program called Computer Programmer. I applied for, and received, advanced standing, and I started the program in September 2017. I had to take an extra course in each semester, but it was actually possible (though not wise) to complete the two-year diploma in one year. I finished the program a few days ago, and I can now call myself a Computer Programmer.
I had intended to use what I had learned in IAWD to improve the site, but I went back to school almost immediately and had to work even harder than I did in the previous program. Now I know how to do all kinds of crazy things in Java and Android and COBOL and Ruby... none of which are likely to be useful to the site. But, there's a possibility that I now have time to do what I had intended to do. I have two job interviews on Monday and could be hired at any time, so I still can't make any promises. But, with school over for the moment, I should at least be more available than I have been.
I haven't posted in a really long time, and I'm sorry about that. In the fall of 2015, I was working as a web application developer for the Government of Canada, and I had no possibility of job advancement because I had no post-secondary education. I got permission to take a two-year college program called Internet Applications and Web Development because the description closely matched the job I was doing, so I was able to argue that it would make me better at my current job. My true motivation was to get a better job.
After three of four of semesters, I returned to work during the gap between semesters and learned that I was no longer an application developer; I had been transferred to another team that was shortstaffed. This team did no programming; they developed requirements and gave them to the programmers. Since I was the only unilingual member of the team, the meetings were conducted in French, and I got to sit there and look pretty. Worst of all, my request to return to school for my final semester was denied. I chose to quit my job to continue my education, and I've been unemployed ever since.
Anyway, I finished my last semester at the end of April 2017 and graduated with Honours! I can now call myself a Web Developer.
Then I applied for the job pool for the type of job that I really wanted, and I got in. Then the waiting game began, and never ended. The job pool is available to any manager who needs to fill a position, and it lasts for a year. Over the last year, I've had many interviews, and they've picked someone else every time. I realized, by the end of the summer, that I could be unemployed for a while, and thought about what to do with my spare time. I noticed that there was considerable overlap between the program I had graduated from and a program called Computer Programmer. I applied for, and received, advanced standing, and I started the program in September 2017. I had to take an extra course in each semester, but it was actually possible (though not wise) to complete the two-year diploma in one year. I finished the program a few days ago, and I can now call myself a Computer Programmer.
I had intended to use what I had learned in IAWD to improve the site, but I went back to school almost immediately and had to work even harder than I did in the previous program. Now I know how to do all kinds of crazy things in Java and Android and COBOL and Ruby... none of which are likely to be useful to the site. But, there's a possibility that I now have time to do what I had intended to do. I have two job interviews on Monday and could be hired at any time, so I still can't make any promises. But, with school over for the moment, I should at least be more available than I have been.