My name is Paulina Masson, I'm a software developer, an entrepreneur and a social media consultant.
I enjoy computer programming, especially when it involves challenges and new things to learn. Programming requires a certain personality type and passion for problem solving - I believe I fit the profile quite well:) There is a personal quality of mine, which I am especially proud of: the ability to stay focused on a task for a long period of time. I could be stuck on some problem for a very long time, but wouldn't give up, even if it takes 12 or more hours of non-stop work. And then, when I finally attain the result, there comes the great feeling of self-satisfaction - I have done it! Such moments are amazing. If you're a passionate programmer, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And that is why I love it.
I grew up in Klaipeda, a major seaport city on the coast of Lithuania, Northern Europe. After high school graduation, I worked as a Logistics Specialist at Siemens Yazaki Lithuania and also at Baltic Logistic Systems. At Siemens, the job I was doing, involved a lot of manual calculations and comparisons of data. I decided to come up with a solution for it - learned Visual Basic in my spare time, and improved MS Access database with custom macros, to perform the work for me. Now the amount of work I used to do in a day, I was able to complete in an hour! My manager was very impressed with the initiative - the company awarded me with a monetary prize, and I was soon promoted. Then I knew. Programming is what I really want to do.
A very exciting time in my life was when I decided to go work on the cruise ships - I've travelled to many exotic locations, such as the Caribbean, Bermuda and Belize; met many interesting people from all around the world (including my husband); and of course, had a lot of fun! One of the jobs I was doing onboard, was crew internet cafe administrator. I managed user accounts, groups, printers, file systems and security, installed software and performed backups. A step closer to a career in high tech, I thought.
Some time has passed. It was time to settle down, so I came to Ottawa, where my husband was from. I retook all grade 12 courses, to comply my knowledge with Ontario standards. I am proud to mention, that with Canadian high school graduation, I was awarded the Governor General's Academic Medal for high academic achievement. It led to full entrance scholarship from Carleton University.
In summer 2007, I was working as a research assistant for "Pass-thoughts: Authenticating with our Minds" project at Carleton, which I found tremendously interesting and a great experience for my first year at CU.
During 2007-2008 I was the Vice President External for Carleton Computer Science Society and Carleton U representative for Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference.
In 2008, I worked at IBM, as a software developer. The two great teams that I had a chance to work with were: Rational Requirements Composer team (managed by Vishy Ramaswamy) and Graphical Modeling Framework team (managed by Anthony Hunter). I gained a great deal of experience. It was invaluable to see many of the concepts that I learned at school being used in the real world. I've developed a better understanding of various design patterns, learned to write more efficient algorithms and experienced how exactly the agile programming principles work.
In 2009, I was working at Electronic Arts in Vancouver, FIFA 10 team, managed by Peter Kishimoto. My responsibilities included developing front end features using Actionscript and C++, working on the game bootflow, delivering FIFA10 demo. I had a chance to work with Xbox 360 and PS3 console systems - great experience.
In 2010, I was working at IBM, Extreme Blue Project, developing a novel solution for IBM Cognos context. Extreme Blue is known as one of the most challenging and competitive software development programs in North America. With three other team members, we defined a business model for a new idea within IBM, prototyped it and pitched it to many IBM's executives, including the CEO Sam Palmisano in New York! What an amazing experience.
In September, 2010, I started my own company, Contest Mob Inc.
