the early years
After spending the first three years of my life being raised in the city I was born in, I began a life of many travels to finally settle down in California. At age 3, I accompanied my mom to meet up with my dad in Pennsylvania (where he was going to graduate school at the time), and stayed with them for a period of six months. At which time, my parents decided to migrate out west, and I went back to Taiwan to live with my grandparents.
let the traveling begin
I spent two years in Taiwan going to kindergarten, then at age 5 my grandparents took my brother and I to meet up with my parents. They settled in Los Angeles, California, and rented a house in Monterey Park. After spending a summer with my parents, it was apparent to my grandparents that they could not care for both my brother and I. So my brother went back to Taiwan with my grandparents, and left me with my parents. We eventually moved to Temple City and rented an apartment. This is where I went to 1st, 2nd and half of 3rd grade.
Half way to 3rd grade, my dad's visa expired, and immigration decided to kick us out. My parents and I had to go back to Taiwan to apply for our green cards. I was able to attend half of 3rd grade, and complete 4th and 5th grade in Taipei. This is where I learned whatever Mandarin I had forgotten in the past 3 years. In the 1988, my parents successfully acquired green cards and we as a family immigrated to Los Angeles, CA.
the teenage years
We rented for a while in Arcadia, California, then eventually bought a house in West Covina. Attended Traweek Junior High, and then Covina High School. During high school, played frosh basketball, junior varsity and varsity tennis. Became the #1 singles player on the team senior year and recorded the 3rd best record in the Valle Vista League. Graduated in 1995 with good enough grades and SAT scores to attend the University of California, San Diego.
college and beyond
I entered UCSD as a mathematics major, and after struggling for two years, I decided that graduating is a lot more important than pursuing what I've been good at all my life. It was quite easy to transfer from a math major to a management science major, and I was able to successfully graduated fall quarter after my senior year. I worked throughout college, first as a sales person at Banana Republic, then summers at Premier SAT School, and for the last two years in school, I worked as an product marketing assistant for a .com company selling real estate information online.
After starting work as a product marketing assistant, I knew this wasn't going to be my thing. I started assisting the IT Department at work, and started to gain interest in IT. Soon after I finished school I was laid-off from the .com company, and shortly after I was hired by IBM to do help desk support. In 2002, I moved to San Jose accepting a new position within IBM to do server support.
currently
Just recently accepted a new position as Internal Corporate IT Auditor for IBM, traveling throughout the Americas and Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
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interests and hobbies
I am a sports fanatic, generally if it is on ESPN, from basketball, baseball, football, tennis, even figure skating, I will watch it (no spelling bees). Once worked at a sportstalk radio station as an unpaid intern, cutting highlights for sports news updates.
Other hobbies include freelance photography (I need a SLR bad), cooking, wine tasting, and playing poker. I love being at the beach just relaxing, so much so my new career aspiration is to become a tennis coach at a beach resort so I can make money coaching a sport I love, and live close to the beach.
Want to know more about me? Here is how you can reach me...
e-mail: andy_hsia@yahoo.com
xanga: www.xanga.com/shichiroku
yahoo messenger: andy_hsia@yahoo.com
msn messenger: andy_hsia@hotmail.com
aol instant messenger: andy124
© 2005 - Andy Hsia and shichiroku.com
