first week of work

i have been MIA and i apologize for it. but the first week at work was so overwhelming and all that i just could not get myself to sit down and blog about the work that i do.

but all i can say is that its been fantastic. exactly the type of things i have been yearning for.

wait, lets start from the day i left illinois. okay, flight was okay, and i can say conclusively that american airlines landing is pretty scarier as compared to other airlines. united is bankrupt, delta is close, AA is this, NorthWest is not great, there isnt a single good airlines in the states. well, considering that people here take flights like bus rides, i cant really blame them. and it was ironic how after i got back, i saw this article on CNN that mentioned the 10 best airports, and quite obviously, none of the airports in the US were listed. the top american airport was in minnesota, so you can only imagine.

anyway, i got back, to my new room in chi psi fraternity (i am not a member there, my friends are and they do lease out rooms for the summer, and since it was the cheapest that i could find, i decided to stay there) and guess what, the geezer who was supposed to move all his stuff out a week ago still had loads of shit in our room. it was ridiculous, considering he is the very person in charge of room allocation, and he himself was supposed to move out the day before i left for naperville and when i got back, he still hadnt moved out. so the first few days of work was hard, coz i will come back super tired, and i had to help tom (my new room mate) move out all of the previous occupant's stuff, and then rearrange my belongings so that he could start repainting the walls and start customizing the room his way. when i came back from work, i just wanted to go to sleep, coz an 8 hour day in a office is no joke. but fortunately, we got most of our stuff together by thursday night, and the room is looking real comfortable now. its only a pity that im not here like 75% of the time, coz im at the office.

now about my workplace. its made of up mainly of rather young workers and i really like the small office setting coz everyone knows eachother and we are a pretty tight knit unit. most are tech grads so theres always something to talk about tech. the first day, i was thrown right into the lion's pit, i was greeted by the director of supply chain, Rich, and after i put my things down in my cubicle, i went into a room where my supervisor, Ryan, was conducting a training session with one of the suppliers for our member company. its the regular stuff that they do, and without any prior knowledge of how things really work, i was looking at the actual work i would be expected to do in a few weeks' time. bam, i was hit with the reality. that session was very well done, but long, at 2 hours. but i think i liked it better that way, coz i had a good look at how it was meant to be done, and it is better to know how you're supposed to do it so that you can prepare accordingly.

sadly, due to the nature of the kind of information that the company deals with, i cannot mention the specifics of what i will be dealing with, as confidentiality is a huge issue here. since we are dealing with 9 of the 11 or so major tire manufacturers and their respective suppliers, if any information leaks out, the other manufacturer or the suppliers will get information about their competitors and that could get nasty. in a sense, we are the middlemen. the company is actually a consortium, which means that these 9 members (the manufacturers) have equal stake in control of the company. what the company is in charge of doing is to streamline the order, shipping and invoicing process of the rubber and tire industry, so that timespan of ordering is shortened and made more efficient. basic industrial engineering principle. for most of the week, i did more or less nothing but read documents and guides which are prepared mainly for the participating suppliers so that i can understand what is done and how its done. it was kind of hard continuously reading and analysing all the time, but i must say, i think i picked up a lot this week, and expanded my whole knowledge about the supply chain management.

whats so cool is that i have yet to take a class for my major, so im getting all these exposure to real life application for the stuff i will be learning later at tech, so i wont have to wonder why i am learning all the material later on. actually, i looked up some classes and i think i might already have gained invaluable information for 4 of my major classes already.

anyway, the section i am in is called supply chain, and as the name suggests, its about the chain of the products through certain methods and processes. because its a complex portal that the suppliers have to navigate through, and we are dealing with millions of dollars of business deals, we have to make sure that each suppliers know how to use this web portal that they have to use. its like nurturing a kid how to play a sport. you cant throw him with minimal information, you gotta train him. usually, this process takes about 4 to 6 months, with a weekly for bi-weekly conference call, and guiding them, and leaving them with few assignments to complete over the period. likewise, what i have been doing mainly is to read up on the principles so that i know what im doing. american football may be easy to play, but if you go into the rules and regulations, its very complicated. but if you understand it, you play much better. thats what im doing for the first few weeks.

fortunately, i have been given side projects to keep me busy and not just read up. i have to conduct some research on some devices that keep track of sitting inventory levels and i will have to report to rich in about 2 weeks, so i could probably see some fruits of my work this semester, which only encourages me to put in more effort to this.

but gosh, working 8 (well, 7 if i take away lunch time) is really hard. not to mention this is my first work, and its not like im moving from one place to another and doing a myriad of things, im mostly sitting down, reading documents, making notes and all. my attention span doesnt extend beyond 3 hours, so its very challenging. but i guess i will get used to it sooner or later. i have a newfound respect for my dad who puts in a solid 10, 11 hour every day for the past 20 or so years, not to mention saturday mornings too.

but its only the first week and i shouldnt be too worried. once everything's settled and whatnot, im sure it will get more interesting.

as i was getting ready for a weekend, i found out that Leisha needed a place to crash, and i thought she could come over to chi psi since my room mate will be gone for the weekend. so i asked her to come over, and i guess the weekend turned out really well with many things that we did with Dan, James and Daniel. it was friday nigth when Dan, James and I decided to walk around the nicer parts of Midtown and look for a really good place to eat at. we walked so much, we were so tired, but we ended up at this indian restaurant where we just indulged on all sorts of stuff. Leisha came over later, and what i didnt know was that Tom and his girlfriend were over, doing god knows what in the room, so we were at James' room for sometime, talking about a lot of things before i could get back in to my room. the next day, i had plans to catch the FA Cup Final with Sandesh and Scott, but since Sandesh was working, we had to do it later at night, after he downloaded the clip. we had other plans for the night, to catch Star Wars and something else, but since Scott, Leisha and I wanted to watch the game, we decided on a single movie.

I guess Episode III justified for the rather disappointing prequel to the original trilogy. it was pretty well done, though very tragic, it connected the prequel to the original concisely.

we went to Sandesh's room later on, and boy, we were itching to catch that game. all of us had stayed away from any sort of soccer website for the whole day, coz the results of this match would inevitably have been stated boldly. but i wasn't expecting a full soccer match, 90 minutes, extra time and penalty kicks. Manures and the Gunners were pretty much a decent match for eachother, and i guess the manures had it bad, since they looked like the better side. what a year for them, nothing won, and not to mention, being taken over by that american business tycoon.

we thought we were going to bed since it was 2, but we somehow ended up talking til like 6 in the morning, but i really liked the conversations we had, except for one of the chi psi brother breaking everything and just trash talking. after he was gone, we had a very good flow of exchanges in discussion and it was amazing what each one of us would deliver.

now that im up, im really hungry, and i really wanna go to the places that some of us mentioned that were good last night, i mean this morning.

i dont expect i will be blogging much for the work week, since i dont feel like i should be blogging at work, and i think i will be too tired blogging after i come back. but i will do it whenever i can, and lets see how things go from there on.