One of the things that's helpful about having been at Yahoo more than a few years and having multiple roles during that time is that it provides lots of opportunity to meet lots of people and figure out what they're good at.
As a by-product, I've managed to build up a list of people who constitute my "dream team." These are the people that I wish I could take with me when I move into a new group and/or role. It's rare that you can get 'em to move since these are also the people who are often quite happy in their roles, but it never stops me from trying.
A few weeks ago I got to cross one person off that list. JR Conlin, who has worked in Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! Travel, and several others has officially joined the YDN team as of Monday (2 days ago, that is).
This is most excellent. It can be hard to find people who are good at what they do, interested in what we do, have the right mindset and skills, understand Yahoo, and are willing to jump into the group and give us a chance.
BTW, not only has he been at Yahoo longer than I have (that's saying something) JR is also the guy behind Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day, an unofficial blog where he and a few others post about Yahoo stuff that you may or may not have heard about.
As is tradition in the Yahoo! Developer Network, we're going out for a sushi lunch tomorrow to celebrate. I don't know why, but we go only to sushi places for lunch. In fact, it's always the same sushi place.
Welcome aboard, JR.
Oh, and Yahoo! is hiring in numerous groups for engineering jobs. Ping me if you're interested and a US citizen (H1-B visa lotteries suck).
Update: As Rasmus said, Canadians with professional degrees, and thus eligible for TN status, are ok too.
Update: Okay, what I apparently intended to say was that we'd love to hear from you if you are legally permitted to work in the U.S., as Mike says.
Posted by jzawodn at May 02, 2007 02:16 PM
Canadians with professional degrees, and thus eligible for TN status, are ok too.
Thanks. This is kind of what i've been wanting to do since I pretty much started working, which I believe that was sometime in the latter cretaceous period.
Now, people? Please stop saying nice things about me.
It makes me nervous and on the constant look out for open sewer holes and falling pianos, and I wear a big enough hat as is.
Greencard holders are OK, too. You don't need to be a citizen.
The correct lingo is: You need to be "legally permitted to work in the US".
And the H1B Visa process isn't a lottery, it's first come, first served. Or was that a sarcastic remark, Jeremy?
Man, you can tell I'm not in HR.
Mike, my understanding is that this year it *really is* a lottery. At least that's what I read in USA Today at the Las Vegas Airport yesterday.
Foreign citizens with existing H1-B visas should be ok too. Transferring an existing visa is trivial and does not count against the 65,000 new visa quota. Also the 20k quota for visitors with advanced degrees is another possibility for this year - will probably be a lottery next year though.
Clearly you all know more about this than I do, so let's just say that if you're able to work here and know it, then by all means get in touch. :-)
"A few others" here, just wanted to pile on the congratulations for JR. :) Seems like an awesome group for you.
I couldn't find the usatoday article, but I think you're correct that there's a H1-B lottery this year: According to the news, there were so many submissions that the quota was reached after one day. And I guess there's no way to determine the first-come order based on the postmark :).
"it's always the same sushi place."
I think that's my fault.
Congrats JR, I know he'll do good there.
BTW, if you're into sushi, try Kampai on El Camino Real. I liked it the last time I was there.
