Being from Brazil and having already been to some of the places we visited, I had a pretty good idea of what lied ahead of me. One of my goals was to see how things have evolved since the late 90s, when I left Brazil to work and live in the United States.
Summary of the Brazil Experience
Back then, the Internet was starting to pick up and most people accessed it over plain dial-up analog telephone lines. People waited to connect at midnight or later when they'd be charged a flat fee for phone usage and they'd be connected all night. I noticed that DSL is a growing technology and they have many flavors, with varying speeds and prices, so that people have access to broadband at a price they can afford providing connections at speeds that better meet their needs.Even so, a lot of people still can't afford to pay for Internet at home or even a computer, so Internet Cafe's are very popular.
Back in the work place, Unix, meaning expensive Unix such as IBM's AIX and Sun's Solaris OSs, dominated the IT infrastructure. Today, Linux seems to be king of the IT back room. Although Windows PCs still dominate the home PC market, Linux is growing in popularity, much more than in the US.
While in the US most people social network through either My Space, Facebook, or both, Google's Orkut is by far the most popular social networking site in the country. MSN Messenger is also a very popular instant messaging tool, such that instant messenger is commonly referred as "MSN".
When I lived and worked in Brazil, outsourcing wasn't really a concern for companies and very few of them actually atracted work from overseas to be performed locally. That has changed now, since virtually all of the technology companies are concerned about outsourcing in one way or another. Either by attracting outsourced work, by outsourcing some of their work, and by competing with other countries to attract outsourced work.
One thing remains the same though: Brazilians continue to be hard workers, but they know when it is time to stop work to focus on their personal lives, such as working out, spending time with their families and friends, and, just simply have fun.
Name:
Renato Martins
Current Location:
Kirkland, WA
Current Field of Study:
M.S. in Computer Science, focused on Networking and Security
Current Area of Employment:
SDET Lead at Microsoft Corporation
Career Objectives:
Become a test manager, thus own the QA of an entire product. At some point in time, move on to product planning and have more face to face interaction with customers
What part of the framework did you study?
Network Learning / Network Society
Would you ever return to Brazil to work/study/live?
I'm Brazilian, so that's a definite YES. Not right now because I still have things I need to accomplish in my personal and professional lives, but it's a very strong possibility for the future.