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| I bought a rice cooker today! The last rice cooker belonged to my ex-roommate, hence this purchase. There's a "porridge" setting, which I think is equivalent to "congee." If so, I'm so going to try cooking different kinds of congee. Been eating noodles. Can't wait to try this one out soon
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| It's good to be back in Vancouver! I returned early last week. VisWeek 2009 in Atlantic City was great, except the weather. There was a lot of rain; and while my umbrella (thankfully I remembered to bring it) was able to keep me dry for the most part, it could not withstand the unrelenting Atlantic winds. As for my talk, it went smoothly, but the delivery could be improved. I did not practice for this one as much as I did for my Eurographics talk :\
 
After the conference, I had 2 days to do some touring around the area. There's not much to see in Atlantic City. After you've walked the boardwalk, seen some casinos, you've pretty much seen all of Atlantic City. The gloomy and rainy weather didn't help either, so I went up to New York City for both days. Here are the top 3 highlights from the rest of the trip:
"Frogs - A Chorus of Colors" exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City
 
This museum was huge!! General admission to the AMNH included one special exhibit of my choice. There were 4 special exhibits to choose from, and I decided to go see "Frogs - A Chorus of Colors," which promised 200+ live frogs. At first, I thought some of the frogs were mere man-made models, because they were not moving. Later, I saw one jump and realized that they were all real!
The frogs were so fascinating to look at. I could not look at them and not also ponder about their amazing Creator. In fact, throughout the whole museum (especially the biodiversity area), I could not stop praising God in my head as my eyes gazed from one creature to the next
Going to the museum also made me appreciate science's attempt to explain life's origin. As a person who believes in a Creator of the universe (e.g. that God made everything), I used to think that any other explanation for the origin of the universe is folly. Consequently, my attitude towards people who believe in a different origin of the universe was that of, should I say, intellectual superiority. Now my attitude has changed. Instead of silently ridiculing opponent explanations, I now appreciate mankind's attempt to explain and investigate life's origin using other means. I still believe in a Creator of the universe, because I don't think we will ever be able to explain and fully understand all of life's mysteries. I guess my bottom line is, "Go Science! I applaud your effort to continue to explain all of life's mysteries. But I still believe in a Creator, which fills all the gap, and is what I have experienced to be real!"
Disney's Mary Poppins Musical on Broadway
 
I went to watch the Mary Poppins musical on Broadway. It wasn't until the end of my first day in New York City when I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm in NYC, I should go watch a Broadway show!" It was going to be either The Lion King or Mary Poppins, and I chose the latter as I've never seen that before (but heard about it many times, even its music). I bought centre orchestral seating (5th row from stage), which had a good viewpoint. How am I going to describe what I saw? Everything was amazing and creative--from the dancing, singing and acting, to the lighting, staging and props used. One word: Wow!
Biking the 4-miles Boardwalk of Atlantic City
 
Finally, on the morning of my departure, the sky cleared and the sun came out. I took the opportunity to cycle across the 4-miles Atlantic City boardwalk with the hotel's courtesy bike
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| Vis conference is over! It was a great learning experience--and more on this when I return. New Jersey is raining and raining and raining :( It doesn't ruin my plan for going to New York tomorrow, but it does for Six Flags Great Adventure on Sunday. Aiya... I was looking forward to riding roller coasters... but I guess it's not going to happen unless the weather improves. Anyway, I'm going to sleep now, because I'm taking the Greyhound at 6:30 AM
Here is a photo from the conference. It's a picture of the audience during my talk
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Yaaa! Just graduated from Simon Fraser University on Thursday! That's me jumping in the air with my degree! The photo idea came from Tim. Thanks Tim
I have been back in Vancouver for a week now. It's chilly here. Feels like autumn! Lots of things to write about but I don't have much time and patience right now! Still need to pack for VisWeek conference and revise my talk slides before my Monday morning flight to Atlantic City
A few posts back, while I was still in Taiwan, I wrote about how I wanted to get into better habits. That included reading the Bible in the morning, sleeping and getting up early, and 30 push-ups a day. I'm glad to report that that was a success, and I want to continue doing that here. I finished the book of Proverbs (at the rate of one chapter a day). It was such a good exercise, because I got to connect with God every morning. Now I am going through Ecclesiastes (such an emo book, but very relevant for someone who just graduated). I really want to run (haven't ran for the last month), so I will go back on the treadmill when I return from the conference
That is all for now. Next update shall be from Atlantic City!
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| Thoughts On My Job Search So Far
It's Sunday night and the last weekend of my stay in Taipei (I return to Vancouver on Friday night, October 2). Although the trip is not over yet, so far it has been one grand time in Taiwan. I got to spend time with family, and live in and experience a good chunk of metropolitan Taiwan--the food, the culture, all the sights and sounds, and even the job search
I have withheld preparation of my IEEE Vis talk until this final week, because otherwise I would probably have been working and revising my slides more than necessary this entire month. On the down side, it means I have only 4 days to prepare a 25 minute talk. Then I get to practice it in front of my Gruvi labmates before flying to the conference in Atlantic City on October 11
Anyway, the reason I really wanted to write this post is to share my thoughts about my job search as a recent Computer Science grad... and also just general thoughts on finding the right job. By the way, these thoughts only reflect my recent pursuits in Taiwan. I did apply for jobs in Canada/US, but haven't received any follow-up emails yet; and if they did contact me by phone, I wouldn't have been available anyway. I plan to re-apply to Canadian/US jobs once I get back
I've been casting out a pretty big net in Taiwan. I applied to about 10 companies via an online job bank. 2 out of the 10 companies, and 4 other companies outside the ones I applied to, invited me for testing and interviews. In Taiwan, job opportunities seem pretty good and abundant for software/firmware/hardware engineers. Here are some of my pointers (haha... that's punny) for Computer Science students, on how to give yourself competitive advantages over other candidates:
- Take advanced courses on algorithms and data structures. Yes, the higher-level ones are scary, but they provide very good foundations on how to problem-solve. I have had pretty easy test questions during my interviews, but they still require careful thought. For example: write a function to determine whether the input is a power of 2; or write a method that deletes a node from a singly-linked list, given the header node; or write a function that does what C++'s atoi() does
- Know both C++ and Java. Try to take courses in your undergrad years that use those languages. Be very experienced with how pointers and references work in C/C++
- Pick a specialization. Computer Science is pretty broad, but there are some distinctive routes that one can take, which I will rank from high to low based on job opportunities: (1) networking/systems; (2) software engineering; (3) databases/data mining & processing/AI/machine learning; (4) graphics/usability; (5) theory/algorithms/data structures. Normally one person cannot be good at all those areas, so pick one that you like the most and take every course related to it
- If possible, consider doing a co-op program (especially if you don't plan on pursuing grad school). Companies want to see that you have experience. If you don't have industry experience, be prepared to demonstrate your know-how and skills through other stuff (e.g. course work, your own projects). As for grad students, my feeling is that they can get around this lack-of-industry-experience with their research work and, hopefully, publications
- Knowing a scripting language (e.g. Perl, python). This is one of those "preferable" skills I've been noticing across many job postings. From my experience, few undergrad courses give you the opportunity to really write scripts. I guess the best thing is to pick up a handbook and teach yourself (python seems to pop up more than others)!
- Try lots of different IDEs and SDKs: MS Visual Studio (this is a plus to know), Qt (also a big plus)
- Mobile programming skills seem to be in high demand. There are some handbooks on programming for iPhone or Android. Gotta learn this by yourself though
- Experience with Linux and how to do stuff via the command line. Of course, also know Windows (who doesn't?)
- OS-specific programming skills (e.g. Windows application) are also much sought-after
- Be familiar with version control tools (usually a big plus): Subversion, ...
- Be familiar with some research tools (rarely a plus): MATLAB, ...
I guess that's all I have in mind for now. Basically, some of the skills they are asking for are things you can really only learn if you have been in industry for at least a year or two. But I still think you can prove your competitiveness by having a really good foundation (see first 3 points above). Having a good foundation also means it's easier to pick up a new language or understand new algorithms and processes, no matter your specialization!
Now, for something different but related. I have been challenged lately with this following scenario:
If the door opens for you to go work for some really good company (one that many people want to work in), and you have a chance to really accelerate in your career and status, BUT the work is not the kind you have been looking for initially (but isn't that bad either), would you still take it?
In other words, would you let other temptations take you away from chasing after your dreams?
It's something I still continue to ponder
Taipei city lights at night, from the top of Taipei 101 tower
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