The first day was pretty amazing. It was one thing to be there for a one hour interview, but quite another to spend the whole day there. I got there a little after nine o’clock and I thought that I was supposed to head over to the classroom for new hire orientation, but I got pulled aside and told to wait for the HR person to meet a group of us contractors. So, the HR person showed us how to use the timecard system that Yahoo uses to submit to the payroll server, and then we got our badges. And then that was it. No more orientation or further discussion. I was told to head over to the NOC and I shocked my new boss when I walked in and said hi.
So, most of my morning was spent learning their network architecture and all I can say is that it’s pretty much unlike most anything I’ve worked with in my years in operations. Very complicated and challenging; I’m looking forward to really sinking my teeth into it. For the most part, I spent a good deal of time sitting with my co-workers and shadowing them. I have to learn a whole new set of procedures and that’s nothing new, except that the way they utilize the tiering system is somewhat like how eBay uses their lead-supervisor system in their NOC. The interesting part of this new gig is that my boss is incredibly flexible with time, which is pretty unusual for a NOC job, but I guess the reasoning is that if the engineers remain accountable to one another for coverage and coverage is maintained, that it doesn’t matter much who’s there and who’s not. I’m used to a way more rigid system or governing shift work. I’m wondering how this is going to work with the other grave person, whenever they hire him or her.
By the way, any NOC people on my flist are welcome to send me their resume so I can refer them.
Yahoo’s campus is absolutely beautiful. And I think Building C is my new vice, because anyplace with awesome and cheap food and free iced chocolate frapps is eventually going to kill me. I had lunch in the cafeteria today and their grilled chicken sandwich is to die for, and the fries taste like heaven. I think tomorrow I’ll have something else, and I’m sure I will enjoy that, too. The one thing I realy like about the cafeteria is that you can ‘charge’ your employee badge with money and use it like a dorm food chit at college. Except that I’m not dependant on parents for food money… I guess I’m actually dependant on my wife to give me food money, these days. Okay, so not much difference there, eh? 🙂
Like I said before, sometimes a negative like a firing turns into a real positive. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
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That sounds swanky!
When you get some free time and a chance to catch your breath, I’d like to talk to you soon about trying to move the photos on the Coppermine setup over – I’ve finally registered a domain and I’m getting some hosting set up. Thanks! I sent you an e-mail last week to your @LJ e-mail.
It often works that way. We’re both in much better situations now and we probably wouldn’t be where we are if things hadn’t been completely fucked at our previous respective jobs.
There was actually an article on a career website here, last week, which said exactly that – being fired can be just the impetus you need to push yourself into something bigger and better.
NEC does the ‘charging’ your badge thing – they do it as salary sacrifice, so instead of say $50 a week going into your pay, it goes into the card. Pre-tax money is always good.
I’m so glad that your first day was great 🙂 I hope it stays that way
Moral of the story: in every pile of shit eventually you’ll find a pony. Good for you.
Welcome to the fold.
Sadly, I’m over in the Mission College campus, so I probably won’t run into you randomly.
Dude, that’s so awesome.
I”m so glad to hear that all’s worked out well! Congrats on the new job – Yahoo sounds cool.
Took me 6 days to get around to reading up on your first day, but I’ll spin in instead by wondering how the rest of the first week went? First day doesn’t tell you anything 😉
–Jason