Well, I have now been to work for two days at EA. Unfortunately, my immediate supervisor has been sick for the last few days, and so I have been left in a bit of a vacuum. You might expect that I would be headed for severe inconvenience, but you would be wrong.
When I got there on Monday morning, I had two 19" Dell thin-screen monitors on my desk, and a super smart desk phone, but no computer. Within half an hour of noticing this, I did have a 2 processor workstation, with 3G of RAM. It is pretty massive. The computer came with almost everything I need (Visual Studio, CM tools, etc.) installed, but there were a few missing pieces (and I mean few - the default printer was even mapped correctly), which have been sorted out yesterday and today.
So, in two days, without a supervisor, they somehow have me set up and ready to go in terms of tools. (Also, and this really gets me, I am also subscribed on all the correct email lists relating to my team and its tools, as well as appearing correctly in an online map of the facility, and I am entered as part of the scheduling/collaboration tools with 3 days scheduled for "Ramp Up".) Remember, I am a contractor. I am not an EA employee. Remember, I interviewed on Thursday, and they made me an offer on Friday afternoon. They had half a weekday before I showed up.
Also, they have distributed builds, which share computers from all over the six floors they occupy. They give me free milk and cereal, tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. Sodas are $.25 each. They have a cafeteria with pretty good food. They have a parking garage - basically you don't ever have to walk in the rain. The facility has a park like fountain/lake area in front of a street covered in pavers. There are benches.
This morning, I came into work and noticed that I had a TV and DVD/VCR combo on my desk. I wasn't sure what it was for, but I soon found out that it is connected to close circuit cable television, and that I get CNN, ESPN News, ESPN, ESPNU, and some other channels. I will connect my test console systems to the TV when I get those.
They have apologized for the consoles. They have apologized for the sick manager. They have apologized for the one team Wiki page I do not have permissions for yet. I think this will be good.
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2 comments:
Sounds like hell. You should have stayed at your old job where there is much less red tape and stress.
Dang Paul. Might as well sell the house and just set up a cot there.
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