Wintercity and update

This last saturday we went to Nathan Phillips Square to be part of one of many Toronto's celebrations: Wintercity!! :) It's a celebration of the coolest winter city in the world xD

hehe, I know, I know, you think yours is coolest, but shhhh don't burst my bubble ^^

They had a lot of beautiful fire sculptures that you could admire and use to warm up a little ;)

You can see a few more in my album as always :)

And for an update, today was my second day at my new job and I liked it! I'm pretty tired today, I guess for not working in these 2 months ^^ The people is great and they are from all over the world :)

Also... Today I finally got to apply for my health card! Yesterday got my bank statement in the mail, so I was at 8am this morning asking for my card, like they say, the third time is the charm ;)

Finding a job

One of the most important subjects when anyone is speaking about immigration is how easy is to find a job in our area in the new country. This topic is something you have to think a lot, if there is job in our area, what do I need to work, etc.

When you decide to get a job, you need to have ready at least 2 things, the cover letter and the resumé. Everyone knows about the resumé but the cover letter was completely new for me and I always wrote 3 or 5 lines and sent the email or applied online.

Last week I had a discussion with Igor, how important is the cover letter? He had gotten a few interviews already and I had received nothing at all. So we decided to experiment, I copied his cover letter, adapted it to my area and on friday I started to use the new cover letter and an improved resumé, and decided to give it 15 days to see if it worked. The resumé had the same information as before, just more organized.

My big surprise was on monday (yes, just from friday to monday) when I received 3 calls for 3 different interviews! In fact, today I got 3 more calls for 3 more interviews, and yesterday I took one of the jobs!. My conclusion about the cover letter? VERY IMPORTANT!

About the job, I'm going to be a .NET Developer at Konverge and Know, I'm starting this monday from 9 to 5, and the money is enough to pay for the rent, the food, transportation, phones, cable and Internet! so we are pretty happy with the decision.

The interview was very stressfull! 5 people interviewed me and had to pass 3 tests!

I'm linking here my resumé so you can see the information it has and how is organized, and if you have questions about it, just ask!: Resume . That one is my general resumé, I also have one oriented to programming and one oriented to databases, where I just changed the order of a few things and stuff like that.

My cover letter? This one:

Aiglee Castillo
Phone:
email:
Address

Dear Hiring Manager

I am a Computer Scientist with extensive experience developing applications in Java and SQL databases. I have 5 years of experience in full life cycle of software design process, including web and stand-alone applications.

In each role I have had, I've been responsible for the analysis, design, development, testing and support of existing or proposed software in the company. Surpassed company expectations by designing and developing Java applications that increased productivity automating manual tasks; SIM renumbering was done in 2 days and now is done in 1 hour.

I feel that my easy and fast understanding of programming languages and databases on Linux and Windows environments, and my knowledge and skills of Java, MySQL, SQL Server and Linux would be an asset in this role.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope to have the opportunity to discuss the opening with you in person.

Sincerely,

Aiglee Castillo

A new home

Here are some pictures of our apartment all furnished :D

You can find more here: http://picasaweb.google.com/aiglee.castillo/Home

ICAS Assessment

We have the ICAS Assessment in our hands! The result? Great, comparable to a recognized university in Ontario :D

That should help us find a job faster, we already wrote it in our resumés and registered with Career Bridge, so, we'll se how fast can we find a job now ;)

I have more news, today I enrolled in Ryerson University, just a course for now (Developing Advanced Web Applications Using Java), but I hope that will help too to get a job :) So cross your fingers!!!

New year in Nathan Phillips Square

Hi everyone :D I've been a little bit lost from the blog because we've been busy with the apartment :) Soon I'll have pictures of our home ;)

We recieved the new year in Nathan Phillips Square with live music, fast food stands and portatil bathrooms.


The good things:

• A real adventure and every Torontian has to receive the new year there at least once :)
  
• Live music
  
• Every necessity covered (food, bathrooms)
  
• Security (police, ambulances, firemen)
  
• Fireworks
• Event free of alcohol for the whole family
  

The bad:

• TOO MUCH PEOPLE (more than 40.000 people)
  
• I didn't like the music ^^
  
• So much people that getting to the food, the bathroom or watching the concert was a oddissey (I didn't get to see the concert and I didn't try the other 2)
  
• There is always someone that comes drunk or has hidden alcohol, so there were a few minor incidents
• The sound wasn't very good
  
• Veeeeery cold
  

In the end it was an experience I needed to live :D It was good but I don't feel like going again very soon ;)