Why do you work? For prestige? For fun? For experience? For money? For scope of responsibility? For the people you work with? I have worked for all of those reasons. You wouldn't believe the feeling of working for a cause you believe in deep down in your soul!
If you're LDS and have a passion for technology then consider a job at the Church! We're looking for people who are passionate about Java, .net, middleware, networking, database, and technology in general.
You'll love the people you work with and relish the opportunity to work for a cause you love!
Check out our job site.
German Engineering
I just got back from Frankfurt Germany. What a beautiful country! Almost no trash in the streets. The buildings are beautiful. The people are friendly. The taxis legally go 120 mph! It was a wonderful trip.
Of all the cool things about Germany, one thing stuck with me: the luggage carts! This thing isn't just an ordinary luggage cart. Oh no. As luggage carts go, this thing is a Cadillac! It's easy to push. No wobbly wheels. It's formed perfectly to fit several large pieces, and also some small ones.
So I'm walking in the Frankfurt airport and I'm pushing one of these smooth luggage carts. The man I'm walking with, John Carmichael, tells me I can take the luggage cart right up on to the escalator. I have to admit I'm a little dubious. So I give it a try.
I push it onto the flat part of the bottom of the escalator. He says: "just let go." So I let go. The brake automatically comes on when I let go. I didn't even know I was pushing a brake lever! The wheels are perfectly spaced so that one fits at the back of each step. And when the angle starts to pitch upward, the cart just leans back! I try to catch it, thinking it will fall. But it just works! The wheel guards have plenty of space so that leaning back doesn't set the wheel guards down on the step and the cart is balanced such that the cart just effortlessly glides up the escalator and is ready for me to start pushing again at the top. Amazing!
OK, doesn't sound like a big deal, right? How many airports you've been to have this feature? Not many. But someone carefully sat down and planned this feature of the airpot to create a better user experience. And then made it happen! They could have included a rear-view mirror and a horn, but they kept it simple and solved a big problem with baggage carts in an airport (namely having to wait for an elevator).
I'm sure it cost more, but it left me with a great impression of that airport.
Software developers could learn a lesson from this bit of engineering.
Our industry can vastly improve our output. We should take a lesson from the Germans.
Of all the cool things about Germany, one thing stuck with me: the luggage carts! This thing isn't just an ordinary luggage cart. Oh no. As luggage carts go, this thing is a Cadillac! It's easy to push. No wobbly wheels. It's formed perfectly to fit several large pieces, and also some small ones.
So I'm walking in the Frankfurt airport and I'm pushing one of these smooth luggage carts. The man I'm walking with, John Carmichael, tells me I can take the luggage cart right up on to the escalator. I have to admit I'm a little dubious. So I give it a try.
I push it onto the flat part of the bottom of the escalator. He says: "just let go." So I let go. The brake automatically comes on when I let go. I didn't even know I was pushing a brake lever! The wheels are perfectly spaced so that one fits at the back of each step. And when the angle starts to pitch upward, the cart just leans back! I try to catch it, thinking it will fall. But it just works! The wheel guards have plenty of space so that leaning back doesn't set the wheel guards down on the step and the cart is balanced such that the cart just effortlessly glides up the escalator and is ready for me to start pushing again at the top. Amazing!
OK, doesn't sound like a big deal, right? How many airports you've been to have this feature? Not many. But someone carefully sat down and planned this feature of the airpot to create a better user experience. And then made it happen! They could have included a rear-view mirror and a horn, but they kept it simple and solved a big problem with baggage carts in an airport (namely having to wait for an elevator).
I'm sure it cost more, but it left me with a great impression of that airport.
Software developers could learn a lesson from this bit of engineering.
- Does our software just work?
- Does the user have to think?
- Do we solve important problems, and leave the unimportant problems alone?
Our industry can vastly improve our output. We should take a lesson from the Germans.
General Conference and Languages
General conference is a semi-annual event which happens in April and October of each year. Many of the General Authorities (the leadership of the Church) give talks to the membership of the Church. I personally find these events inspirational and motivational.
Walking through the translation room during general conference is a pretty sobering experience. Everywhere you look, you see young people with ear phones and draft copies of talks. They're preparing themselves to translate the talks as they're given so that we can send out the translation as we send out the video to the world. These audio/video streams go out to all corners of the earth.
Here is just a partial list of the langauges that the Church translates (either live or as follow-on DVDs):
Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Aymara, Bislama, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Cantonese, Cebuano, Chuukese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Efik, Estonian, Fante, Fijian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Guarani, Haitian, Hiligaynon, Hindi (Fiji), Hindi (India), Hmong, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Ilokano, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kekchi, Kiribati, Korean, Kosraean, Kuna, Laotian, Latvian, Lingala, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Mam, Mandarin, Marshallese, Mongolian, Navajo, Norwegian, Palauan, Papiamento, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Portugal), Quechua-Peru, Quiche, Quichua-Ecuador, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tongan, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yapese, Yoruba
Walking through the translation room during general conference is a pretty sobering experience. Everywhere you look, you see young people with ear phones and draft copies of talks. They're preparing themselves to translate the talks as they're given so that we can send out the translation as we send out the video to the world. These audio/video streams go out to all corners of the earth.
Here is just a partial list of the langauges that the Church translates (either live or as follow-on DVDs):
Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Aymara, Bislama, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Cantonese, Cebuano, Chuukese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Efik, Estonian, Fante, Fijian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Guarani, Haitian, Hiligaynon, Hindi (Fiji), Hindi (India), Hmong, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Ilokano, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kekchi, Kiribati, Korean, Kosraean, Kuna, Laotian, Latvian, Lingala, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Mam, Mandarin, Marshallese, Mongolian, Navajo, Norwegian, Palauan, Papiamento, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Portugal), Quechua-Peru, Quiche, Quichua-Ecuador, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tongan, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yapese, Yoruba
Finnish Temple Dedication
On October 22, 2006 the LDS temple in Helsinki, Finland was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley. A dedication is a gathering where members of the Church come together to celebrate an event (like the building of a new building or the anticipation of great things happening in a new area or country). A dedicatory prayer is offered by someone as part of the event.
This particular dedication is significant for a number of reasons.
It's wonderful to see how technology is used by the Church to serve the members all over the world!
For those who study Finnish in your spare time, click here.
This particular dedication is significant for a number of reasons.
- President Hinckley is the oldest living prophet the Church has had in modern times, and he's still travelling and getting the work done!
- The saints in Finland have been anxiously waiting for a temple since Finland was rededicated for the work of the Lord in the 40's.
- The proceedings were broadcast via satellite to saints in places like the Ukraine and Russia--places where a temple dedication hasn't been broadcast before and where the saints haven't before had a temple within a reasonable travelling distance.
It's wonderful to see how technology is used by the Church to serve the members all over the world!
For those who study Finnish in your spare time, click here.
I Work at my Church.
I've been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all of my life. When I was young, Church was a place I went on Sundays & on Wednesday nights and a code of conduct. I had no idea the Church actually had a support institution.
A buddy of mine sent an email one day and asked if I'd be interested in working for the Church. Sounded intriguing, but I frankly had no idea of the scale of the Church's operation.
Think about it, though. The LDS Church:
In short the Church is more than just a Church; it's an enterprise. But it's an enterprise with inspired leaders, with employees who are faithful members, and with an extended work force of millions of members who are willing to contribute their time, talents and money to the Church.
I met Eric Denna, who was then the CIO, and others and was intrigued, but I wasn't ready: maybe some day.
After working for Microsoft in Redmond, WA for almost 11 years, our family moved to Utah ostensibly so that we could be closer to extended family, but actually so that we wouldn't have to take all of our vacations in Utah.
The Church called again and asked if I was interested. I felt like our family had been blessed so much that we ought to try to give back. We were already living in Utah, and I was driving my wife crazy trying to figure out whether to start a software company or teach school.
You could have heard a pin drop when I told my friends back at Microsoft that I was going to work at "my Church."
"Huh? Does your chapel have a server or something?"
"Wow. How much do they pay?"
"So are you maximizing profits or prophets?"
"Who's your competition?"
And so on. I had decided that it would be a fun challenge and an exciting opportunity to make a difference to an organization I care very deeply about.
So here I am.
In this blog, I'll talk about the technology we use at the Church, about what it's like to work at the Church and some random musings about this or that. I take responsibility for anything I say here.
I hope I can say something useful.
A buddy of mine sent an email one day and asked if I'd be interested in working for the Church. Sounded intriguing, but I frankly had no idea of the scale of the Church's operation.
Think about it, though. The LDS Church:
- uses a global satellite system to broadcast general conference translated into hundreds of languages.
- has web sites which service almost 5 millions users per month with over 40 million unique page views per month.
- builds and services thousands of chapels and hundreds of temples all over the world.
- has a large-scale welfare operation which manufacturers, packages, inventories, and distributes goods all over the world and which mobilizes massive relief operations in emergencies.
- keeps track of, supports and distributes the Gospel message for over 12 million members.
- has an employee base and mission-critical systems to support the varied Church functions: missionary and temple work, priesthood leadership, tax, finance, investments, printing, translation & distribution of content, collection of tithes, employee travel, human resources, and many more.
In short the Church is more than just a Church; it's an enterprise. But it's an enterprise with inspired leaders, with employees who are faithful members, and with an extended work force of millions of members who are willing to contribute their time, talents and money to the Church.
I met Eric Denna, who was then the CIO, and others and was intrigued, but I wasn't ready: maybe some day.
After working for Microsoft in Redmond, WA for almost 11 years, our family moved to Utah ostensibly so that we could be closer to extended family, but actually so that we wouldn't have to take all of our vacations in Utah.
The Church called again and asked if I was interested. I felt like our family had been blessed so much that we ought to try to give back. We were already living in Utah, and I was driving my wife crazy trying to figure out whether to start a software company or teach school.
You could have heard a pin drop when I told my friends back at Microsoft that I was going to work at "my Church."
"Huh? Does your chapel have a server or something?"
"Wow. How much do they pay?"
"So are you maximizing profits or prophets?"
"Who's your competition?"
And so on. I had decided that it would be a fun challenge and an exciting opportunity to make a difference to an organization I care very deeply about.
So here I am.
In this blog, I'll talk about the technology we use at the Church, about what it's like to work at the Church and some random musings about this or that. I take responsibility for anything I say here.
I hope I can say something useful.
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