“The stuff that I used to play with in my free time is now what I do day to day.”
--- Ian Crosby, aka Captain Canada: Container Solutions Engineer
Alignment: Lawful Good.
Captain Canada would use his superpowers to enable others to shine.
I enjoyed studying Computer Science in university, but I was worried that the jobs themselves might be repetitive and boring. At Container Solutions (CS), everything is constantly in motion. It’s built not just around the knowledge that technology constantly evolves, but also around the certainty that people do as well. When I interviewed at CS’s Amsterdam office, I felt an instant connection - however, I was open about the fact that I wanted to return to Canada in the future. At some companies, that would be disqualifying; they think it’s safer to only hire those who say they want to stay put. Now, after almost two and a half years of helping grow our Amsterdam office, I’m founding our new Canadian branch.
I grew up in Nova Scotia and came over to the Netherlands while working for a big company. I had countless co-workers, but I mostly felt like I was working alone. I went to Software Circus and heard Jamie, Container Solutions’ CEO, give a speech about post-capitalism. I’d never heard a tech CEO talk in public about the sort of things we talk about on our off-hours with friends. When Jamie interviewed me and I told him I eventually wanted to go back home, he told me that there would be a chance for me to move with CS. I didn’t know Jamie then, so I wasn’t sure if I should believe him. I’ll be moving to Montreal this summer!
It’s inspiring to see how people have stuck with the company through its evolution. As engineers, we can walk out one door and in ten the next day. The magic of CS is that we want to stay and learn together. CS uses the latest, cutting-edge tech, so we’re always looking at new tech as it comes out. If it’s related to Containers, Docker, Kubernetes, Serverless, or Service Meshes, we want to have an opinion about it and explore the potential together. We make sure people take time to experiment and play around with the uses of anything new. The stuff that I used to play with in my free time is now what I do day to day.
I think the cloud is just a better way to build software. Now each business doesn’t need a room full of specifically dedicated computers to hold everything. We all share transferable resources, which leads to better development practices. It’s also more interesting to write and engineer for new challenges and distributed complex environments. I think we’ll keep evolving in this direction to completely abstracted physical computers and away from writing infrastructure. If cognitive computing takes care of the foundation, we can write the actual business logic. The challenge right now is building an abstraction layer, so in the future we can build based on features and industry. Eventually, we’ll all share a built platform and everyone can focus on creating just for their business.
I’m excited to see how Cloud Native evolves and to know that at CS, we’re on the front line.
“If you feel inspired by my journey with Container Solutions, and want to explore your own opportunities to join the team, check out our current job openings today! “
Also check out our CEO talking about our culture in this ten minute interview at the O'Reilly Velocity London.
Previous article
