Switching jobs...
A lot of things have happened in my life lately. Besides some major personal stuff in my life, I have also accepted a new job offer in Mountain View. After working for almost a year with Expedia.com as a Website Development Engineer, I have now relocated to Santa Clara, California to start my new job as a Software Design Engineer with Microsoft (Silicon Valley Campus). After one phone interview, three full-day onsite interviews, 13 different interviewers from two different teams, I have finally chosen to join the Microsoft TV Foundation Edition team and can't be any more excited about this new position. At the same time, I am excited to be back in my beloved sunshine-state, as I really could not get used to the depressing weather in Seattle, Washington.
Going personal...
Secondly, I have decided to make my blog personal. It’s about time--I hate the fact that people only see my technical side here, as technology is not what drives me. My passion for programming occupies only my career life, but what really drives me on the weekend and takes up 100% of my spare time is my passion for community involvement.
Being Vietnamese...
People in the Vietnamese community probably know me as the co-host of the TV show Dien Dan Khoa Hoc, the co-chair of last year’s Vietnamese Professionals Society North American Conference, or as the creator of the slideshows and trailers for the International Vietnamese Youth Network and other Vietnamese organizations. I have been very involved with the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations for the last several years, and just came back from Washington, DC for the Vietnam Freedom March. This is what really drives me and is what my passion is, and I hope that I can turn my blog into my adventures into that world.
Pursuing Filmmusic...
In addition, I have started to set a new life goal: I hope to be a filmmusic composer in say 5-10 years. I have a pure passion for filmmusic (aka “score”). If the names Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, David Arnold, John Debney, Randy Edelman, Hans Zimmer, Craig Armstrong and Danny Elfman ring a bell, then you know what I am talking about. I’ve always loved this music genre, listen to it all day, in the car, at work, before I go to bed--you name it. I have taught myself keyboard as a kid, but you can only go so far without a private teacher. Now that I am finally taking private lessons on my cheap Yamaha DGX-305, I realize that I truly enjoy composing music and hope that over the next many years I can explore the musical side of mine more.
Wrapping up...
So, contrary to popular belief, I don’t want to be known as a techie or nerd. I do enjoy programming and still think .NET is the coolest thing out there, but if you think that programming is what drives me, then you are dead wrong. I’ll remove my blog from the .NET Developer’s Blog (since I’ll start working for Microsoft anyways) and will post more about my adventures in the Vietnamese community, my musical aspiration, my two lovely cats, my thoughts of being a high school teacher or college professor.... well, personal stuff, I guess.
Happy reading,
Minh T. Nguyen.