Monday, November 4, 2013

Time to start looking

We'll be moving to Auckland in early December as I just accepted a role as a Business Intelligence Developer with a company on Auckland's North Shore. I've had a few interviews as I've been looking for roles that would allow me to utilize my development skills. This role feels like an extension of my previous roles in data and development.  I'll be responsible for SSRS (reporting), SSAS (cubes of relational data for reporting and metrics), and ASP.NET MVC in C# (for the application). 

What does the company do?  They design, manufacture, install, and manage via software sorting systems.  Huh?  Let me paint this picture for you.  You drop off your bag at the ticket counter.  It gets tagged and then takes a magical ride through the underbelly of the airport.  Based on the bag tag it gets routed by a computer system to a carousel to be loaded into a baggage cart and then delivered and loaded onto your flight.  Works most of the time, right?  Well this company makes most of that happen.  The other big client would be companies like FedEx, which utilize conveyor belts to move thousands of packages around the facility to the proper containers to be loaded for exotic places or more likely just across state lines.  It will be interesting to see the operation for a different point of view as I held jobs in both industries in college. They were eager for me to accept and are anxious to get me in the office.  I'm sure I'll learn a lot and rise to any challenges that the new environment brings.

Once I find out exactly what I'll be doing, I'll post it up.  I know right now I'll be in charge of creating an application to deploy report definitions from a central server to client servers when new versions are created in order to keep the remote sites synchronized with the latest version.  I will be drinking from the fire hose when it comes to SSAS, but I'm already been studying and practicing.  

Some of the perks:
Early adopters of technology
Close to lots of sushi restaurants and other tasty places in general
They have an indoor 3-on-3 soccer 'field', weights, heavy bag, and other cycle commuters.
Pay for Microsoft Certifications (Training and Exams)
Travel