Wish me luck - Job@nVidia

[Oompa Loompa]

Workers visa ... ehm, what's that?

Don't worry, the company will assign a lawyer to take care of everything. Your contribution will be providing him with plenty of documents over several months. One scary bit is realizing that while you're in the process of applying for a green card you technically can be refused entry to the U.S. (if you leave for a vacation, for example)

But get the job first, *then* you can worry about all this.

 

[Ailuros]

What puzzles me is that how come ATI didn't make a similar offer all this time or have I missed here something?

Well, I think ATi's weakest point is developer relations. nVidia clearly produces more material for developers, tools, pdfs etc. They have understood that application support is the key to sales, especially in the long run. ATi must be much more active both in fetching people and put tools into the hands of developers. While they are very helpful and such once you ask I think they should work on getting better on taking the first step. I wouldn't have thought much about working at either nVidia or ATi if I didn't get the offer.

I didn´t think otherwise hence my former post.

In any case I wish you again all the best. Reading the whole thread I only wish I was about 15 years younger....I would know what I´d choose to do with my life now. Late discoveries *sigh*....

I guess what one could call "healthy" jealousy is allowed in occassions like that.

 

[Humus]

Oki, I'll see if I get it at all first.
All this bureaucrazy ... why do we even have different countries at all? Seams like mostly like a big problem generator to me, especially these days when the world keeps getting smaller.

 

[Humus]

DevRel is kewl (its what I do), but I am not sure you want to be in NVIDIA devrel, since you seem to do a lot of demos you might want to be part of their demo/research team, you know the people that brought you the wolfman and other ugly things

I was under the impression that demo coding would go under devrel too?

 

[Sharkfood]

Congrats Humus. You'll be a neighbor if ya come out here.

Where are you touching down? SJ or SFO? I hope SJ as the drive from SFO is a little harsh coming down 101.

As far as the previous posts go, I cannot emphasize enough the point about salary vs. cost of living. This area is very expensive to live in, with mid to low end townhouses fetching about $300,000.. and rent is like $1200-$1800 roughly for small condo/townhouse style dwellings. Steals can be had obviously, so if your NVIDIA career plans insist on a relocation, be sure to schedule some time for the living arrangements, finance and other considerations- especially if you have a family to bring out or if you are going solo. Heck, NVIDIA may even simply have you as a remote employee if things go well, so who knows.

If you do relocate out here, I think you'll love it here. The weather is nice, lots of things to do. Beach is a short drive west, snow skiing is a medium drive east (Tahoe isnt that far!), forrestry and California redwoods north- Yosemite is a short drive, Monterey for diving.. just everything you could ever possibly want is within reach for a weekend activity.

Unemployment doesnt last more than a matter of minutes out here too. If you are worth your weight in beans, you'll spend the better part of your voicemail retrieval fending off headhunters. AMD, Intel, AMD, IBM, SGI, Sun, Motorola.. all the biggies have offices out here. Lots of game companies too (Cyclone just closed shop near my former employer->3DO, Core/Eidos has an office, as does Campcom.. Nihilistic is just over the bridge in Petaluma, and *hundreds* of others).

I hope you can find a way to stay the weekend after Friday and spend some time sight-seeing. Sat->Sun go visit Sunnyvale/Mountain View.. maybe catch a ride up to SF and eat some of the best Chinese food you've likely ever had in Chinatown. Hit the Wharf and try out some of the clubs.

Cheers,
-Shark

 

[SA]

Congratulations Humus!

 

[Nappe1]

Oki, I'll see if I get it at all first.
All this bureaucrazy ... why do we even have different countries at all? Seams like mostly like a big problem generator to me, especially these days when the world keeps getting smaller.

things between skandinavian countries is easy that you usually don't even notice it, how many things you have to check when going to other countries...

 

[Pete]

Good luck!

 

[demalion]

Re: Congratulations!

however, I suspect the opportunity to make lots of money by doing something you enjoy already could suffice in a pinch.

Yeah, but to be honest, the money isn't pushing me at all. It's nice to get a nice pay (well, he haven't even talked about that, so I don't even know anything about that yet), but money is not the key to happiness. I mean, I'm a student on a budget, but if there's anything missing in my life I'd put things like a loving GF (no, not GeForce ) higher on my wishlist than loads of cash.

Of course it's not, but it removes a worry...and allows you to buy "toys" related to your 1) current hobby that you like 2) your job. It is not often that your "toys" can directly pertain to what you do for a living...

 

[Humus]

Congrats Humus. You'll be a neighbor if ya come out here.

Where are you touching down? SJ or SFO? I hope SJ as the drive from SFO is a little harsh coming down 101.

<snip>

I hope you can find a way to stay the weekend after Friday and spend some time sight-seeing. Sat->Sun go visit Sunnyvale/Mountain View.. maybe catch a ride up to SF and eat some of the best Chinese food you've likely ever had in Chinatown. Hit the Wharf and try out some of the clubs.

Cheers,
-Shark

I'm touching down in San Jose in the friday evening. The intervew will be on tuesday, so I'll have plenty of time to look around a little.

 

[o.d.]

Congrats!

Congrats on the job Humus!

Doing what you enjoy is a great thing!

 

[Humus]

Thanks!
Note though that I don't have the job yet, I'm going for an interview. I think it's a good sign though that they are bringing me over all the way from Sweden to the US to meet me in person, for a total cost of $1,050 as I read on the travel itinerary I've just got, which they pay of course.

Anyway, if anyone wonders, ATi has shown their interest too the latest days. They are fully aware though that I'm going for an interview with nVidia and wished me best luck with it, but hoped that I would at least consider talking with them too before signing anything with nVidia. As I've come quite far in my talks with nVidia, (I've been in touch with them for over a month now about it) it will of course take precedence over ATi's offer, but it's always nice to have something to fall back onto in case nVidia decides they don't have a suitable position for me.
Hehe, I could use it as a discreet threat during the interview, "well, ATi have shown their interest too ... "

 

[pascal]

Dont do that
Enjoy the travel. Why not visit the Great American Park and the Top Gun rollercoast?
Remenber work hard play hard

 

[Entropy]

Halleluja!



Guess you won't have trouble getting your mítts on a GeForce card anymore.

Lycka till!

Jonas Palm

 

[midnight creature]

Humus, just a couple of pointers. Getting a workers visa will take several months upto half a year. I went through this process for 3dfx (mine came through when 3dfx was already part of nvidia). Take into account the cost of living when you get an offer, if they want you in the bay area think very very hard and long since its very expensive compared to most european area's. Language is probably your least worry, one month in a fully english environment does the trick

Most important is that you get to do something you like...

Bay area isn't terrible if you live in the east bay. I live in emeryville (near berkley/oakland) and pay 1200 a month for a nice loft. So long as you use public transportation or live close to where you work its only 1.5-2.x the price of other metro areas stateside (which while a lot is worth every penny if you've lived here and actually use the area to its potential). Do not use apartment listings from places like apartment.com or you will be paying 1500-1600 minimium. Use local pages like http://wwwcraigslist.com to look for cars, apartments and possible gf's

 

[Mephisto]

Anyway, if anyone wonders, ATi has shown their interest too the latest days. They are fully aware though that I'm going for an interview with nVidia and wished me best luck with it, but hoped that I would at least consider talking with them too before signing anything with nVidia.

Well, no wonder, at least two 3d hardware newssites liked to your post about the opportunity. Don't you think company people read newssites? I guess your interview partner at Nvidia has read all your comments in this thread as well as the hints from the others.

 

[RiotSquad]

GL Humus...just bring a few "Norrlands guld" with you so that you all can be yourselves for a while and you should be set.
If you need something to fall back on,get some moonshine and offer it to them,they'll be drunk and sign anything in no time.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Best of luck to you Humus. Good to see someone's good work being recognized and possibly rewareded decently

 

[Humus]

Anyway, if anyone wonders, ATi has shown their interest too the latest days. They are fully aware though that I'm going for an interview with nVidia and wished me best luck with it, but hoped that I would at least consider talking with them too before signing anything with nVidia.

Well, no wonder, at least two 3d hardware newssites liked to your post about the opportunity. Don't you think company people read newssites? I guess your interview partner at Nvidia has read all your comments in this thread as well as the hints from the others.

Yeah, I know. I didn't really expect this to spread like a fire on dry grass a windy day.
I posted it here and only here simply because this is neutral ground and we have some experienced people here. I was just hoping to get some good advice before I go there so I don't make any silly mistakes. Chances are though that posting it was the biggest mistake.
I'm sure they have read it all and I'll have to answer a whole lot of questions about it and some comments I've made. NVidia will of course want me to be a nVidia only guy, but at the same time I feel bad about letting the community down, I have a lot of friends on places like rage3d, and loads of people likes my demos. It's impossible to be on both sides, and I can't just be neutral either if I'm suppose to work for nVidia.

After all though, in my current unemployed state my wish when I release a demo is of course that as many as possible will be able to run it, and I'm sure nVidia understands this. But I understand that they will have concerns if I continue to release ATi specific demos if I get employed.
I've also come to know from well meaning people that the mentality over there is very different from the one in Sweden, that in the US they expect as whole different kind of loyalty. In Sweden it would never be accepted if a company would dictate what employees can do and not on their spare time, what products to buy and use for their own hard earned money etc. If you visit a swedish company like Ericsson you'll find that several employees own Nokia cellular phones instead of Ericssons phones and use them on working time too, and it's not seen as a problem at all.

I just suppose I'll have to adjust to how things are in america, I may need to get informed and get a little time to adjust. They will have to understand that having used ATi cards for the latest 1.5 years does leave some scars that may take some time to heal too.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Don't you think company people read newssites?

I know that we've clocked Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, ATI, Matrox, SiS, STM, Img Tech (of course!), 3Dlabs to name but a few IP addresses reading Beyond3D - of course we don't know who in those companies are reading (although in some cases we can have a pretty good stab at at lease some!).