Category: professional

Now, My Life Is Complete

I started my new job on October 26, just several hours after I returned from Europe. I wanted this job more than any other jobs I was interviewing for and/or even briefly considered. However, I was hoping to hear back from someone else.

On Wednesday afternoon, I finally received a message I had been waiting for three weeks: yes, you can start coming to Ferris, and we will discuss everything when you are here. I knew that it “should have happened,” because a resident agreement landed in my Inbox two weeks earlier along with the WiFi login, but I was waiting for this “you can come.”

I’ve admired everything that’s been going on at Ferris since I stepped in there for the first time in March, and I feel lucky to be part of it and to contribute my ideas to what is being developed there. It feels dreamy each time I walk in. I am surrounded by the smartest people, both at my job and at Ferris, and I can’t believe I lived without meaningful conversations for so long. I just hope that things will stay the way they are now. I am definitely “in the right room.”

Interviewing

To be fair, it was the first time in my life that I was officially without a job and officially made myself available on LinkedIn. Most likely, that was a mistake. Most likely, I should have patiently waited for the first company I started talking to to respond. But as everyone knows, patience is not my virtue :). Also, my wealth manager kept asking me how much I would earn a month from my part-time job, and I couldn’t tell him because my onboarding took forever. Again, I probably shouldn’t have started this part-time, but it is what it is, and now I can’t undo what I started.

As I mentioned, the place where I wanted to be most said that they liked me, but now they need someone “more operational “, which is the theme I get all the time through my life, and most of the time, people indeed come back to me in a month or two, but this time, I didn’t have extra time, and more importantly, I was absolutely sure they needed me immediately:), so I kept talking to them. At the same time, since I made myself available, people started to reach out. There were some calls with unacceptably low pay rates, and some with very high rates from the industry I’d just left. There were several “usual suspects“, some interesting and some not. At some point, as I was in different stages of interviewing with six different companies at the same time, it started to wear me down.

I didn’t get any advantage of not working, because I was constantly in the process of interviewing:) or scheduling interviews. By the beginning of October, three companies remained, including the one I started talking to in August and really liked. Another company appeared later than the others, but it looked extremely interesting. Unfortunately, they were very slow in scheduling. I emailed and asked whether they were still interested in talking to me. They said yes, but scheduled an interview for ten days later. Meanwhile, the third company told me there would be several technical interviews, 75 minutes each, and that they would start scheduling.

At that point, I was extremely tired of the whole process. Fortunately, my favorite company came with an offer, which I happily accepted.

Two days later, another super-interesting company reached out, but it was already too late. Overall, the whole process was very different from what I’d expected after reading LinkedIn for several months :). Granted, there were several recruiters who were asking whether I could program in Python and said that that was one of the requirements. My answer was that I am always happy to learn what’s needed, but if they consider a lack of Python skills a showstopper, that wasn’t the right position for me. However, nobody asked me about AI usage, and each company with which I started the actual process needed my brain, not an artificial one :).

This affirms my belief in progress and the overall sanity of humanity.

My Talk At PG Conf.EU

Most times, when I want to share something from my professional blog, I just repost it, but this time, I made a separate post with twice as many pictures, since my former colleague took several dozen!

Yesterday, I spoke about pg_acm at PGConf.EU. Speaking at the world’s biggest Postgres conference is an honor in itself, and I don’t get to present there every year, so I am incredibly thankful to the CfP committee for choosing this talk.

This talk has a long history of rejection and denial of the fact that something could be wrong with Postgres, which made me appreciate this opportunity even more.

My presentation earlier this year at Tallinn PUG definitely helped me shape it better, and I think it went as well as it could have.

Is it too much to ask?!
Can we have this option on Postgres?

Prairie Postgres Is Two! (Professional blog repost)

Two Years of Community Building!

GNU/Linux Meetup

I mentioned it already, but it was indeed my Wednesday highlight! It was the group’s first meeting, and there was quite a crowd! OSS is a huge topic that interests me on many levels (that’s why I jumped at the opportunity to be on the LPI board!)

Robert gave a great talk about the nature of Open Source, and perfectly described all aspects of it:

  • the source code is open
  • you do not pay to use it
  • you do not pay for giving it to anyone
  • you can develop your own products based on an OSS and make money
  • you can contribute

OSS is vital for code quality (you have thousands of testers worldwide). OSS is vital for DEI because anyone from anywhere in the world can use it.

It was very heartwarming to be welcomed at this meetup! I found a surprising number of people interested in what I am doing and interested in volunteering for the Prairie meetup, so I am trying to build momentum. One person with whom I talked told me that it’s the first time he has met someone as enthusiastic about the job they are doing as I am, and that he wants to help my organization. And everyone loved my Prairie shirt 🙂

Today’s Positivities

  1. Mom’s internet was finally fixed! I am exceptionally thankful to Igor, who was able to come and be present during the technician’s visit. I am still switching my mom to another internet provider because I don’t want another poor customer service experience, but at least she has internet and is happy.
  2. I attended the first Chicago GNU/Linux meetup, and it was 2.5 hours of infinite positive emotions! Interested and enthusiastic people, great conversations, lots of new plans and new connections, and a great feeling that I am doing something good and making a positive impact.

Sharing A Vlog About Our Conference

Pavlo creates amazing vlogs, and I am not even jealous; I know I can’t create anything even remotely close to what he produces. Excited to share his vlog about PG DATA 2026 conference (starring me, among others:))

Estonia PUG Meetup

Estonia PUG Meetup

Sponsor Raffles

At the PG DATA conference, we held a “Sponsor Passport” raffle: attendees could stamp their “passports” at each sponsor table, and those passports were then used as raffle tickets.

In case someone doesn’t know, I am not a lottery person at all, and the only reason I placed my passport in the box was to set a good example for others. I was called to draw, and imagine my surprise when I handed Pat the first passport and he said: Hettie!

I thought it was a joke, but it was not: I won a $100 Amazon gift certificate! Even funnier, two other organizers won the prizes, and then one of our meetup members!

Yesterday, at PG Day Boston, they also had Sponsor Passports, and I participated again, joking about my PG DATA experience. A couple of people who attended both joked about the “staged wins.” You will never believe it, but I won a $100 Amazon gift card again! And again, my name was the first to be drawn.

I became somewhat nervous, thinking that this luck is for no good. How did it turn out? I will tell you tomorrow – too tired now!

Traveling To PG Day Boston

My friend and former colleague was in charge of Pg Day Boston; it was the first event in that series, and I promised him I would come. Fortunately, there are plenty of direct flights to Boston from Chicago, but Boston is one hour ahead of us, and to make it a day trip and to get most of the conference, I had to take a 6 AM flight, which meant I had to be up at 3 AM. That was an extreme even for me, but remembering how I stayed in line three weeks ago, I decided to be on the safe side. I even pre-ordered Uber, which I almost never do.

Also, remembering that there was no food on my flight to Vancouver, and that the lounge does not open before 5 AM, I decided to upgrade to First Class. I arrived at the airport on time; the priority boarding didn’t reopen, so I stayed in the line with others, but chose a shorter line this time. Then, I waited for 25 min for the lounge to open. I got a cappuccino, a small yogurt cup, and a small cup of chai pudding, thinking I would have a proper breakfast on the plane, but they didn’t have any food, even in first class! There were drinks and some snacks, like crunchy bars, and that was it. Oh, well. First World problems:)

The conference took place on the 6th floor of the Boston Museum of Science. The great thing about it is that it is very close to the Logan Airport. Since my flight was ahead of schedule, and the ride was less than 15 minutes, I only missed a small part of the keynote. The most difficult part of the whole day was staying awake, alert, and social while being up since 3 AM. I mostly succeeded :). I had several great conversations, made some meaningful comments, and reconnected with several of my former EDB colleagues. I probably could have stayed for the whole social hour after the conference and been on time for my flight, but I chose to spend this extra hour in the airport lounge and have a proper meal. Even though it was rush hour, it still took 15 min to get to the airport (most of the way it was an underground tunnel). No lines at security, great food in the lounge, free in-flight internet (now the norm with AA), early arrival, and a quick taxi ride home (I know by now that taxi is faster on tbd way back, and not that expensive).

I spent zero time in Boston, as expected. I am thinking – it’s sort of funny how you can actually go for a day to Boston with no luggage, no packing; just a regular backpack I take to work. I am not sure whether it was a justified spending of time and money yet, but we’ll see. I mostly went to support Tom, but he appears to be fine anyway. There was enough EBD people, which made up for the lack of external audience, and overall, he is just more relaxed about the whole thing than I :). Besides, he won’t be doing these conferences anymore; there is a new team coming next year.

Anyway, I guess it was good that I went. The event was different from mine, and it’s OK.