I have been asked by friends and colleagues, where I’ll be going to. I always said that I’ll be going to Ontario area. Most of them were able to guess that I’ll be joining RIM (Research in Motion), the maker of BlackBerry. How can they guess? RIM is the biggest high-tech company in Canada and the top five public companies in Canada. Besides that, RIM’s headquarter is in Ontario area. So, it’s not difficult to make a guess for them.

Why RIM?

  • First of all, I couldn’t find a good job in Vancouver area (honestly). Most high-tech companies in Vancouver have been laying off people, including Nokia, Microsoft, Kodak, Electronic Arts and recently Sierra Wireless.
  • RIM is one of the fastest growing mobile companies in the world. According to Canalys, it is growing by 83.5% in Q3 2008 compared to the same quarter in 2007. In other words, the company is still doing well (although it is not immune from the crisis).
  • It’s always been my dream to develop mobile applications that will be used by millions of users out there. The team that I’ll be working with are responsible for developing BlackBerry core applications. I might have a chance to realize my dream.
  • The company is based in Canada. I am planning to apply for Canadian citizenship this year; so I don’t want to move to another country at this point.
  • President Barack Obama is using BlackBerry… just kidding. :)   Apparently, he’s not giving up his BlackBerry (see comic below from Joy of Tech); and now he becomes the first president of the United States of America to have access to email.

barackberry 
(Picture is from Joy of Tech.)