After five years of studying I'm finally the proud owner of my university degree "Master in Electrical Engineering: Multimedia and Signal Processing" (phew). So, what do I intend to do with it now? Well, absolutely nothing.
See, the past year Drupal has taken up more and more of my spare time. It was still managable when combined with my carefree student life, but in combination with a full-time engineering job, I think I'd burn out pretty quickly.
So I decided to turn my hobby into my job and sign up with one of the Drupal shops: Drupal is hot at the moment, pays well and is interesting, innovative work.
After considering all my options, Bryght came out as the most interesting choice. Aside from getting to spend a significant amount of my time working on Drupal itself, they're also giving me the chance to move to Vancouver. Once the paperwork goes through (which could take a couple of months), it's good bye chocolate and beer and hello mounties, maple leaf and mountains.
I have to admit Belgium has become less and less interesting over the past years: crappy broadband, high taxes, insane bureaucracy and an unfriendly political climate. Still, I don't think I'm saying good bye forever. It's just that one does not get the chance to live and work in a whole new part of the world that often, so I at least want to give it a shot. Canada, here I come ;).
Congratulations
and best of luck to you.
Canadian eh?
Wow ...
That is great news Steven ...
But, Vancouver is not Canada. The West coast has too mild of a climate to be considered real Canada ...
They are also dark, rainy and depressing in winter, and have the most insane real estate market in the country ...
Here is some real info on the real Canada and real Canadian weather with pictures of ice on trees, and waist high snow banks ...
(Can you sense the West Coast Envy of us here in Upper Canada ?)
They have great mountain scape, saltwater fishing, river fishing, and have been called "Drupalville" of late ...
And Canadians are among the easiest people on the planet to get along with ...
You will enjoy it ...
Can't wait!
I'm super excited to have you getting my coffee.... er, I mean, working with ya.
And for the record, Canada has pretty alright beer too.
Sounds like Belgium
@Khalid - where do you think he lives now???
All Drupal developers should move to Vancouver
I said it after the last Drupalcon, and I'll say it again; we should all go there, every last one. Anyway, I heard rumors that Steven isn't alone in his exodus.
well get on over to the left coast...
B.C. is lovely...
but we'll be keeping a hold out here on the right coast.
Congrats Steven, you'll enjoy and poor Adrian could use some backup... I get the feeling he's buried some days.
btw. walker likes cream and sugar in his coffee ;)
glad and sad
Steven
good move, hope you will find what you are searching for. sad though to see you leave from europe (holland has better broadband and a better political climate... though i'm only sure of the broadband i am afraid)
Utterly awesome
I am very happy to have you joining us *grin*
Good luck
Good luck Steven --
Moving away from the kerktorens and lintebebouwing can only be a positive thing... just be sure to give the KUL a few scholarships when you've made your first million, and remember that Belgium/Flanders has strong venture capital if Bryght ever wants to expand Europewards.
-- It'll be good for BC to be exporting hot LAMP code in addition to superskunk grade sensimilla.
-- Don't pick up on the Vancouver habit of ending every third sentence with 'toadally' or 'ay'. Avoid expressing untold enthusiasm by saying either 'yay' or a double-syllable 'coo-ool'.
-- Be sure to come back with a Bruno Gerussi moustache: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beachcombers
Some insights:
http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/places/canada/vancouver/profile.jsp
Lies and I have just bought you Douglas Coupland's City of Glass book, which is a suitably 'mock highbrow' coffee-table book for proud vancouverites.
I thought of buying you JPod, but with all the jokes about making coffee above it might seem a little close to reality.
See review at: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/09/couplands_jpod_the_a.html
Pete
Congratulations
Leaving me alone in Belgium, huh. ;)
Congratulations, Steven! You're one helluva talented chap so your future will be bryght. You'll be missed!
You may not have heard...
But they have beer here too. I'm not going to start an argument about its quality (heck, I don't drink), but the Americans seem to like it.
Congrats.
bring it!
woo hoo... wise decision my friend. can't wait to see ya again. :) kk+
Congrats on the new gig!
Congrats on the new position at Bryght, Steven. My team and I are one of Bryght's clients (the coolest of all Bryght clients :-) and it's exciting to see even more great talent joining their team. It's a great group of people -- I know you'll have fun!
Hope to see you up in Vancouver soon.
-Jeff
Beer + Glorious Scenery + Weed = Vancouver
Don't listen to the right-coast crumdugeons, Vancouver is the best city going.
While Belgium undoubtedly has the best beer (please bring me some Grimberger Dubbel), Canada does alright ... though the industry is kind of caught between micros which have been purchased by macros, and micros which are still figuring out the zen of brewing and, as such, the CDN beer industry has lost of wee bit of the cachet it enjoyed for years.
The whining about raining is the local pasttime but honestly the rain is not intolerable (don't hardly need an umbrella or rain jacket most days) and the constant drizzle just makes the shiny, glowing summers even more enjoyable. Plus amazing scenery all year round and fantastic food and eclectic neighborhoods make the area very livable despite the burgeoning pre-Olympic and condo-mania construction craziness fueled by speculators and hype.
As for weed, well, the short version is "yes" - though not Amsterdam, liberal smokeeasys do exist which is as much a comment on Vancouver's strategic political climate of harm reduction as it is for preferred recreational habits ... and yup, you'll get to see a higher does of urban plight (homelessness, meth-addicts, flop houses etc) than you are accustomed to in Europa.
Questions from the class?
cheers,
daveo
Comments on comments ...
@Dries ...
"alone in Belgium"? Can I email a link to your comment to Karlijn? :-)
As far as politics, Vancouver is about as left leaning as can be, and that is not a bad thing. However, this is in stark contrast with our right wing PM, and his comments in the past two weeks. None of the big cities voted conservative, and hence none of them are represented by the ruling party (though a minority government ...)
awesome, welcome to bryght!
glad that we can finally publicly talk about this
because i lived in europe for 6 years and then moved back to Vancouver in 1998, i have some insight into what you are going through
you know where to find me, please don't hesitate to let me know if I can help you in any way at all
welcome aboard!
Thrilled
Even us here in the remote parts of Northern Europe watch in awe, as the Drupal team works its way up the ladder.
Steve going to Vancouver is not just another guy moving to try his luck in the big countries on the other side of the pond.
This is a sign that Drupal and the community around Drupal is a worldwide mature "market" - and that the right talent and the right opportunities are meeting each other - regardless of physical distance.
For a guy in his early forties (that's me) - this is exciting because I have seen it growing for decades. It is reality now. We live in a small world, with vast opportunities.
Congratulations from Denmark too.
"Pøj pøj" - as we say here.
Congrats!
I think Bryght gets a very good and skilled developer in their team. I hope you'll enjoy being "forced" to do you hobby, because turning hobby into work, can backfire sometimes ;). But I expect the best! And I sincerely hope we all, the Drupal users, will experience your joyfull new job!
Success!
-- Now that I am moving back to NL too (next weeks), Belgium has two Drupaleers less.... :(
bye bye
Don't forget to pay me a visit before you leave this country !!!
Greetings from your Godfather, Leo Wittens
boot bout
youtube, i am canadian. and it is about not aboot :-)
and if it all goes wrong...
...Blame Canada!
Congratulations, you are
Congratulations, you are joining an amazing crew -- but you already know this. See you around.
Welcome to Vancouver
Welcome!
Vancouver is a beautiful city with gorgeous scenery and weather (don't believe the anti-hype).
Cheers,
Jan Karlsbjerg
(The Great Dane in Vancouver)
Congratulations and best wishes
Vancouver looks like a much better than average city, so you should, at least, like the locale. I am really glad you will be working on Drupal, rather than, say, going off to design embedded signal processing devices where we would never hear from you again. :-)
I'm a bit curious about your remark about the political climate in Belgium, being somebody who is in the process of moving from Minneapolis in the USA to Stuttgart, Germany. I'd like to become better informed about the EU and its politics.
It was great to see you in July and I look forward to seeing you again in Brussels in September.
Oh, and congrats on the Masters Degree in EE -- I'm sure that was not easy work!
funny thing
i know a lot of people who have degrees and have a hard time finding jobs. better secure one while u can!
eric gawaters blog - http://www.pro-article.com
Yeah, speaking from
Yeah, speaking from absolutely intolerabe Ottawa, don't come East of the Rockies. Canada's weather sucks the bag, to use a local term. I hate it and ironically am considering a move to England to avoid one more fecking winter spent here. Rain I can handle.