Catching up after recovery: FAD EMEA 2008, accident and new job
January 5th, 2009 — red_alertLong time no post even though much happened. I had my right hand broken (actually only the ring finger, but that affected it’s neighbors and the whole hand was in plaster. But more to this later. I’ll write this post to summarize some things I wanted to write in the time since my last post but wasn’t really able to (writing continuous text without lots of typos is your enemy #2 with only your left hand – #1 is using any sort of email client since they need lots of changes between mouse and keyboard…unless you use a console based one or know _all_ shortcuts…I do neither).
I organized and conducted the FAD EMEA 2008 in November, together with the help of people like Andreas Rau and Max Spevack. I want to thank everyone who attended this event and made it a (in my eyes) huge success. It’s been a great chance to speak about important topics, see some new faces and have a good time together. Between all the work, we also had good (Chinese and Swiss) food – pretty much everyone loved the Raclette but many left the Vermicelle behind. I’m not sure if people were just stuffed or if they just didn’t like it. I’m sure it was worth the try and at least the table of the fellow Italian ambassadors made sure that their plates were empty to the last bit.
Unfortunately, I was stupid enough to fall down a stone stair on Friday evening during the FAD (i.e. just a few hours after it had begun). Andreas Rau left our working room just to fetch something…I think some cups. When he didn’t return for quite some time I started to wonder where he is or if something happened. So when I had a chance to sneak out (sorry wonderer that it was during your topic) I left the room to give Andi a call. Will it was still ringing on the other side, I made some steps in this and that direction – as I and many others always do in that situation. Unfortunately, the University of Basel does not feature automatic light activation and I was too lazy to look for a light switch because I saw no need for it. I figure I was mistaken in that thought. Taking 2-3 steps in that direction, I stepped onto nothing. Until my brain realized that this is a stair, it was too late to catch myself and so it came that I flew down the stairs (11 hard steps). I’m not sure if I passed out early on or if I have a blackout but between realizing that it’s a stair and getting up from the bottom I don’t remember anything (lucky me). Everything afterwards is a long story not worth telling in detail. I get up, got to a toilet, later called Andi to help me because I felt terrible and my nose wouldn’t stop bleeding, puzzled whether to go to the hospital or not (it’s now been after midnight), walked to the nearby hospital, got some x-ray done. Result: foot broken, finger broken, deep wound on the nose, experienced a major hit against my head. The fixed me up quickly in order to survive the weekend and told me to go to a hospital on Monday to see after my hand which might need an operation.
Next day, I continued with the normal FAD program which finished sometime Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, I had an appointment with the doctor at the hospital. Monday the week after, I had my finger operated and 6 weeks later I was able to use my full hand again. Today, I hardly notice that I ever broke my foot or finger, where the latter is still a bit sensitive to big pressure.
In the time being at home (because I couldn’t properly do my $DAYJOB with only my left hand) I learnt to create SRPMs/RPMs and got some packages approved while others are still on their way to that point. Shortly before the accident, a friend of mine gave me a job advertisement from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) he found in a newspaper. The ad was titled ‘Red Hat Linux Specialist’ and sure caught my attention (and my friend’s before, since he knew I was looking for a linux engineering related job and that I live in the Red Hat / Fedora world). I didn’t exactly meet what was asked from a applicant to the job but decided to give it a try anyway. I didn’t have anything to lose, right? So I sent them a small letter, accompanied only by my curriculum vitae (CV). I was then invited to a job interview which turned out not too bad in my eyes. I have no professional work experience in the Linux field yet and as I mentioned I didn’t fulfill what they looked for in an applicant. But a huge plus were my connections in the Fedora and with that also Red Hat community as well as my private interest and activity in Fedora/Linux.
Some time passed, until I heard anything new from the ETHZ. I was then invited to a day in their offices in order to get to know the team, see how good we blend, exchange some knowledge and ideas, see the job I’m applying for and so on. I was told they’re doing the same with other applicant as well so I did not yet have the job but at least, I was in step #2. Well, that day was lots of fun and the I liked the job I was applying for even better after seeing better what it involved than before.
About two weeks later, I was invited to step #3 – the final step, actually. I figure that meant I was their choice #1 but I didn’t have the job at that time. It’s been similar to the first interview, but with a bit more details on the important things between an employer and an employee. It went well, similar to the first one and less than 24h later I had the job.
They told me, that they want me no matter whether my current employer lets me go earlier than the contract says or not which was great since there was a huge chance that he would but there was no guarantee for it at that time. I spoke to my employer at the same day (we had a meeting that day anyway) and we agreed on ending it at the end of January (instead of March).
Starting on February, I’ll be an employee of the ETHZ and be part of a Red Hat Linux team. I hope I can bring in some more Fedora things (like EPEL) and also give the community something back (maybe a Fedora install event or a FUDCon or something like that). Apparently, they’ll also send me to the yearly Red Hat Summit in the USA which I wanted to go to for such a long time already.
On another note, this also means that I’ll move from Bern to Zurich – as soon as I find a flat there that suits me and my wallet well.
