Thanks very much for posting this, it looks great.
Err, should your website be generating this error on my resume though? It overparsed my position titles, and now I can't seem to delete any positions due to an uncaught DOMException.
No worries at all - sooooo, I've never been fined myself but the stories I hear vary from expat to expat. One refused to pay and got a 'black stamp' in their passport barring them from reentry for 6+ months.
It used to be that way, but Ukr border control has instituted a '90 out of every 180 days' rule. You can get around that with a proper business visa (usually granted for 1 year), or by using two passports, or by paying a fine upon leaving the country if you overstay.
Kharkiv, Ukraine: university town, lots of IT companies and meetups, cold but not as cold as Moscow or Estonia, very cheap prices, US/EU passports get 90 days entry, visa-free.
There is this whole Russia thing (we're 50km from the border), so if that's a problem, try Kyiv or Lviv or Odesa.
I was fired for not moving back to the USA. I was lucky enough to turn that to my advantage.
In 2012, I was living/working remotely in Ukraine (still am) as a single support dev, having worked for the same company since 2003. Around the time of my annual review, the founders asked me to move back to their main office in Massachusetts. I didn't see this as a serious enough offer, however, because despite the facts that a) moving is a pain in the ass, and b) my wife would have to go through the US immigration process, the founders weren't forthcoming with any offers to offset this process like a raise, moving allowance, etc. It was pretty much a 'move and take all the costs on yourself' message.
I visited them in the USA in April and again they said 'we really need you in the States' and I asked about what kind of support we'd get, and got a 'hmm, good point, we'll get back to you' response. Come mid-May, I was fired over the telephone.
The insult to injury came with the 2-week severance package which required me to sign a 3-year NDA. The founders assured me this was a 'standard practice'.
I passed on that, because I was able to line up a consulting gig right away, and later that year I was able to get hired by their competitor, to not only develop the same product but to recruit and train a team of Ukrainian developers to build the product. So now, I'm a Senior Manager where I was a Senior Support Dev before.
Pro-tip for founders: be up-front about the package you are offering when you want someone to move across the ocean for your company. Also, good idea to not be cheap about the severance package to employees who have been with you the longest and know the most about your core product.
Willing to relocate: no, unless the opportunity is perfect
Technologies: Java, Spring, Javascript, XML, SQL, REST/SOAP web services, Project Management, Team Lead, Clinical Data Management, Standards Compliance for Applications (CDISC, 21 CFR Part 11)
Resume: upon request
Email: tomh [at] xig.li
Have lead/built teams of 6-8 local developers dedicated to managing software products consisting of 1M+ lines of code. Working currently in the open-source health/clinical data management space, have been doing so for the last 10+ years.
8:30-8:45 Walk to work, open up the office for the rest of the staff
9:00-14:00 Work work work work. Since we have an 'open office' there are no set meetings but as the manager I will be usually having sit-downs with each of my reports and figuring out what's going on. Also will engage in Skype-chats with my other reports/colleagues (we have remote developers in Europe and Africa)
14:00-17:30 Wind down with a long lunch or work on extra projects if there is a tight deadline (usually the case)
17:30-18:00 Close up the office and walk home
18:00-18:20 Standup with the USA office (there are ten hours' difference between CA and UA), get updates on what is going on and get latest assignments
18:30-19:30 Dinner break
20:00-22:00 Skype calls with the USA for work, usually with PMs and clients based in the USA. Can also include answering emails, answering forums, or running demos/presentations over the GoToMeeting
22:00-midnight or 1am - cycle down, watch some streaming shows, goof around on a tablet, go to sleep
I graduated from ArsDigita University in 2001. Right time, right place to see stuff completely implode. I must have sent 100+ resumes during 2001, and temped at Harvard for a while until getting a job through a friend in Feb 2002, in Java development. It wasn't great, so I kept up the job search and finally went to grad school in 2003 while finding a part-time consulting job, also in Java. That kept me afloat until I graduated in 2006, and moved out of the USA.
Looking back, the companies acted like they could do no wrong, and it bit them hard. ArsDigita was a dot-com darling for a while, but it did crazy things like sign ten-year leases for a branch office that could seat 20-30 people and they had 2-3 actual employees in that city.
I remember in ArsDigita University, we weren't based in the actual office but a place about a metro stop away (where ITA Software based themselves a decade later, yay lisp), in the basement. We started the program in September, and one day in March we were let into a larger, nicer office on the first floor and were told that AD also rented this part as well, anticipating another 20 or so programmers would work here as well. It remained empty until we moved out of the space later that year.
In the early 90s, I traveled from St Petersburg, Russia to London's Victoria Station. I'm pretty sure the route does not exist any more, as it involved going through all the Baltics, Poland, Berlin, and eventually the Oostende-Dover ferry and on to London. All in all, it took about three days (including a 12-hour layover in Berlin).
Keep in mind that it is a combination of the last few posts he's made in Russian, each one trying to deliver an impartial message of what is going on in Kiev.
His previous post was even entitled, "Maidan through the eyes of the police and Berkut" so he is trying to be as impartial as he can: http://zyalt.livejournal.com/984379.html
It looks like they are being used more against Berkut holding shields; once they break against those, the flaming contents then flow over the shields' owners.
Much like in this short video (you will have to excuse the gallows-humor soundtrack, it's not my intention to make light of the scenario): http://coub.com/view/hgsj
Same here. Pinboard had a great site, great design, and just did the 'one job' very well when Delicious misstepped, and took a lot of their users. I've been using it for 1+ years now and love it. #alittlelatetotheparty
Also, keep in mind that this article was written in October of 1998. Pre-Gates Foundation, Pre-Windows Vista even. Most of us don't have the same view of Bill Gates (or Microsoft itself) now that we once did.
+1 for bioinformatics - adding to that are the issues surrounding the complexity of the data (look up HL7 or CDISC to see how complex) and also the legal standards and ramifications (HIPPA, 21 CFR Part 11) of working with clinical research.
In short, getting domain knowledge in the above are essential to solve the tough problems at the big-pharma or national-bio-labs level.
(PS to the other poster looking for bioinformatics programs: I suggest you look in Boston - Tufts, MIT, Harvard etc)
