After posting this awhile back, I have found a truly AWESOME job, and will be moving to Silicon Valley to work for Yahoo! on their Presentation Platform Team. This position solidifies my movement from the back-end to the front-end, and I’m really excited to be working alongside the talented people I’ve met during my interview process there.
Hello JavaScript
This also means that I will no longer be programming primarily in Java on the JVM, but JavaScript on the browser, which is a much more fun and rewarding environment for me. I believe that the browser-as-a-platform truly is the way of the future (just check out the graphical power of HTML5). And JavaScript is the major logical component of this environment. This is going to be a ideal opportunity to perfect my knowledge of a misunderstood, yet very powerful, language of the web.
Goodbye St. Louis :’-(
This is a bittersweet victory for me because I’m leaving a very technically nourishing environment in St. Louis. I feel like I’ve met every major software engineer in the area, and it will be a substantial loss to miss out on upcoming hackfests, Lamba Lounges, JUGs, and bar gatherings with friends and coworkers.
I’ve been in St. Louis for over three years now. I came here initially to broaden my technical horizons and learn as much as possible about the industry of software engineering. I’ve worked for six different companies while in St. Louis, and I’ve met some really great and interesting people at each place I’ve landed.
Thanks to Friends and Colleagues
I would like to thank three people in particular whom have been truly instrumental in my development and interaction with the St. Louis IT landscape.
Thanks to Jeff Brown for introducing me to Amon Amarth and Opeth, as well as hiring me to work for G2One and opening up my horizons to dynamic typing and metaprogramming.
Thanks to Mario Aquino for giving me my first decent cigar, teaching me how agile development really should be done, and advising me on what Cuban food to order in Little Havana.
And thanks to Alex Miller for telling me where I could purchase a Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout, giving me a chance to present at the first Lambda Lounge, and selecting me to speak at the first Strange Loop Conference.
Much love, STL
These three guys are just the tip of the iceberg. I had to fight myself from listing 20 different people I’ve worked with or met or talked to in St. Louis. If you live in St. Louis now, take a moment and think about how many brilliant people you’ve met or worked with here, and you’ll be truly astounded. St. Louis is an untapped market of outstanding talent in software engineering.
