Road Trip to Pittsburgh, March ’19

Few years ago, my employment journey with Uber began from two month on-boarding & training at the Pittsburgh office. I haven’t had much time to spare outside of work, however I made an effort to explore the city and see new places.

My initial thoughts and impressions of the city were not too bright. Ever since, I came back numerous times and had a chance to experience familiar things and places from a different perspective.
Such business trips work as a reset button for me and I would come and leave as a different person. This trip is not an exception.

Past autumn I not only moved to a new country, but also transitioned to a new position at the company. I finally got a chance to meet my team mates in person. Young, bright people, with totally different backgrounds and skill sets are working together, and share the same mission. I feel proud to be the part of Test Engineering team, working with such intelligent people.

I learned that Self-driving Vehicle Test Engineering requires more than solid foundation of knowledge and experience, but also the strong interpersonal skills. “Soft or peoples” skills are essential to build relationships with developers across different teams.

You also have to be a fast learner. Before any work is done you need to have a clear understanding of how certain features, hardware or software work. You have to ask questions, a lot of questions! You got to put your ego to the side to be able to ask questions that might seem silly to someone. This essentially pushes you outside of your comfort zone.

Continuous education and strive to learn is what you need to foster not just at work, but in life.

My work is not always easy and this is great! If it feels hard, you are on the right track to improve and evolve.

Coming back to Toronto feeling accomplished and determined to grow.

Training

My first Ironman is rapidly approaching and I begin to have a bit of anxiety about it. The race is in one month. 

I can’t afford myself to skip a single day of training therefore I brought my bike and trainer with me. Nicely set it up at my Airbnb, I was able to put in three quality workouts. Proud of myself. 

In addition I was able to join Pittsburgh Masters Elite Swimming Team for two workouts. Swimming with them was hard, I felt slow and doubted myself along with the ability to achieve the levels of performance I set for myself. I definitely left my comfort zone and stressed the system. That’s good! Thanks to the coach for a chance to splash around, slowing everyone down and thanks for the feedback. 

Mr. Blake

In such a short life, this dog traveled and seen more places than 90% of the people in their lifetimes.

He’ve been behaving exceptionally well and I even brought him to the office. Everyone loved him and for being so good he jot a nice chunk of beef jerky from me. Gooood Boy!


Travel

Being back in US brought up a lot of memories, good memories. I suddenly became nostalgic. The second I stopped in to the Target Supermarket I got flooded with emotions. Smells and sounds opened up the door into the past, reminding me of people that I used to have in my life, the places I used to go, the thoughts and feelings I had. I miss a lot of things, but more people… Time to leave.

I am grateful for all the nice people I met on this trip. Grateful for the opportunity to travel and see new places. Grateful for the healthy body that continues to improve, allowing me to take on this athletic journey. Grateful for Blake and his strong loyalty despite me being an ass sometimes.