Day 4

Today is Sunday, Thanks Giving Sunday.  I don't expect to see my family this weekend, which is fine.  I have a lot to think about and they would not be helpful in this situation.  Instead, I am just going to continue focusing on what my goals are and what my fears are.  I don't want any of my fears to get in the way of my job search.  I have a very powerful resume and an education that is unparalleled and my next job should be a bit of a home run.  This is all in great contrast to the fact that I was just laid off.  I was doing interviews for eight months before this weeks final cut and, in fact, turned down a job at Google.  The job was in software testing.  Albeit testing of an incredibly interesting product, it just did not justify moving out of Canada.  I really want to stay in Canada.  For one thing, I worry about my health a lot.  Though this is probably just nerves, I still value the fact that I have a solid health care system in place.

So, I want to stay in Canada.  I want to get out of telecommunications and move into data analytics.  I want to move to Toronto and get a great job there.  It all sounds like a plan, however, what are the best steps to take at this point?  Perhaps I should study the data analytics industry in Toronto.  That sounds like a good idea.  In fact, I am starting to realize that a very good daily activity I need to add is research into my preferred industry.  How would one go about studying the data analytics industry in Toronto?

I took a few seconds, just now, to start this research.  I began by studying one of the main companies I am interested in working for.  They produce products which website owners can drop into their infrastructure to do things like predict customer purchases based on known customer behaviour.  I clearly want to be in this industry.  About a year ago, I was thinking of creating just such a company.  So, this is really the industry for me.  The question is, how do I get involved?  I will have to study more than just the industry.  I will have to study things like statistics and machine learning techniques.  I have already taken my ML course from coursera.  There are other courses I can take, but that is a good start.