My professional life

I know, I'm only 20 years old and I'm still studying... But it's been crazy lately!
I never ever thought about working & studying at the same time. I always had some English/Math/Physics classes to give, but I don't consider those a real job. It's more like a hobby, a paid hobby where you also help a younger boy/girl.
Everything started to change some months ago. I was on my computer doing nothing in particular when this woman added me on the MSN. Her name was Anne Laure, and it turned out that she was working for a recently born techie company from California (some of them are actually from Stanford, like Katie!) and needed help translating their program into Spanish.

At first I thought it was some kind of joke, cause you don't always receive such an offer without even looking for it. After visiting their web page I realized that it wasn't a joke at all, so I accepted happily. I had to translate the whole program into Spanish, a long work but not very difficult. That first work was the translation of Wambo, a multi-protocol messaging program with enhanced features for transferring files. After that I kept in touch with Anne Laure but nothing else came up. At least not for a while...
After a couple of months of that translation, Anne Laure contacted me again. In Wambo they decided that they were not gonna continue with the multi-protocol messaging. Instead they were gonna release and application JUST for fast, secure and private transfers between friends. The name of this program is Swapper and they also needed help translating the web page of Swapper (where they explain what Swapper is and how it works) into Spanish. I didn't give it a second thought. As the result of that, the actual Spanish version of the web page is my translation! It feels good to see that your work is shown to everyone...
Swapper is already available for download on their web page. Only for Windows XP/Vista so far...





So that's the story of Wambo & me. They're super nice people (I'm planning to meet them next time I go to SF... I'm still invited, right?) and I wish them the very best. If they ever need me for anything else, they know I'm here ready to help! :)

Anyway. That sounds like a really good experience for a 20 years old guy from Madrid. But there's still more! It has something to do with FON...


I've always loved FON. I became a Fonero a little while after they started. I was with them since the very beginning, suffering with the Linksys WRT54GL...
I always dreamt about working with them, so I visited the Jobs section on their web page.
A year ago they were looking for someone to help with their Technical Support Department. Apparently, they were going to offer assistance through Skype and they needed people who knew how FON worked and with a high level in English. I applied for the job thinking that, since it was through Skype, I could do it from home and during some certain hours... It turned out that it was a full time job, but I couldn't leave Teleco, so I passed...
It was a pity, cause it sounded like something I could have done very well and I would be working in FON... Anyway, life kept going... I kept checking the Jobs section to see what they were looking for. It was more a curious thing than something I needed... But seems like destiny had something prepared for me, cause a year later after the first interview... voila!
So yeah, I'm working at FON right now. They didn't choose me because of what I was studying, they chose me because they knew I was in the "Fon world" and that I had the required abilities.
It's been great so far. I've met everyone from FON Spain (Xabi, Karl & Antonio) and from other departments. I've seen the office from the inside, I've worked (it sounds soooo weird! I've worked at the main office! :D) and I've also eaten there...
I'm in charge of doing something really geek that I enjoy very much. I can't talk about it yet, but I'll tell as soon as I'm able to...
Talking about the work itself, not everything was pink and beautiful. The first 4 days I went to IMAN07 with Xabi & Karl. It was a Marketing event that we went to offer free wifi. The thing is that we weren't told with enough time in advance, so at FON Spain they were really stressed about it. They were so stressed about it that they brought me with them, when I was supposed to start with my "project" the very first day...
It was a good disaster. It was good cause we did a good job, but it was a disaster cause nothing was planned. We solved the problems as they came. I spent the 4 days fixing laptops from the stands nearby and checking that the Internet connections were up and working... That was my first experience at FON and the first real-working situation with the Foneras...
After that I went back to my original assignment. I worked there for a couple of weeks when they asked me If I would like to go to Malaga. FON was going to Mundo Internet and they wanted me to be there to manage all the techie stuff...



It was way different than IMAN07. We still had some problems with the materials (which we solved with a lot of imagination... :D) but we had enough time and people to set everything up. It was Xabi, Karl, Fredrik & me this time, plus the two hostesses.
Here you have some pictures that Andreu took while we were setting everything up and while we were running the stand...
I even appeared on the front page of a newspaper from Malaga. Everytime a newspaper said anything about Mundo Internet, they showed a picture of the FON stand, cause it was the most crowded one of all...

Anyway, that's been pretty much all. Now that I think about it, sounds like a great experience for a 20 years old guy, don't u think?
Whatever happens, I know that this is just something temporary that I'm doing because I love this work, because I want to help FON and because... I need money (duh)! I don't discard helping them in the future, though... We'll see!
So far I can say that I'm part of FON and I'm really happy about it!
If anyone has any doubts about configuring the Fonera or wants some information about it, leave me a comment and we'll see what can I do... ;)