I should be finished with my PhD in May. What should I do once I am done? This question is bugging me right now. These three years have made it very clear that I don’t want to continue an academic career. I want to produce good software that will be used by real people, and sadly this is simply unrealistic being at a university. Most of the research produced will never turn into real applications, and even if it does, most of the time nobody will ever notice those.
There is also a complicating factor — after spending three years away from my family and my fiancé, I really want to settle down in the area of Cologne or at least somewhere from where one can easily go to Cologne for a weekend. Finding a company in Germany where I could spend most of my time programming instead of fighting the process isn’t exactly easy. Add to this that I’m not the convenient type of employee — I have a strong opinion on just about anything and I won’t hesitate to tell it. All this together means that I don’t have all too many choices.
My first choice was logically Mozilla Corporation. But after two months of negotiations and five interviews they turned me down because “we
are going to focus on hiring locally”. Second on my list would be Google but from what I know all the serious work there is going on in Zürich. Moving to Zürich together with my fiancé isn’t impossible but very undesirable. Maybe MozDev Group is also a possibility though it is hard to tell what is going on there at the moment.
Comments
Try SAP...
Working at a large company where you spend maybe 5% of your time actually doing something useful is the last thing I want…
Wladimir,
Would you be willing to work with software developed on Visual Studio (Microsoft). See “Double Image, Double Image-O” on my site.
I am the owner, and single person here that works on the site, and software and need HELP.
The plan is to bring the code more current to VS 7.0, add enhancements, and sell the entire thing, say to Symantec or other.
I need a smart person to help carry this through.
I understand this would mean an investment of time and risk on your part with not the high pay you would get from the CORPs of the world.
Sincerely,
Bryant Kittelson, Pres.
Host Interface International, Inc.
Try talking to Wolfgang Denx and/or Detlef Zundel at DENX (www.denx.de). My top-level view is that they are a small company that does stuff (and gets paid) by big companies who are in a hurry and lack the core competencies present at Denx.
They have a “core” company in Munich, but I know they use distributed resources.
I have no idea whether there are positions open, or if the pay is good or bad.
If you mail me your email address I can MAYBE put you in touch with a recruiter that I trust.
Take care.
Thank you, that looks interesting. I want to try it even though I have as well as no experience in the area they are dealing with — but I learn very fast.
Hi Wladimir!
It’s always good to have a strong opinion! So do I. It’s better to have a strong one, than none!
Please don’t work for Google…! I have a strong opinion about that. I think, it’s obvious that they want to dominate the IT market. I’d like to boycot them – I really do, except the search. Unfortunately, it’s really the best…
In the German Wikipedia Google’s behaviour is summarized quite well:
> Googles Expansionsstrategie ähnelt der
> von Microsoft, nur agiert Google viel schneller.
Good luck with your search!
Regards,
Adi K.
Well, that’s your opinion. Mine is different – I have outmost respect for a company that manages to dominate the Internet by innovating. Having done web development myself for years, I can hardly understate the influence of Google on the web today, and that’s all-in-all a good influence (aside of the search, Gmail and AdSense have been important milestones IMO). Finally, judging Google by its deeds, this company obviously tries to put users first – and succeeds remarkably well for a stock-traded company.
Hey,
first I wish you a happy new year! :)
Then I wish you good luck and hope you find a good job ;-)
Well, why not try Opera Software ASA?! :D
And bring all the open source stuff, extensions, XUL, XPinstall, etc. to Opera.. :-P
best regards,
iNsuRRecTiON
PS: I would love to use Opera with extensions from/for Firefox, so Opera are compatible with the extension system from Mozilla/Firefox :)
Sorry, the way Opera does things is very disappointing. It seems that quite a few things have to change on the management level before developers can make a difference there.
oh yeah. same feelings. finishing soons, same considerations. but now, no more fiancée