Week #1 - warning: some csco acronyms + lingo ahead!
WHOA.WHOA.
Talk about get thrown right the middle of things!
Ice-breakers? Introductions? Pleasantries first?? Nu-uh. Not here. Not ever.
You know what you have to do. You know who need to talk to for it. You go introduce yourself. I am a bit concerned because a new male hire at least got an introductory email sent out. Sigh...I couldn't care less, but it gets old when I send an email intro-ing myself and asking for something then I get an email back thinking I am a Mr. and not a Ms.!
It's not like they didn't warn me. Oh they told me. They did joke about it all so sweetly. So I had some idea of what to expect.
But that was it. An idea.
First day was cool. The GM's PA turned out a very sweet girl (there are only three girls in the office, inluding myself, with one more potential PA for and RSM). She showed me around, introduced me to some ppl (most importantly the local IT support guy!) and signed me up for an access badge. An hour into the job, the Channel RSM requested a meeting with me at 5pm so I can get on board with the initiatives because he has been 'waiting' for me and we're 'late'!
LOL me? Late? Never! Well when it comes to work anyways :P I said sure! The second he turned around, I asked the PA for his name :P hehehe.
I got a new IBM laptop, which has been approved by my Master Geek Jedi. I also got a direct office line, a new cell number and my new Treo is on the way. My boss was happy because now they can REALLY 'harrass' me all the time. Hehehe...how sweet my boss is... he has no idea who's the one who will be interrupted all the time when I have all these gadgets >:)
I got involved in pretty neat projects from day 0 (including competitive intel!!!NICE!!!). I even found emails sent to my inbox 2 weeks ago expecting follow-up. So, YEA, I've been busy.
On a more positive side. The atmosphere here is great. Very professional. Some are nicer than others. I know more of the RSMs, SSEMs and CA ppl rather than AMs and SEs. Which is fine, becuase my department doesn't deal with them too much. The HR manager, the finance controller as well as marketing dir. are awesome ppl as well. My older cisco friends from Dubai also passed by.
Oooh Oooh and I got to see the new cisco logo, which is not publicized yet (we got a strict email not to use it yet, however, if you search hard enough I am sure you will find it. Just don't involve me :P).
One more thing, one of the members of my team (the one who flew here for my orientation) looks like an EXACT copy of Richard Gere! LOL, when I told him that, he laughed and said that yea, when we actually met him, it was kinda funny!
Occaionally, I go with the PA to the food court in Faisaliya mall for lunch. However, most of the time, I just grab some fruits and keep on working. My boss calls me keen and my mother asks of they pay 'overtime'. Huh? What's overtime?? All I know is that the report has to be DONE! I got a curveball thrown at me, something that will go straight up, but after I was done, the GM said I got an A+ on my first assignment. Yay!
The bad part is that I cancelled my weekend trip to Jeddah to see my family. The reason is that I am flying to London most of next week and there was some things that had to get done as well as a conference call. I was worried about looking EVEN MORE GEEKY (or keen - however you look at it) if I show up in the office on a Thursday morning (Westerners read: Saturday). But, alas, I wasn't the only one!!
That's how it works here, you got work, you get it done!
I'm sorry if the post seems less orgnized than usual, but there is so much to say! I am also writing this on a quick break in the office! So tune in again for my business trip to London!
posted by SunShine @ 10:15 a.m.
5 Comments:
Wow! Sounds awesome! (and significantly less of a soap-opera than my life heehee). :D :D
sounds great ma Sha Allah.. just enuff challenge for you :)..
If you would be so kind as to spell out the acronyms for us to understand that would also be nice..
Regards,
RvN
My guesses:
GM = General Manager
PA = Personal Assistant
RSM = Regional Sales Manager
IT = Information Technology
SSEM = System Security Engineering Manager
RSM = Regional Sales Manager
CA = Charter Accountants
AM = Assistant Manager
SE = Software Engineers
HR = Human Resources
So Sunshine, how i do? :P
Yeah later sunshine, just wait until you scream in this blog, "ooooh m ggggggg I don't have times for my friends, my family and everything!" looool.
SSEM = Senior System Engineering Manager
CA = Customer Advocacy
AM = Account Manager
SE = Systen Engineers
Close DP! Not bad :P
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