Everyone seems to have advice about what potential employers and employees should look out for in the hiring process. Some of the suggestions for job seekers come from a position of privilege, and assume that you have multiple job offers to choose among. This was never the case for me, so I completely understand that advice may only be useful when you have choices. What follows is a tip I’ve seen elsewhere, which I share because I have had occasion to confirm it for myself.
Continue reading Red flags in interviewing: How do they treat wait staff?Category Archives: bio
VMworld 2018
I became one of a small cadre of people authorized to live-tweet from AWS-branded Twitter handles, including AWSonAir which is used for live coverage of major AWS events. My first assignment was VMworld, held that year in Las Vegas, where a big joint announcement was being made. If I recall correctly, this was the first time AWS had sent someone to do this kind of live coverage at a third-party event, though they had been covering AWS events for some time.
Continue reading VMworld 2018
Amazon Linux 2 launch
June 26, 2018. Jeff Barr‘s hair was at peak purple.
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OpenStack Summit 2014
This edition was held in Paris and, among other things, featured the best food I’ve ever had in a conference hall. Yes, OpenStack was quite a boondoggle for many people, for years. I hung out with some friends, participated in a hair-raising session about the OpenStack community (20+ contributing companies, each with its own fork of the software – it was clearly doomed), enjoyed spending time with my friend Robyn who had come for a visit from Switzerland, but I also very distracted by an imminent diagnosis of breast cancer.
This was also the conference where I heard for the nth time the complaint from women in engineering about how insulting it is to be mistaken for “the marketing chick.” I got to the mic during Q&A and, with my voice shaking with rage, pointed out how sexist and demeaning this attitude is. As I exited the room, a man came to thank me for speaking up on behalf of marketers.
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(Some of) What I did at TVBLOB
Found an old piece of video that reminded me of some of the fun and challenging things I did at TVBLOB, Fabrizio Caffarelli’s second startup, including:
- Software interface and interaction design: Developed feature requests into step-by-step schematics of UI states and behaviors , worked with engineers to ensure correct and coherent implementation, worked with marketing and graphics team on graphic look-and-feel. Edited UI language directly in Java resource files (via Eclipse). Tested and refined usability, general testing.
- Customer support process: designed custom web applications and SalesForce materials and processes to integrate with company’s custom back-end systems.
- Managed, wrote, edited, and translated technical documentation for TVBLOB’s software and hardware. Provided technical input, copy editing, and translation for marketing and other materials. As part of documentation, I also did instructional videos like the above.
