August 17, 2007

Another day at the office...the last!

It is not exactly what the managers look for - their employees writing blogs at workplace. But I dont think mine would mind; this is my last day at Dell as a summer intern, and frankly I have remained jobless these last few days.
Its the end of a 11-week internship program, one which was highly beneficial, monetarily and workwise, getting to work on tools and equipments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dell is a pretty good company to work for (it pays really well!), although I did not in my wildest dreams think about working here. A EE hardware engineer would be more inclined to join companies like Intel or AMD, and it was no different for me. But I have no regrets, at the end of 11 weeks, when I leave the company proud and satisfied with my work...
It was surprise interview call from Dell, and I had a week to prepare for the interview. I borrowed some books from the library and worked really hard. There was disappointment at not being able to make to my favorite companies, but at least I had something to feel happy about. I was not nervous before the interview; was I feeling confident subconsciously or whether I didnt care about it, I dont really know. It was one of the best interviews I had, answering questions promptly and knew I had cracked it. The same night I got a call from the HR...
This was the second most happiest day of my life (the Purdue admit still beats 'em all)! After weeks of pondering over my life, what to do with it, suddenly the gates opened - there was a direction and I grabbed the chance with both hands. I thanked god and was happy with it.
The Indian contingent in Dell is not like Intel; having said that my team has 7 Indians and a Pakistani...what else can you ask for? And the fun started! The initial days I just spent time with the others understanding what they are working on, pretty much jobless, and then my manager (one of the best people I have met) gave me a good project. I have never worked with deadlines and weekly reports, so this was a nice challenge. Making some rapid strides in my work, my manager lavished praises - first time there was a genuine appreciation for my academic related work and it felt really good. Got done with the project, gave a presentation, got good feedback and have achieved what I set out to do.
Its a nice feeling when you earn good money in a big city, live in a comfortable apartment with cozy furnitures, eat out everyday, buying drinks in your tab, so on...And from tomorrow its back to being student again, living in a small bedroom and possibly sharing it with another person, getting miserly, eating out sparingly, thinking about ever penny you spend, searching for birthday treats, taking the greyhound (US interstate bus service) et cetera.

That's life aint it !

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Nice one man.. I still remember the damn burgers that we had for lunch! And may be yes - its tough being a student :) .. I am not having that difficulty for probably another 4 months - but its a pain after that! We had a really great time outside Dell tho! We would certainly miss those weekends we spent on Corolla and Mustang! Hope we end together sometime in some company! :D