The big dream advertising job!
I was a Linux sysadmin with one PHP/MySQL course under my belt. Then the phone rang, I got a job offer in a big advertisement agency. I took it and somehow became the Systems Director.
The year was 2008, and I was giving Red Hat Linux sysadmin courses and providing implementation and support through LinuxParaTodos.net, one of the biggest GNU/Linux forums in Mexico and LATAM back then. That's another interesting story; I’ll leave it here if you're curious.
One day, a good old friend called me. Alan Millan, who was working for a prestigious advertising agency in Mexico City: Comunicaciones Alazraki, a big-deal hitmaker in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Carlos Alazraki was one of the most recognizable names in advertising back home.
They had some of the best TV spots I had ever seen. They were creative, funny, and incredibly memorable.
The ad trifecta.
I was at home when the phone rang.
- Alan, mi chingón! What's up?
- Hey man, I remember that you’re in software development, right?
- Sí, a huevo!*
*At this moment, –Sí, a huevo!– communicated: “Yeah, I do programming,” but in reality meant: “I’ve done some basic stuff, but, yeah, I can’t resist a challenge.”
I was overconfident. For the past four years, I had been working as a Linux sysadmin and had taken one—yes, one—PHP/MySQL course with Sandino Flores.
What a nice memory.
This guy had a gentle soul and was incredibly smart. One of the few people I had the luck to chat and learn from back then, when IRC was the way of communicating. Just head to https://irc.freenode.onet and join #unixmexico.
Sandino, who at the time was working at Ximian, was, to me, one of the best developers I’d ever had the chance to learn from, work with, and have deep conversations with.
Of course, I felt the urge to try... Why not?
Alazraki was taking aggressive steps toward adopting and innovating with technology in advertising. They had a key character on their side for this: Alberto Levy, a visionary like I had never seen before. He reminded me of Steve Jobs in a way, but cooler.
He had ideas that I still hear in my workplaces today, like:
“What if we did this?”
So, of course, I wanted the gig!
I did an interview shortly after and got hired. My job title was a relaxed:
“El chico de sistemas” — “The IT kid,” since I had always looked younger than I actually was.
I was 27 at the time.
By 2010, less than two years later, I was the IT Director at Comunicaciones Alazraki, and by 2012 I was the CTO. But that's another story.
I recommend reading next: The sysadmin that built everything.
Hooked? Keep digging: https://oscar-azpeitia.com/tag/career/