Shaz Amjad

Highlights of my trip to Bahrain (in no particular order):

1. Bahraini's taking a good hour before allowing me into the country!
2. The incoherent laughter about my flight on the ride from the airport (thanks mo!)
3. A picnic in the park that turned into an all out war against the bees. And cramping/pulling my leg muscle.
4. Power sliding a rental automatic (Sorry Ahmed! It had to be done!)
5. Seeing a Rueda up front, and doing capoeira after such a long time.
6. Playing "Free Love" for Za's birthday.
7. Clubbing in Bahrain. The sausage fest, the drunken assault, the night lasting til 5am.
8. Getting my hair molested.
9. Learning how to play Fifa from the master himself.
10. Discovering 98 fake hummers. And nearly half as many real ones!
11. Having the breakfast of a lifetime. Or one that would last me approximately 2 days.
12. Disbelief at the price of petrol (£15 for 60 liters?!?!).
13. Discovering Oreo Cake
14. Discovering Kono Pizza
15. THE AVENGERS!!!!!
16. Poking Mona.
17. Inability to play Basketball.
18. Going for the perfect dive, stopping mid-air and falling flat like a board into the pool. Body wouldn't stop stinging for an hour!
19. Embarrassing Ahmed. Annoying Ahmed.
20. Hitting like 4 perfect shots on the driving range. Out of 200.
21. Who the hell thought a full duck was a good idea for a starter? 50% off food. Damn. And the half banana me and Ali shared.
22. Burnt Tyres!

I'm sure there's moments I've completely forgotten to add up there but hey - for having been there just over a week it was one hell of an adventure!

Lots of love to Ali, Fatema, Jak, Za, Mona and of course Ahmed! Thanks for having me guys! And of course - ya'all better be planning a pretty epic holiday to come see me in Australia!

With the onslaught of a staggering number of career / recruitment website's lately - I thought I'd give a quick run down on the process that we went through when building qreer.com.

One of the largest recruitment companies in the Netherlands noticed two voids in the market:

1. There's no recruitment website catering for highly skilled / technical / educated professionals such as engineers.
2. There's no recruitment website covering Europe as one entity; EU nationals are allowed to work/travel through other EU countries with minimal restrictions.

The idea for Qreer was born, and soon we were in Eindhoven going through all the nitty gritty details of what needs to be built.

Lesson 1: Hire a Designer / User Experience Guru from the Onset

We did do some mockups, some designs, some wireframes and some user journeys. We had a very thorough spec in place of what we wanted, but we weren't "complete" on what it should look like. In hindsight, a designer should've been brought in from Day 1 - and from there on we should've had some wireframes / mocks of every single page on the website. The designer would've gone back and designed pretty much every page (as tedious as it may be) - and we should've sat down again and gone through everything. This would've allowed us to see exactly what the finished product would like, and make any changes before any part of the build actually commenced.

By far the most important lesson, and one that could have potentially saved months of work in the long run. Instead, pages and features were built, feedback acted on, rinse and repeat. It meant that we were constantly iterating, and changing things as we went along. In hindsight, doing this with wireframes or mockups may have been far quicker, and only commencing the build once every single page was drawn with all its functions / details outlined. The site underwent a total of 3 major design revisions before launch, which adds up to a lot of work.

Lesson 2: The name doesn't matter

The project was renamed around the same time as the 2nd design revision, and it really isn't more than a few days worth of hassle to change any legal documentation / paper work. Just a reminder that the name you choose is more than likely not the one you end up launching with, so don't waste too much time on it at the beginning.

Lesson 3: Employ best practices, even solo

You never know when people may enter or leave, so always employ best practices. Sticking to source control (Git), having an MVC structure in place (CakePHP for us), clear and concise code commenting, seperated development / testing / production environments meant that developers were added and removed with minimal hassle, and our design revisions didn't cause too many headaches.

Lesson 4: Test, testing and more QA With deadlines looming, tests were neglected. This is incredibly bad practice, and we do have intentions on going back and spending time to get our code test coverage up to good level. As it is PHP - and the grunt of our recent work is frontend (javascript), we're writing code and hitting refresh; but even Javascript / Jquery now has frameworks and allows pain free testing; it's something you should not skip on. Thankfully we have folks helping out in QA, and many a bugs would've gone unnoticed if they weren't available.

Lesson 5 - Get feedback. Iterate. Improve. There's still about 50 items in our "To-do" list, all a mixture of bugs and features that we want to add. This list has been down to as low as 15 items, and as high as 150 items. Once you've hit your original spec, keep hunting down a bit more performance, more optimization, make the site easier for the users and always keep asking for feedback.

That's it so far. We continue to make improvements daily, and have some pretty cool stuff lined up to be revealed in the near future.

Do get in touch if you have any feedback regarding the site or this article. Stay tuned for Part 2: From AWS to our own Box.

It's morning, I'm fast asleep but you've been toiling away all night. You've kept an eye on my sleep patterns, noticed my heart rate and temperature - and have deduced the optimum time to wake me. You already know there are road woks along my route and my motorcycle is low on fuel, and have already taken that into account. It's time. You gently bring on the lights, alter the room temperature, bring in some soft music to wake me. Timed right, I feel refreshed and wander over to the kitchen. A steaming expresso just finishes pouring as I walk over, and sit down on my table. The screen in front of me reminds me about the roadworks, and low fuel - plus also asks if it can order some groceries I'm low on. I have a quick list at the goods needed - and notice something odd; there's a bunch of snacks and beers that I don't normally order. A quick click brings up an appointment on my calendar - two days from now I've ordered a PPV sports game and a couple of friends are coming over. Smart.

After getting dressed, I leave the house and my work computer knows I'm on my way. I arrive, and it's already waiting with a little bit of rescheduling - I've got to see my boss in 5 minutes about project X, shelved over 6 months ago. There's already a printout with the project summary to refresh my memory, which I read as I walk over to the meeting room.

The day goes on, I get a fair bit of work done. I'm feeling like having a steak, and I let my future portable organiser / device (fupod) know. It arranges an appointment for me, and is already working over time, calculating the times, routes, bills and so forth. As I wander into the restaurant, a quick buzz reminds me I promised to call my sister - which I dutifully do while waiting for my food. She's coming for this weekend, and I again let my fupod know. It begins to rearrange my appointments for the weekend, so I get to spend much more time with my sis - fupod offers to purchase some more groceries and arrange a night out for a travelling theatre that's in town, remembering my sisters love for theatre or even pulling it from her social feed.

Back at work, as I'm leaving it lets my home know I'm on my way. Did I mention it's winter? It knows when to kick on the heating so when I walk through the door; its pretty darn comfortable and I can relax and spend some me time. It noticed me playing my guitar, but also picked up that I was practicing basic rhythms and arpeggios. It knows not to disturb me when I've got my creative side going own - typing away on a sheet music creator and playing some new (unheard?) riffs. Another buzz, and it lets me know the gym will be relatively free in about 30 mins if I want to go workout - also pointing out that I haven't done so in some time!

A workout later, it lets me know I've reached a milestone, and it will up the ante for the next workout. It gets me home, my bedroom's the ideal temperature for sleeping and I dive right in.

Fupod sorts my day out for me without me worrying at all about it. It remembers to do most things I would forget, and plans for the future too. It keeps me healthy, knows what I like and I'd benefit from, and steers me in that direction. Of course, I don't have to do anything it recommends me to, and it would take that into account too. But, if this is the future of technology, you wouldn't get such an integrated assistant and not use it.

All that's left is to see wether it's the industry giants that get us there first. The tech already exists. I'm hoping a bunch of hackers somewhere pull together my social feeds, my calendar, know me from my smartphone and put the above together a relatively low cost.

Project Glass isn't the future. In it's current iteration, it's only an extension of the smart phone; or maybe a step beyond. Could it take us there? Possibly, but they need to start dreaming big - it's time to move beyond just sharing your life with others.

Tickets. Check.
Working Holiday Visa. Check.
TMT Camp. Awaiting.
Bahrainy. Informed. Riots? Psh. What riots?

Departure date: 30th April 2012
An epic all out party: 28th April 2012¹

Let the good times roll!²

Looking for a job? Sending out your CV's like crazy to every posting you find in hope that one of them will eventually reply? Feel like they're going into a black hole, never to be heard from again? Stop.

Even in today's tough economic climate, there's a multitude of jobs currently available. So here's a simple guide to landing that job you've been wanting for a while.

1. Find a list of jobs you like, something like 25 or so.
2. Narrow that list down to jobs you have the education for.
3. Narrow it down further to what you have experience for. You should be left with no more than 5-10 jobs now.
4. Get in touch with these companies, ask if the vacancy is still available. Get more details on what your day to day role will be. Ask about future progression, personal development, training, opportunities in-house and outside. Sound interested. Be interested.
5. You should now only have about 2-3 jobs that you like, and have a dialogue open with the recruiter.
6. Now the fun bit - research the hell out of the role, the company. Get to know what they do, who their competitors are, where they're weak, where they're strong, what you feel they're doing great and where they can do better. Once you know the company, get to grips with the role. The dialogue earlier should've given you a good idea of what you'd be expected to do, and think about how you could do that and then some.
7. You should now be able to write a kick-ass covering letter.
8. Ensure your CV only has your education and work experience relevant to the role you're applying for. Tailor it. Make sure it says "I was doing X for Y, and delivered Z during my time there". Get rid of the marketing mumbo-jumbo. It should be direct, to the point - a CV / Covering Letter will stand out a lot more if there's no crap in there that 99% of CV's have. Keep it a page long, no more than two.
9. Send your CV and Covering Letter.
10. Rejoice. If they don't call you for an interview - the open dialogue earlier will let you ask why they turned you down (if they don't tell you why already).

Lastly, if given the choice, print your CV on some fine paper and send it via recorded delivery to them. They'll take note of it a hell lot more.

If all else fails - just start your own business. No you don't need any money to do so, and yes - it's actually easier than finding and applying for work.

Though there's various versions on the internet - here's how I remember it -

Beautiful sunny day, as always. Pristine golden sand, waves gently crashing. Warm breeze, it couldn't be more perfect. A relatively successful businessman sitting on the Pier, enjoying a beer. He's worked hard to get here, to be able to enjoy this time. A fisherman pulls in, a handful of large fish in the boat, happily chugging away at his beer. Impressed, the following conversation ensues:

"Big fish! How long did it take to catch those??"
"Not long at all!"
"Couldn't you stay out longer and catch more??"
"But these are more than enough to feed my whole family…"
"So what do you spend the rest of your time on??"
"I catch these fish in the morning, play with my kids. Nap with my wife in the afternoon and go to the village in the evening - share some drinks with friends, sing, dance through the night!"
"But so much wasted time! Surely it makes sense to catch some more and sell them - earn yourself a tidy little profit, make some more money. Maybe even work hard and expand, have a successful business!"
"Okay…"
"You could with ease be able to earn a lot of money! Hire other fisherman, have them working for you! Live like a king, never have to worry about income. Have lot's of spare time, spend it lazing on the beach. Spend more time with your family and friends. Drink some beers, enjoy the sunset without having a worry in the world!"
"…want another beer?"

Cars:

1. Ford Mustang Boss
2. Range Rover Evoque (Convertible)
3. Triumph Spitfire (MK3)

Motorcycles:

1. Suzuki GSXR-750
2. KTM SuperDuke R
3. Confederate Hellcat
4. BMW R1200GS Adventure

Target: £200,000.00.
Current: £181.94

I have a long, long way to go...

"You gotta have had done something right for someone to want to go through that much trouble of wanting to hate you."

I've finally reached this point. And boy, it ain't pretty...

Dear People of the World,

There are quite a few religions around, and many ultimate beings that require worshipping. Most carry the same message deep down; be a good person, treat others with respect and try not to mess up too much. If you do, just ask and all will be forgiven.

While religion does bring with it a sense of purpose and fulfilment - don't forget that there are others with vastly differing views to your own. Almost every single person will interpret his or her religious teachings differently, and while it is noble of you to want to show them the "true path", I doubt many want it shown to them - mind you; likely they've got their own to follow.

Every teaching pretty much asks for the judging to be left up to the ultimate being, lest you forget. So let folks make their decisions without stigma, don't belittle them, don't judge them. Let them live their life. You'll find your acceptance (maybe even understanding) of their actions will make both you and them happier. Who knows - a world may come where we live in mutual harmony and respect of each others ideals, rather than hoping to enforce our own.

Yours,

A not-so-religious human.

P.s. What I do is between me and my ultimate being, so bugger off!

Going through a rough patch not too long ago, my mom gave me some advice that I didn't think of too much at the time. Looking back, that was the wisest thing I've ever heard. Her words:

"Through life, you'll meet two basic types of people. There will be those that will take from you, and there will be those that give to you. Don't give yourself away, and don't dare take more than you need."

That was it. That simple statement. So basic, so raw. Yet, when I look back at my relationships - friends, lovers, partners, family, coworkers - over a large period of time, I clearly see folks through my life that leaned towards one spectrum. But, the beauty of it - the folks I struck a balance with are those that I'm still surrounded by...