First week @ ResMed

I suppose I should write something about my first week at ResMed. It was a hectic week that went by oh so quickly. There was the usual sorting out where I was going to sit, what computer I was suppose to use and the rest of the admin that goes with starting a new job. They had ordered a new computer for me but it wasn't due to arrive until the second week, in fact it's still not here. They found me a temporary desk on the other side of the floor from the rest of my team members. This sucks big time as at this early stage I need my workmates to help me out with getting familiar with the project.

I've joined a team of 3 other software engineers. We are in charge of development of a data logging module that can be physically plugged onto the back of some of our existing respirators. The product has already been released so the work we are doing now is for added support of more respirators produced by the company. This means I have a hell of a lot to catch up on. They basically want me to learn a particular module in the software and get to know it well enough to make major modifications to it if necessary. Don't know about you but reading and understanding someone else's code is not easy. Especially when it's poorly documented. Which is a surprise really because there are very strict quality assurance processes in place in the company.

Our team leader, Bill is a very smart man (in fact they're all very technically smart) and his wife has recently had twins. Jason is another very bright engineer and I definitely see him doing bigger things further in his career. Geoffrey is probably the oldest member of the team being in his mid forties and he's a great bloke. Very friendly and has been extremely helpful to me during the week. Bill is probably late 30s early 40s while Jason is late 20s early 30s. Which makes me the youngest in the team. And the least experienced :) We have a team bonding event each Friday where we go out to a pub for lunch. Overall the work environment has been very professional and quite friendly.

On Thursday our entire division was treated to a free sausage sizzle lunch. Apparently this happens once very fortnight or so and is another employee morale boosting activity. They even gave each of us a ResMed polo shirt. The drive to and from work is quite tough. Traffic is very bad so I start at 8:30am and finish at 4:30pm in order to beat the traffic. At times I get absolutely sick of seeing the back of someone else's car for an entire 45 minutes. At least I get home early. I'm usually home by 5:15pm.

In terms of work I've been doing the usual reading of documentation in order to familiarise myself with the project. I've also been given an issue, which essentially is an officially recognised bug within the software, to solve. The idea is that this will give me some hands-on work to be familiar with the code. Overall it's been a fairly busy week. There is a challenge ahead of me and it's now up to me to make the most of it. ResMed here I come! :D

My last day at Adtec

My last day at work here and it has been a blast. I didn't expect the boys to do anything as I just wanted to quietly slip away. But they had other ideas and gave a cardboard box full of "gifts". It included:

* A plastic container with a packet of cat food on a bed of some uncooked rice to symbolise what I bring for lunch each day.

* A limited edition Adtec notepad stuck on an old piece of Adtec PCB to use as a scratch pad

* A copy of Explicit Orientals magazine accompanied with a jar of vaseline.

* A jar of fingertip moistener (???)

* A tie, of the oldest most tasteless kind.

* A broken multi-meter with my name on it accompanied by an Adtec Tech Support business card

Very thoughtful gifts I thought. This was right after they did a "Stacks On" with me at the bottom.

hehehe I'm gonna miss this place and the people here.