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  • diegor 2:58 pm on December 27, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: arm ltd, italians   

    How i’ve got a job at ARM Ltd 

    It’s long time that I don’t write on my blog. I know, I’m bad guy even after all the pressure from my 2 readers :P
    I would wait because this post is particular, special, different from the others. I was waiting the right moment to write it and I think that this moment has arrived.

    I’d like to explain how I’ve got a job at ARM Ltd, in Cambridge (UK). ARM, yes the one of microprocessors. :)

    The aim is to tell you my experience, what I did, what I passed without any pomposity. Indeed, the opposite. I’d like that you understand that with a bit of commitment, goodwill, sacrifices, humility and determination you can also reach yours aims.

    Let’s start.

    I’m Diego Russo, 28 years old, Italian, bachelor degree in computer science, software developer, 5 years of working experience in Italy, passionate of my work. In one word: nerd.

    Everything begins on July, 6th 2011. Maybe some years before, with a dream: to go abroad for working, in a big software firm. I’ve never felt ready and maybe I wasn’t last summer. Anyway this is another story. Since 2006, after getting my bachelor, I’ve started to work as software developer in many projects and companies. Without say too much, you can have a look to my CV and understand my background (here my linkedin profile)

    This 5 years in Italy have been enough to see my professional growth grows slowly. I had great time, working side, colleagues, challenges. Economic/contractual side instead wasn’t so satisfactory.

    On June 2011, I attended to Europython, european conference about Python. In that conference there were  european companies that hired people. Just to explore a bit, I gave away my CVs and I had immediately informal interviews. After that week, I had phone interviews.

    I was saying that everything began on Wednesday July, 6th 2011. I was waiting the call from this Irish company. Besides this, I received 5/6 calls and  as many emails to propose me jobs around the Europe (no in Italy). I thought… What’s happening? Then I remembered that the day before I put my CV (in english) as PDF on monster.com. In fact it was this action to trigger the storm of calls and mails.

    My first question that I asked to myself was: why? The second one was: why not? I decided to “throw me out” despite my not perfect-english (in May I passed with merit the PET) and my no experience with phone interviews, in english at all. I wasn’t so unprepared though, because in June I had two contacts via Linkedin and in that occasion I’ve “studied” using also a course sold by  http://www.italiansinfuga.com (for : I will highly recommend).

    I did many interviews, with many companies more or less famous, among Ireland, UK, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway. Meanwhile I passed two exams at university and had some personal trouble. Despite this, I had determination and I went on. In fact at the end I had the luxury of a choice: triple.

    First offer that I received, was as python developer in a company based in Luxembourg. I had this offer in mid-July, but before to answer it I would see how my other interviews went. I had to answer to this company before August, 5th 2011.

    Meanwhile I did 3 technical interviews with ARM, with different people for a position as Senior Software Developer in IT Department. After these interviews, my recruiter called me to say that I had to fly to Cambridge on August 2nd-3rd in the ARM headquarter  to do the face to face interview. I still remember.. I wat at home alone and after hung up I said two-word: “Oh s**t!” repeated many times.

    Meantime I receive another job proposal from Norway that I didn’t consider because I already had an offer, I had to do a face to face interview, I was having exams. The recruiter insisted and I realised that the job proposal came from ARM Norway. I asked to myself: “How many possibilities are there that a random person that has put his CV on monster.com, he could receive in a limited time (2/3 weeks) two job proposal for the same random company from two different random european offices?”  Apparently a lot.

    Possibilities apart, after a long chat (end July) with an ARM Norway, he decided that I had to do the technical phone interview because I liked him. I asked to him: “How can I do a phone interview with you if on August 2nd and 3rd I’ll be in Cambridge for the face to face interview and within August 5th I have to answer to the company in Luxembourg? Besides I should ask to ARM in Cambridge to give me a response in less than 24h.” He answered: “On August, 4th”. And I: “Actually, there’s no faulting your logic”. I accepted. After hung up, my reaction was the same of before, maybe worse.

    August 2nd comes, I flyed to Cambridge, a chauffeur driver picked me up from London Stansted and he took me to the hotel. It was hot, very hot. Nervous, concerned but also excited. On 3rd I did my interview and I think it went well (come on.. it’s a joke!!). I explained my situation and I wanted a response within 24h. After the interview, the chauffeur driver took me to Stansted and I came back to Rome arriving at home at 3am.

    At 7:30am I woke up, shower, coffee, ready to do the phone interview with Norway. It lasted 3 hours by phone and offline. Also there I reexplained my situation and I gave the name of who I talked to in Cambridge in order to have a feedback about my person. On August 3rd, in the afternoon I receive both the offers: from Cambridge and from Trondheim.

    I can’t remember my reaction, but I remember that I was very excited! I had 3 offers, I had a choice. I had opportunities, the ones that I’ve been dreamt since years.

    That happened after, like calls, mails, trading and the choice are out of the scope of this blog and they are a little bit personal. I think it was the most difficult choice ever made so far. I was changing my life and I did not want to get wrong. I hadn’t to fail. I can say that I’m satisfied with my choice.

    The best ever made. Now I’m in Cambridge at home, writing this post, the post that I’ve always dreamt to write. So far I can say, I didn’t get wrong.

    For any information or question you can leave a comment or write me an email. I’ll happy to answer you :)

     

     

    • Andrea 4:37 pm on December 27, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Ciao Diego, voglio commentare il tuo post in italiano perchè, essendo la mia lingua madre, mi permette di esprirmermi come vorrei.
      Sono all’ultimo anno della triennale in Informatica, vorrei andare a fare la specialistica all’estero (probabilmente stockholm) e leggere il tuo post mi ha fatto tanto piacere. Sono contento alla fine che dopo tanti sacrifici che immagino tu possa aver fatto il tuo blog possa riportare una frase come: “So far I can say, I didn’t get wrong.”. Davvero, riempe il cuore di gioia.
      Ti auguro il meglio

      Andrea

      p.s. Ma perchè non ci parli un po’ anche delle cose negative sul tuo lavoro e sulla tua permanenza lì a Cambridge? Sarebbe fantastico..

      • diegor 5:15 pm on December 27, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Ciao Andrea, grazie per il commento. L’unica cosa che ti posso dire è di seguire i tuoi sogni in maniera attiva e non passiva come fanno molti (e che non vanno da nessuna parte). Non sarà facile, ma se lo vuoi ce la farai.
        Grazie ancora per il tuo commento :)

        PS: ancora è poco che sono qui, dammi tempo :)
        PPS: c’è anche il corrispettivo in italiano: http://www.diegor.it/it/2011/12/27/how-ive-got-a-job-at-arm-ltd/

    • ilaria 9:32 pm on December 27, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      sono contenta, questo post mi aiuta a non perdere le speranze!

      • diegor 2:24 am on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Ciao Ilaria, grazie per il commento. Non perdere mai fiducia in te stessa e tieni duro! Vedrai che tutto andrà bene ;)

    • Marci 11:08 pm on December 27, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Bravissimo!

    • Giulia 2:46 am on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Grande Diego! e grazie a questa scelta stasera abbiamo appena passato una serata tra chiacchiere e birra a Cambridge! Complimenti e spero che questa avventura non ti dia troppo da scrivere sugli aspetti negativi ma solo su quelli positivi! :) good luck!

      • diegor 10:51 am on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Giulia, si hai ragione! A volte il destino ci riserva cose belle :) Beh, sicuramente non mancheranno le cose negative anche se spero vivamente siano meno di quelle positive :P

        Thanks!

    • Mimmo 10:47 am on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      chi non conosce la celeberrima ARM ltd? tutti hanno un processore della Arm ltd, Intel è una perdente

      • diegor 10:54 am on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Ciao Mimmo, gia` vero. Chi e` nel campo ne ha sentito parlare :P Va beh, intel e` un colosso ma ARM nel suo “piccolo” ha un grande fetta di mercato ed il 2012 aspettati delle belle sorprese :P

    • holly 12:11 pm on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      un curriculum dettagliatissimo!! complimenti!!!!consigli su come realizzarlo ? dv hai tratto spunto? siti, libri…?

      • diegor 12:18 pm on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Ciao, grazie, anche se non e` perfetto :) Comunque evita il modello europeo (quello e` l’anticurriculum) L’ho scritto in Latex utilizzando la classe “moderncv” ma comunque se vai su vari siti ci sono molte nozioni su come scrivere un CV. Basta googlare un po’ :)

    • Anastasia 4:20 pm on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Complimenti diego sono felicissima per te!! :)

    • Mimmo 5:08 pm on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      xchè cancellate i commenti?

    • Jacopo 9:08 pm on December 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      congratulazioni !

    • Simone Brunozzi 10:16 am on December 29, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      E bravo Diego!

    • Marco 12:53 pm on December 29, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Mitico Diego! Che invidia (di quella sana, si intende :-)

      In bocca al lupo e scrivi più spesso!

    • Cristiano 4:32 pm on December 29, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      E bravo Diego! Il tuo esempio è fondamentale per far capire ai giovani che la nostra vita è un campo da coltivare, ma per quanto sia duro il lavoro, arrivano sempre i frutti alla fine =)
      Mi permetto solo di sottolineare una cosa: sicuramente ci sono in europa paesi molto più avanzati, intraprendenti e magari più aperti ai giovani che in italia, ma non dovete pensare che in italia non ci siano possibilità di lavoro e/o idonea renumerazione!
      Il vero limite italiano è che nessuna azienda si preoccuperà mai della vostra formazione, siete voi che dovrete farlo per voi stessi!
      Una volta che avrete creato il vostro bagaglio culturale però, per lo stesso identico motivo, la richiesta sarà altissima, bisogna solo stare attenti a non scegliere settori iper-inflazionati o destinati ad un normale declino generazionale.
      =)
      p.s. sono un consulente informatico (un libero professionista), ho 26 anni e lavoro nel settore dell’IT(C) da 7 anni, lavoro in tutta italia e ho diverse collaborazioni estere a livello europeo.

      • diegor 3:56 pm on December 31, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Grazie mille per il tuo commento! Spero che possa aiutare molti italiani che rimangono in Italia!

    • Tommaso 4:40 pm on December 29, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Ovvia, finalmente il post che svela il mistero su “dove è finito Diego Russo?” e soprattutto… come ci è arrivato!! ;)

      Beh sono senza parole. Complimenti!!

      Avevi tre offerto, una sola scelta… e hai fatto quella giusta!!

      Adesso devi continuare a raccontarci come prosegue la storia però!! ;)

      • diegor 3:56 pm on December 31, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Tommaso, piano piano :) É un libro aperto…

        Grazie mille!

    • Gianluca 3:01 pm on December 31, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Ciao Diego, complimenti! Sono felice che tu abbia finalmente trovato il lavoro dei tuoi sogni, te lo meriti dopotutto!

      A presto, magari al prossimo EuroPython 2012 ;-)

      • diegor 3:57 pm on December 31, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Grazie mille! Certo che ci si vede lì! Chi se lo perde?!? :)

    • Walter 8:32 pm on January 1, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Hola Diego, felicitaciones por tus logros. Gracias por compartirlos! Te deseo lo mejor para el 2012!!

      • diegor 9:29 pm on January 1, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        Muchas Gracias Walter!!! Espero que este 2012 sea exitoso para ti tambien! :)

    • Fraintesa 11:03 am on January 2, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      complimenti, bravissimo e un grande in bocca al lupo!

    • Gabriel 8:14 am on January 4, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Un amico mi ha twittato questo post: pure io ho avuto un’esperienza molto simile alla tua, in tempi molto simili, e ora da un paio di mesi lavoro felicemente all’estero (Germania). É incredibile come strumenti quali monster e linkedin possano aprire un mondo a chi ha un minimo di esperienza, skill e voglia di mettersi in gioco. Spesso é proprio quest’ultima a mancare…
      Gli headhunter sono sempre a caccia, e a ogni variazione del tuo CV ti bombardano di telefonate e email. :-)
      In bocca al lupo per la tua nuova esperienza!

      • diegor 11:14 am on January 4, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        Si hai perfettamente ragione. Pensa che tempo fa aggiornai il Cv e lo misi su mosnter. Il giorno dopo ricevetti 15 chiamate ed altrettante mail/contatti linkedin. Perfino il mio recruiter mi chiese se tutto era ok perche` aveva visto il mio CV risalire in “classifica” e se ero felice con la mia posizione. L’ho assicurato dicendogli: “volevo solo aggiornare il mio CV con la mia corrente posizione”. Alla fine ho dovuto mettere “privato” il mio CV altrimenti le chiamate sarebbero continuate per giorni.
        Crepi ed in bocca al lupo anche a te!

    • Annalisa 4:32 pm on January 4, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Ciao! Complimenti!!!!
      Devo dire che sei stato anche molto fortunato, perchè ti sei trovato al posto giusto, al momento giusto. Vorrei chiederti un consiglio…Siccome vorrei anch’io trovare lavoro all’estero, Monster può essere utile anche per chi non è laureato?
      Grazie mille se potrai rispondermi.
      p.s. spero di aver anch’io un po’ di fortuna durante quest anno

      • diegor 7:25 pm on January 4, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        Si, la fortuna ha la sua bella fetta. come si dice “Audaces fortuna iuvat” :) Beh dipende che tipo di lavoro stai cercando e quanta esperienza professionale hai nel campo. Sicuramente questi sono tutti elementi che potrebbero aumentare le tue chances.
        Se ti ci metti, vedrai che anche tu avrai fortuna.

    • stefano 8:39 am on January 6, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      bravo Diego..così si fa, e cosa si deve fare!! Non esistono altre strade!!

      • diegor 10:19 am on January 6, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        Ciao Stefano, grazie mille. Beh diciamo che altre strade ci sono, io ho solo percorso la mia :) Comunque qualsiasi strada percorri, mai fermarsi al primo ostacolo.

  • diegor 3:25 pm on September 24, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    HOWTO: select a specific python package version using easy_install 

    “easy_install” installs the latest version available of a python package. Sometime you need to use a specific version and you can install an earlier version of the package you need. For instance, if you need django 1.1.4, you’ll type:

    #> easy_install "django==1.1.4"

    Pretty simple eh?

    Questions, doubts, comments are appreciated :)

     

  • diegor 8:13 pm on September 19, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    HOWTO: import old logs in AWStats 

    AWStats is a great software to analyse Apache logs for having statistics about your sites. Unfortunately it doesn’t offer a tool to import old logs into AWStats. For that I’ve created a small python script to do this. Here you go:

    import commands
raw_data = commands.getoutput('ls -rt /var/log/apache2/wespot-access80.log.*.gz')
logs = raw_data.splitlines()
for log in logs:
    commands.getoutput('zcat %s > /tmp/tmplog' % log)
    commands.getoutput('/usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -update -config=config.site.com -LogFile=/tmp/tmplog')

    If you have problems, comment this post! :)

     

    • Andrea Corbellini 11:09 pm on September 19, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Hi! AWStats ships with a tool (logresolvemerge.pl) which does exactly the same thing. Also, I think the best way to use the script is not via a temporary file, but specifying something like this in the configuration:

      LogFile=”…/awstats-7.0/tools/logresolvemerge.pl …/access.log* |”

      The pipe symbol tells AWStats to read logs from the output of the command instead of from a file.

      [This is with AWStats 7.0, I don't know about older versions]

      • diegor 10:51 am on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Thanks Andrea for your suggestion! When I used AWStats, there wasn’t any tool to do that, so I created my own :)

  • diegor 10:08 pm on September 7, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

    Something is changing 


    Stay tuned!

     

  • diegor 6:06 pm on July 29, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    HOWTO: rename all files in lowercase 

    Pretty simple.

    1. If you don’t have a *NIX operating system, please skip this post.
    2. Create a script with this content: 
      #!/bin/sh
for f in *; do
g=`expr "xxx$f" : 'xxx\(.*\)' | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
mv -n "$f" "$g"
done

      and call it “rename.sh”

    3. Give it execution permissions, typing: 
      chmod u+x rename.sh
    4. Execute the script from the directory where you have your files to rename
    If you have two files, “Foo” and “foo“, you’ll be notified and no files will be overwritten. So, don’t worry about that, you won’t lose any information. To be sure, try it with a few files in “/tmp” directory.
    Question? Suggestion? Comment! :)

     

     

    • Luca De Vitis 6:26 pm on July 29, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      ls -1 | while read file ; do mv -nv “${file}” “$(echo “${file}” | tr ‘[A-Z]‘ ‘[a-z]‘)” ; done

      • diegor 6:53 pm on July 30, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Hi Luca, thanks for the trick.
        I tried but it doen’t work.. I have this:

        “namefile not overwritten”

        It works only if I drop “-n” option from mv command (too risky!!)

  • diegor 3:14 pm on June 18, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    HOWTO: postgresql on Dremhost Private Server 

    If you have a PS with DreamHost and you need to use PostgreSQL as database, you’ll see that’s impossible to login with postgres user and so you won’t able to use PostgreSQL.
    Dreamhost supports officially only MySQL, so they don’t provide any info about PostgreSQL.
    Anyway the problem of using PostgreSQL in DH’s PS is permit the login to postgres user. Follow this two steps:

    1. Become root, typing: 
      #>sudo su
    2. Edit /etc/passwd file and find the line containing postgres. Change it from: 
      postgres:x:32:32:PostgreSQL administrator,,,:/var/lib/postgresql:/bin/false

      to:

      postgres:x:32:32:PostgreSQL administrator,,,:/var/lib/postgresql:/bin/bash

    Now you can become postgres user and you can use PostgreSQL.
    Doubts? Comment! :)

    PS: Are you looking for a serious, riable and fast hosting? So Dreamhost is for you! Use Dreamhost promo code “DIEGOR” or click on this link to get 50$ off right now!

     

    • jack1852 5:16 pm on June 18, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Domanda forse stupida: cos’è che viene cambiato rispetto a prima? (sappi che non ho un hosting su Dreamhost, solo curiosità linuxiana :P )

      • diegor 11:17 pm on June 19, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        La cosa che cambia è il comando da eseguire al login. Ho editato il post. Grazie per la precisazione.

        • jack1852 6:28 pm on June 20, 2011 Permalink | Reply

          In pratica abiliti la possibilità di login dell’utente postgres. Dovrebbe funzionare anche il comando (sempre da root): usermod -s /bin/bash postgres ;)

  • diegor 11:40 am on June 13, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    HOWTO: using telnet to make HTTP request 

    Telnet is an old utility used in local network to offer a bidirectional communication text-oriented using a terminal. Can be used also to make an http call to a remote server with the purpose of testing. Let’s see how:

    1. Open you favorite terminal
    2. Type (instead of diegor.it you can choose whatever server you want) 
      #> telnet diegor.it 80

      and you should have as output:

      Trying 75.119.192.123...
Connected to diegor.it.
Escape character is '^]'.
    3. Now type:
      4. GET / HTTP/1.1
host: diegor.it
<line feed>

      where “/” is the remote path. In this case we want the root. The output looks like this below:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:06:43 GMT
Server: Apache
Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0
Pragma: no-cache
Expires: Wed, 11 Jan 1984 05:00:00 GMT
Last-Modified: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:29:48 GMT
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Content-Length: 85589
Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8

...

    Pretty simple! Any questions or comments are welcome.

     

    • Paolo Bernardi 12:17 pm on June 13, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Careful there, maybe that MaxOS X telnet is very smart, but usually the command is in the form “telnet hostname port”. So, ‘telnet http://www.diegor.it 80′ is a better way to do this, the protocol is specified by the port number. :-)

      • diegor 12:29 pm on June 13, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        I can’t get what are you saying. Where’s the “error”?

      • diegor 12:32 pm on June 13, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        Ok, now i get it. The problem is that this fucking wordpress put “http://” as prefix in www addresses

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