Well week 1 came and went really fast and all in all was fun, frustrating and challenging. Starting any new job is daunting; adding to that a move across the world and only having 2 days to get over the 7 hour time change may not have been the best combination in retrospect...but that is the way I role.
Microsoft Induction
Day 1 and I arrive to shuttles into a little room with 30 other new hires for the introductory training on Microsoft Ireland and Microsoft in general. 20+ of the new hires are recent college graduates. This is an 8 hour session on everything from putting a lid on you coffee to make sure you don’t get a burn to the IT Security policies. The session on the makeup of the Ireland office, with European Operations Team, Localization Development Teams and Ireland Sales Team is interesting as is the actual IT stuff. The rest is HR fluff that I could do without; I have had a job before!
I did get my picture taken for my blue badge, should have it within a week or so.
Actual Day 1
Tuesday really is my first day on the job. I got an email Monday night from my manager Donna asking me if I wanted to dive in and attend a 2 hour Partner strategy meeting with one of the 16 Microsoft Partners I am responsible for. Why not! I arrive onsite at 9:00 to prep before my 10:00 meeting. I get through security and sent up to the 8th floor where I walk around for 15 minutes looking lost and decide to sit at the open staff area hoping to find someone to ask where to go. 15 more minutes with no human interaction and I start walking the floor lost again. Finally someone tells me I look lost and offers to find me my manager. Voila, I am about to start my day.
A quick hello, get handed my temporary laptop, sign on to the network, get some mail and off to the meeting. It is in this meeting that I find out that I am the Partner Technology Specialist responsible for server technologies (PG1 for the Microsofties). This means I need to be an expert in W2K8, virtualization, System Centre, DPM, and of course SBS/EBS. I have to backfill and support the IW stack (SharePoint, Office, Project Server, UC, etc). Nothing like finding out your job in the first meeting with a Partner!
Keeping with the get your feet in the fire, I was then send off to 2 more Partner meetings, taking up the entire day. There you go day 1 and I have been to 3 meetings with Partners.
Rest of the Week
You would think that working at Microsoft, a technology based company technology would be readily available. The short answer for this is YES and No. It is a very large organization, with over 150 000 people working in all the offices so there is a little bit of bureaucracy and rigor to all processes. Lets take getting a phone. I need to get a desk phone and extension. The Dublin office is primarily using Unified Communications and older IP phones. I of course want to use UC so I can use a soft phone from home as well as integrate to my mobile (that is coming next). To get UC I need to have an IP phone and then get upgraded...OK, that seems logical. A bunch of SharePoint based forms later, and a phone call to the local IT manager and I have someone setting up my IP phone on Friday; then some more online forms to make the change to UC for sometime next week.
This all seems OK, but I am new to Ireland and I need a phone to be able to call and get registered with the tax department, with immigration, etc. So I then wanted to get a mobile so I can make some calls in the wait for a desk phone. Wait, we are in the middle of a product refresh and there will be no new mobiles for 2 weeks or more while the Treo 850 is delivered and longer if you want one of the Sony phones.
Great, I happen across an older Windows Mobile phone from a hand me down on Thursday, but still need a SIM to get it functioning. A bunch of emails to various people...no go.
Friday night there is a team diner and drinks for some people who are leaving the team. This is a great way to meet everyone and really get to know them. We stop at one of Dublin’s oldest pubs before diner for a pint of Guinness and then off to a very upscale restaurant. Over a number of drinks I find someone with a spare SIM and by Monday I will have a working phone on my desk and a mobile I can use until the new phones arrive.
Partner meeting location....golf course half way to Belfast....I like this job already :>)
That is week 1 on the job
The Weekend
This where all the fun for the week really is. We decided to make a short trip out of Dublin on Saturday and see the coast. It is Sarah’s birthday today and we needed to do something fun for her and going up to the ocean is a great start for prairie people. We travel south of Dublin to Greystones. A tiny village with a very beautiful and rugged coast line about 30 km south of where we are staying. It is very windy, gusts up to 70km/h and it one of the best experiences of our life as the salty air slaps you across the face at the same time as the tide pounds the coast line. We have a nice Irish breakfast after or time on the shoreline and then drive back to Dublin. On the way home we discover that Emily seems to have developed a car sickness issue in Ireland.
On Sunday we take the LUAS commuter train to downtown Dublin to take in St. Stephen’s Green, an old gated park in the centre of town with a huge duck pond and beautiful gardens. After a picnic in the park we walk the Grafton Street area with all the shops in buildings from the early 1700 & 1800’s. This is a fantastic family day and maybe our best day in Ireland so far.
We then head home for supper and we can watch the rider game on TSN.ca when it is completed and posted. Go Green!
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