Joining Wonga

After 5 years with ING, I decided to change the course of my professional journey and join Wonga, an UK Startups behind cool technology in micro lending business.  Myself and my family will move to Dublin Ireland where I will work in Wonga Dublin Technology Center.

6 months in ING Direct Spain

Today marks 6 months of my tenure in ING Direct Spain. So it is helpful to have some reflections.
1. My job is primarily administrative. During the time, I was involved in a couple of troubleshooting issues, for which we are able to find out a root cause and proposed a conclusive solution.

2. The second thing is my effort to refactor our JBoss infrastructure and to use git to track and manage the change. One lesson I learned from that is not matter what sophisticated we are using, the key of success is ability a) to figure out what is specific and what is common and b) to reduce number of configuration items.
At the beginning I tried to track configuration items on each machine as one git branch but it turns out into a horror of hundreds of un-manageable branches. At the end I thrown it and start to divide the monolithic configuration into smaller parts, parametrize them for reuse. After that using git or any other VCS for tracking them is just as walk in a rose's garden.

3. The third thing I have started is documentation of our infrastructure, I decided to use wiki for doing it. It turned out to be a good choice. The document is very up to date and practical because I use the document during my daily work so whenever I find a gaps between the document and the reality, I correct it. Update documentation is not separated task but a part of my day-to-day activities.

4. An the last thing is my research to look for a central authentication solution for our unix farm of mix LINUX, AIX and Solaris. I have tested PAM & Open LDAP combination for a while but at the end I have selected and recommended Likewise with the existing Active Directory as authentication server due to a lower cost of installation and operation.

Joining to ING Direct Spain

ING Group decided not to launch ING Direct Operation in Japan, as result I moved to ING DIRECT Spain. As for non European citizen, the visa process take long time for me. But finally I landed to Spain Office at the end of July.
This is logical step in my career, I want to stay with ING DIRECT and the job market has still very tough. I returned to Europe after 12 years, I moved from Prague to Hanoi in July, 1997.
The first two weeks in the Spain Office is exciting, people are friendly, HR is supportive, office is nice, lunch is free, job is interesting. But like you got marry and went to honeymoon, this period does not last forever. Back to reality, I have to be pragmatic, find the way to integrate to the team and the community, be helpful and continue the journey in my career path.
Weather is Spain in this season is good especially in the morning, drop me a call or a message whenever you go Madrid, I would love to meet you for a drink, tapas.

Develop an international career - Recruiters

Recruiters (a.k.a Head Hunters) play a vital role in the job market. Many big companies use services of recruiters when they need to hire someone (they do not recruit directly). I myself and a lot of my colleagues got a job by a recruiter.
Below is a list of the most well known recruiters
- Robert Half
- Robert Walters
- Hays
- Wall Street
- Hudson
There are many smaller but also very good recruiters, who are constantly looking for a good candidate in all countries over the world. If you are somehow visible and your skill fit a opening position, they will contact you.
I got my first job via placement of a smaller recruiter named Juno located in New York.

Develop an international career - Make yourself visible

No matter how good and skilled you are,it is useless if no one know about it. So make yourself visible, post your resume to professional websites and social networks, create your own blog, subscribe to interested user groups, participate in an online discussion.
Keep in mind that all these techniques only work if you keep your data up to date. When a recruiter doing executive search and find your resume within dozens of others,he/she will easily exclude you if your resume is 2 years old.

Few years back I created my blog. It has only professional content and I decided to keep it in English because my intention is not to have many readers but the right one. Those are recruiters, potential employers and colleagues. I believe, that it helps me to get my first and also second job. Looking at site analytic of the blog, I don't see much traffic but I can identify those coming from area where I received a job offer or where my recruiter is located.

Linked In is great social networking site for professionals, so I would recommend to register and put your career information there.

Again, don't expect anything happened over night, it will take time.

Develop an international career - Resume

This post is created (based on my own experiences) for people who want to work out of their home countries and therefore develop their career internationally. It can be used as an advice.
You have generally only one career, so don't let it goes based on some unexpected events. If you really want to work abroad in developed countries, be prepared that it will take time to get a job. It can be two years or more depending on many factors. During this time, you may need take many actions to move into that direction.

Resume (a.k.a CV) is your ticket for entering job market. Write your resume with care and update it gradually and of course it should be in English. During last few years, I spend many hours to re-write many time my resume as well as to ask friends, colleagues and career's adviser for my resume's correction. I have to admit that I am still not satisfied with my resume as there is a lot of things to improve.

I also spend time to read resume of others, who work in the same industries and/or share a similar knowledge and career path. It help me a lot to get know how others present themselves, so I can adjust my resume to highlight my strength.

My resume - LANGUAGE

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• Vietnamese, English, Czech

My resume - EDUCATION

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Charles University Prague, Czech Republic

• MS in Computer Science (data engineering specialization) - 1997
• BS in Computer Science - 1994

Retrospective 2008

Year 2008 was marked by an important event of my life and my career. I have joined ING Direct Japan (INGDJ) and moved to Tokyo in September. So far I feel OK. Within last 4 months, I have done a couple of things. Technically
1. Learned how to manage WebSphere Application Server and MQ infrastructure in a complex IT environment for banking business.
2. Write a bundle of ruby scripts to perform administrative activities related to WebSphere including system monitoring, log management and application deployment.
3. Learned JVM internal stuff like GC, heap dump, core dump analysis tools, JAVA decompiler and JVM assembler language
4. Use VIM (as primary editor) and GIT
5. Learned Python and it's Java implementation Jython primarily and use it for WebSphere Application Server scripting

First few days in ING Direct Japan

The first day was just for formality. I was given temporary access card (RFID card), seat and account to access the company computer. Then a lady from IT team took me to the local ward office for alien card registration and to local bank (Shinsei) to open a account to which the company can pay me.
The second day is workshop on kind corporate value and culture , they called it Orange value, where we listened to the CEO speed of ING group system of value, did self introduction, play game, conduct group discussion organized by external consultant.

Joining ING Direct Japan

I have given a resignation letter to the CEO of CSE, the company that I worked for 11 years. Officially I will join ING Direct Japan at the end of August and will move to Tokyo.
Taking such decision is not easy, CSE is not just my workplace, it is part of my life, where I put a lot of my desire and hope. These past 11 years was rewarding and I never regret of the decision to move from Prague to Hanoi in 1997. But it is time to change.
If anyone have chance to be in Tokyo, don't forget to drop me a e-mail, I will be pleased to go with you for a drink.

My resume - SUMMARY OF SKILLS

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Business Analysis & Leadership

• Able to attract, retain and lead people. Led team up to 25 developers, responsible for task planning, technical direction, risk management, code inspections, quality control, performance reviews, staff development. Understood how to create working environment to keep people happy, motivated, creative and productive.
• Solid presentation skill, proven in communication with customers, understanding problems, capturing domain knowledge and turning it into high level requirements in suitable form for development team and other stakeholders.

Domain Knowledge

• Financial industry: retail and investment banking, automated trading systems, communication protocols including SWIFT, ISO8583 and FIX. Involved in proposal preparation, conceptual definition and prototyping automated trading system for brokerages based on Marketcetera platform.
• Communication industry: Business processes, practices and standards in communication industry including eTom, SID, OSSJ, Mobile Network Architecture, IN, and TAP3. Hands-on experience in ERP implementation including Billing, Fulfillment, and Accounting.
• Government sector: Hand-on experience in government sector including law enforcement, criminal justice, immigration. Good knowledge in biometrics technology (face and fingerprint) and it's application in government's projects including national ID Cards, and Immigration.

Software Development

• More than 15 years experience in developing software products with deep knowledge of architecture / design of multi-tiered client-server systems based on middleware including Tuxedo, J2EE (WebSphere, WebLogic) and other emerging Web framework as Ruby on Rails.
• Skillful in many programming languages including C/C++, JAVA, SQL, PL/SQL, RUBY. Passionate for the simple and easy to understand software with rich domain model. Well versed in OOP, design patterns (Design Patterns - GoF, Pattern for Enterprise Application Architecture - PEAA, Domain Driven Design).
• Strong knowledge of algorithms and data structures and their applications in writing a high performance, time critical system for complex business domain.
• Extensive experience with state of art software development practices such as pair programming, Test Driven Development (TDD), refactoring, continuous integration.

System Integration Using Messaging System

• More then 7 years in design and implementation of software systems that communicate with each other using asynchronous messages. Understand message creation and processing patterns (Enterprise Integration Patterns) and their applications in real world systems.
• Engaged as system architect in many projects that use Event-driven Architecture (EDA) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) integration style.

Infrastructure's Design, Implementation & Administration

• More than 10 years experience in design, implementation and ongoing maintenance of complex IT infrastructure, that includes J2EE middleware (WebSphere AS, WebLogic), messaging system (MQ), database (Oracle), Unix servers, clustering system, IBM SAN DS series, IBM Tape libraries TS series, Tivoli Storage Manager, CISCO router, PIX firewall and VMWARE virtual technology.
• Proven in writing script (SHELL, RUBY, PYTHON) to automate repetitive administrative activities including monitoring, deployment, configuration change, etc.

My resume - EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

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ING Direct Spain, Jul. 2009 - Present

Infrastructure's Software Engineer

• Administer softwware infrastructure of WebSphere Application Server, JBOSS AS for direct banking system

ING Direct Japan, Sep. 2008 - Apr. 2009

Technical Analyst WebSphere

• Maintain middleware infrastructure of WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere MQ for core banking system
• Plan, install, configure and troubleshoot large scale WebSphere Application Server ND and MQ in AIX environment
• Perform application software deployment, update, performance tuning and other house keeping activities
• Provide assistant for application development team in problem identification and solving
  
• Middleware Monitoring System: directly involved in design, develop and implement monitoring system for middleware infrastructure including exception, performance, capacity monitoring
  
• Application Software Deployment Automation: directly involved in design and implementation system for automatic application software update that ensure fast, reliable, error free deployment with no downtime

Centre of Software Engineering - Vietnam, Dec. 1998 - Jul. 2008

Technical Director

• Managed software development process and quality
• Prepared technical proposal and system architecture
• Provided training/mentoring on software design, pattern, refactoring, testing
• Participated in various development/implementation projects by rotating between different roles according to the need at each project phase (team leader, project manager, business analyst, software developer)
• Border Control System: managed the project to design, develop a J2EE application for immigration department and deploy under BEA WebLogic in major international airports across the country, integrate it with existing backend system using messaging middleware and perform data migration. Responsible for all technical aspects including overall architecture, software development, performance, quality control, server installation and production support.
• Data cleansing for law enforcement agency: led a team to perform cleansing of a massive database of hundreds of million of records. Directly involved in design and development algorithm, data structure and rule engine in C/C++.
• Utilities Billing - Hanoi Water Work Company: Led a team that implemented a distributed billing and customer management system based on ORACLE and JAVA. In charge of overall system design (including custom developed system, IT infrastructure component selection, data migration strategy) and development of data synchronization module using JMS.
• Telecom Billing and Order Fulfillment System: Responsible for implementation of high performance (up to 20,000 event per second), nearly real time event rating engine using C/C++, Tuxedo and database in memory technology.
• Personnel Management Information System - Ministry of Home Affair: Managed the development and implementation the Personnel Management Information System for public sector fund by Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation. The system was developed mainly using ORACLE PL/SQL and ORACLE Database.
• Electronic Library - Institute of Mathematics - Vietnam: Participated in concept definition, architecture and technology selection (ORACLE and PERL).

Centre of Software Engineering - Vietnam, Jul. 1997 - Nov. 1998

Software Developer, Database Administrator, Team Leader

• Performed installation, maintenance, support ORACLE Database System
• Designed, developed and implemented framework/library for data synchronization
• Utilities Billing - Hochiminh Cities Water Supply Company: managed a final phase of the project to implement of billing and customer's care for Hochiminh Cities Water Supply Company using ORACLE PL/SQL and ORACLE Database. Directly involved in development of module for data synchronization between branches and head quarter
• Document management system: Installed, maintained, provided support ORACLE Database System ,Ministry of Science and Technology .

Notia Information System - Czech Republic, Apr. 1994 - May 1997

Software developer, Team leader

• Performed installation, maintenance, support ORACLE Database System
• Participated in various software development projects under different roles team leader, software developer, database administrator, technical support personnel
  
• Custom developed ERP - Altron Czech Republic: Led development team in the project to develop and implement of ERP for a distribution and retail company in Czech Republic using ORACLE database design and GUI development in Borland Delphi.
• Fixed Asset Management - Eurotel Prague: Participated in design a fixed asset management software for a mobile phone company based in Prague.
• ERP Package Software: Responsible for development and support of C++ part A/R, A/P of ERP package software, that have been deployed to hundreds of customer in Czech Republic.

Metasoft - Czech Republic, Jun. 1993 - Jan. 1994

Software Developer

• Developed, customized software, provided technical support
• Implemented software supporting activities of an accommodation agency

My resume - TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION

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Oracle E*Business Suite Training (one week at IBM Singapore) - 2005

BEA Tuxedo 8 Administration Training (one week at BEA in Malaysia) - 2002

Project Management Training (3 weeks at Asia Institute of Technology (AIT) Thailand) - 2000

Software Engineering Conference (CASE University of Technology &Thomson CSF) - 1999

AIX 4.3 System Administration Certification (IBM Certified) - 1999

Oracle Certified Professional on Oracle8 DBA - 1999

RS/6000 Solution Sales Certification (IBM Certified) - 1999

My resume - PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE AND TOOLS

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Operating Systems

• AIX 4.3/5L, HACMP 4.3, Solaris 7/8, SCO Unix, Windows NT/2000/XP, Linux (Redhat Debian, Ubuntu)

Middleware

• Websphere ND 6, WebLogic Server 8.1, Websphere MQ 6, Tuxedo 8.0, Tomcat, Ruby on Rails

Database

• Oracle8i/9i/10g, Oracle Real Application Cluster, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, Microsoft Access

Programming Languages

• JAVA, C/C++, Ruby, Oracle PL/SQL, Visual Basic, PASCAL, PROLOG

Tools

• IDEA IntelliJ, Microsoft Visual C++, Rational Rose, Oracle Designer/Developer, Borland Delphi, Toplink, iBATIS, Subversion,Git, Svn, Ant, Maven, Cruisecontrol , JIRA, Mingle, Microsoft Project & Office Suite

Notia

At my early time in Notia (in 1993 if my memory is correct), I has participated in a project, that develop a ERP package that includes General Ledges, Account Payable, Account Receivable, Warehouse Inventory modules. The technology used that time was Novell B*trieve as database engine, C++ and for business logic, Borland Turbo Vision for C++ for GUI. At that time, Tran Duc Trung was leader, based on university compiler's knowledge, he developed a kind of Domain Specific Language, that allow end-users or implementors define posting rules using that DSL. The "posting rules" DSL is comprehensive featuring expression, AND, OR boolean condition, with Account, Money concept. Other team member, Martin Smid went so far and defined other DSL for reporting function. we called it FRT. Until now, I have not seen better reporting tool with such flexibility, elegance, and easy to used. Other other side, we also faced a lot problems. One of them is that MS*DOS can not run program with more than 1MB static data segment. C++ is also not good choice for GUI development, we encountered a lot of errors related to allocation/free memory, using pointer. And one of most ironical is in using of the DSL itself. The software developers didn't understand well accounting to be honest we was not willing to learn it on the other hand implementors and customers was not matured enough in using the DSL in effective manner. Despite these facts, Notia was able to sold the software and implement it in hundreds customers including few big names as ABB.

My second job

In 1992, one friend introduced me to Notia, an finance consulting, auditor and software development company in Prague. Then I joined Notia as programmer. This was one of most important milestone in my professional career and Notia was my employer until 1996. I have worked for the company in many projects, playing different role, getting a lot of wonderful friends, learned many new things. My first team leader was Tran Duc Trung, who is now Chief Architect for NetBean at Sun Microsystem.

My first job as programmer

When people are getting older, they tend to lost the past memory. I am not an exception. That is a reason (just to keep the memory) why I want write about my past professional experiences. My career has started quite early in 1991, when I was in the second year at Mathematic and Physic Faculty of Charles University in Prague. At that time a friend of my recommended me a part time work for Metasoft, a software company doing customized software for small enterprises. My task is to customize a application software that will support operation of an accommondation agency. The propgram is pretty simple, the agency has a list of apartments, house and vila for renting. The question, they are intereted is if some houses, apartments or vila of requested capacity are available for a particular period. The program has been writen in Clipper programing environment (simmilar foxpro) on MS DOS.