Next Stop: Connecticut

Well, I have some pretty significant news to disperse. I consider it both good news and bad news. I’ve finally figured out where I’ll be starting my career as a software engineer… TopCoder in Glastonbury, CT!

The good news is that I really look forward to my job there, as it appears very exciting and unique. The pay is good too, considering I just graduated college. Also, Connecticut seems to be a place I’ll enjoy living, from the one day that I spent there. It’s not too different from what I’m used to: city/suburban/rural areas all within a few miles of each other. The bad news is that I have to leave behind all of my friends and family. Of course, with the benefits of modern technology we’ll still keep in touch! Plus we all know I’m a pretty independent guy so I’m sure I’ll handle the transition just fine. Hopefully I’ll have an easy time meeting new people in CT. But they won’t be replacements! =)

A lot of you have no idea what TopCoder is or what they do, so I’ll give you a brief overview of the company and what I’ll be doing there. First, the motivation behind the company is that, frankly, a lot of programmers suck. As a result, a lot of software sucks. Companies are starting to realize this and would like to find better programmers. Given that, TopCoder currently does three main things as a company:

• Runs online programming competitions (Single Round Matches and Tournaments, some involving prize money) to rate and rank tens of thousands of programmers.
• Contracts out programming work to its members to develop high-quality software for companies that come to TopCoder for their development needs.
• Acts as an employment agency, searching for programmers who meet the needs of several companies looking for good programmers.

It’s a very unique and interesting business model, and I don’t think anything similar exists out there. They’re still a very small company (around 60 employees) but I’m hoping they’ll make it big some day. ;-) My job will be pretty cool since they’re so small. I’ll pretty much be in charge of developing a new “assessment tool” they’re working on! Definitely a great first step in my career.

Pretty exciting! The next big step in my life indeed. Really, I’m just glad I’ve finally figured out what I’m going to do now that I’ve graduated college. I knew I would’nt have a hard time finding anything, but I wanted to find something exciting and interesting. I think I’ve done just that. Wish me luck!