Well its official! I will be joining the Mobile team at a major bank on October 21st leading projects focused on mobile banking applications and wider mobile payment innovation streams. I am very excited to try a new industry while still staying in the Mobile space and building on my experience with BlackBerry.

Source

My first (and now only) interview with a New Zealand company was over Skype back on August 15th (coincidentally the day I resigned at BlackBerry). It was my first time interviewing over Skype, and despite some connection issues, went quite well! Technology these days really makes distances between countries really feel quite small.

A week later I got a call back for a follow-up interview planned for when I arrived in Wellington. Since Jordan and I were only in passing through Wellington for a few days, and were planning to take off to the South Island for 3 weeks, I really hoped to get this job lined up before we took off.

After a great discussion with my ‘future’ manager in a local coffee shop on Friday afternoon, I was even more excited about the position and hoped to hear back on next steps. A half an hour later I got a call requesting I come back that day to meet with a few more co-workers before we left on our trip. Speaking with two ‘future’ co-workers, I had a chance to learn more about the organisation and give them a better idea of who I was and what I could bring to the team. I must have done something right as the next morning I received an email asking to arrange a call for Sunday morning.

We had already delayed our departure by a day in hopes of good news from the Friday interviews, so we went ahead with our plans to take the Sunday morning ferry. Just as we were pulling into Picton on the South Island I receive a call with an offer of employment!

Ecstatic with the news, I couldn’t stop smiling the entire drive off the ferry! With only 3 days in Wellington, I managed to secure a position before taking off on our 3 week adventure which definitely lifted some pressure knowing at least one of us had a job lined up when we got back. We celebrated over a couple of ciders and toasted to my new future career in Wellington!