Hello, Canonical! o/
Today marks the 90th day of me joining Canonical to work on Ubuntu full-time! So since it’s been a while already, this blog post is long due. :)
The News
I joined Canonical, this February, to work on Ubuntu full-time! \o/
Those who know, they know that this is really very exciting for me because Canonical has
been a dream company for me, for real (more about this below!). And hey, this is my first
job, ever, so all the more reason to be psyched about, isn’t it? ^_^
P.S. Keep reading and we’ll meet my squad really sooon!
The Story
Being an undergrad student (batch 2017-2021), I’ve been slightly worried during my last two semesters, naturally, thinking about how’s it all gonna pan out and what will I be doing, et al, because I’ve been seeing all my friends and batchmates getting “placed” in companies or going for masters or at least having some sort of “plans” for their future and I, on the other hand, was hopelessly clueless. :D
Well, to be fair, I did Google Summer of Code twice, in 2019 and 2020, became a Debian Developer in 2019, been a part of GCI and Outreachy, contributed to over dozens of open-source projects, et al, et al. So I wasn’t all completely “hopeless” but for sure was completely “clueless”, heh.
And for full disclosure, I was only slightly panicking because firstly, I did get placed
in several companies and secondly, I didn’t really need a job immediately since I was already
getting paid to work on Debian stuff by Freexian, which was good enough. :)
(and honestly, Freexian has my whole heart! 😭❤️️ - more on that later sometime.)
But that’s not the point. I was still confused and worried and my mom & dad, more so than anyone. Ugh. We were all figuring out and she asked me places that I was interested to work in. And whilst I wasn’t clear about things I wanted to do (and still am!) but I was (very) clear about this and so I told her about Canonical and also did tell her that it’s a bit too ambitious for me to think about it now so I’ll probably apply after some experience or something.
…and as they say, the world works in mysterious ways and well, it did for me! So back during the Ruby sprints (Feb ‘20), Kanashiro, the guy (😄), mentioned that his team was hiring and has a vacant position but I won’t be eligible since I was still in my junior year. It was since then I’ve been actively praying for Cronus, the god of time, to wave his magic wand and align it in such a way that the next opening should be somewhere near my graduation. And guess what? IT HAPPENED! 🙊
9 months later, in November ‘20, Kanashiro told me his team is hiring yet again and that I could apply this time! Without much (since there was “some”) delay, I applied and started asking all sorts of questions to Kanashiro. No words are enough for him, he literally helped me throughout the process; from referring me to answering all sorts of doubts I had! 😭❤️️
And roughly after 2½ months of interviewing, et al, my “ambitious dream” did come true and I
finalyyyy signed my contract! \o/
(the interview process and what went on during those 10 weeks is a story for later ;))
The Server Team! \o
This position, which I didn’t mention earlier, was for the “Server Team” which is a team of 15 people, working to make Ubuntu server the best! And as I tweeted sometime back, the team is absolutely lovely, super kind, and consists of the best of teammates one could possibly ask for! 🥰
Here’s a quick sneak peek into our weekly team meeting. Thanks to
Rafael for taking such a lovely picture. And yes,
the cat Luna is a part of our squad! 🐾
And oh, did I mention that we’re completely remote and distributed?
FUN FACT: Our team covers all the TZs, that is, at any point of time (during weekdays),
you’ll find someone or the other from the team around! \o/
Anyway, our squad, managed by Rick is divided into two halves: Squeaky Wheels and
Table Flip. Cool names, right?
Squeaky Wheels does the distro side of stuff and consists of Christian, Andreas, Rafael, Robie,
Bryce, Sergio, Kanashiro, Athos, and now myself as well! And OTOH, Table Flip consists of Dan,
Chad, Paride, Lucas, James, and Grant.
Even though I interact w/ Squeaky Wheels more (basically daily), each of my teammates is absolutely lovely and equally awesome!
Whilst I’ll talk more about things here in the upcoming months, this is it for now! If there’s anything, in particular, you’d like to know more about, let me know!
And lastly, here’s us vibing our way through, making Ubuntu server better, ‘cause that’s how we roll! 😎
Until next time.:wq for today.