Work Observations
Monday, June 30, 2003
Wow. We just got a new building. This is numero cinco. The one I'm in was acquired just a few months ago. We're growing the way Microsoft's buildings in Redmond surround the Eddie Bauer headquarters like an amoeba absorbing some particle.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Meeting for a project specific team. Acquired company UI designer from santa monica participated (but really just listened) in meeting through conference call.
Assimilation of people from an acquired company
Hi All,
We get
We'll probably have a couple of other bigger brainstorming meetings as well!
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Others from this Santa Monica company also flew up for a week and just got to hang out, go to meetings, etc. Interesting.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
The culture is different than that of NVidia. It's not so cowboy. You don't get to come in at 2 pm and leave at 2 am though it's not so explicitly stated. The rhetoric of competition isn't so childish as it is there or at MS (from what I saw during my interviews). It actually feels pretty sensible, though bordering on sensible lavishness. It is certainly faaar from spartan.
Nobody playing Quake after dinner! I'm in heaven!!!!
Apparently HS is funded by IVP and DFJ. Hrm. I wonder what with the meeting. If I ever meet my mentor, maybe I'll ask. (My actual mentor, JF, is really busy and while she's arragned for me to meet with CEO and VP Eng, she hasn't taken the step to e-mail them and initiate it yet)
I should also ask my VC mentor what HS's deal is lately since he's at DFJ.
Why was JK, CEO of company I worked for 2 years ago, at my present company?! lol While I was amused to think that in fact he was interviewing for a job there as well, I think it's far more likely that there was some sort of keiritsu thing going on. I don't know if HS (old company) is KCPB funded though.
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Played Foosball in the kitchenette with two remarkably boisterous individuals we soon discovered were employees of a recently acquired company AS.
Another recently acquired company B(lj) is in another corner of this building with a prominent sign announcing that it is their corner.
However, I just discovered that someone I know recently joined my company (3 weeks) to be on that acquired company's team so it seems that they're assimilating people in quickly. The acquisition was 3-4 months ago. The acquisition extends the mission from being an info accessor to an info accessor/creator.
Also went to a tech talk. They put a lot of trust in us. They tell us things they know they do not want getting out.
How to blend acquired companies into this company? In terms of culture? How much did it cause this company to grow? Where do you learn to handle the growth?
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
EB said little during the GG meeting. New person on crew?
I said little but that is because I was just tagging along to listen so that's fine.
I don't feel like much got done at the meeting -- discussion lacked focus, except when EB spoke up to bring structure to it. Lacked momentum and sometimes BL had to interject with another question. I should ask EB about her take on the meeting's productivity.
Director of engineering said he had 48 reports. They joked that they're considering taking that down to 40. He felt like he could handle 20, but that in the valley, 7 is reasonable. We have about 300 engineers, and 4 directors.
EB told me that she knew TW was respected in the area of HCI but she had no idea he was such a god. Neither did I. It's not immediately obvious from anything going on here, except that he gets brought in to brainstorm things a lot.
yesterday afternoon, I saw CEOSB sitting out on the lawn with a cell phone and a laptop working. That's unusual.
Monday, June 16, 2003
First day at work
Orientation: Clear divide between temps and non-temps. Temps/contractors in different building, different badges *now* (interns too), can't come to TGIF, not privy to secure company info, can't use gym. But they didn't actually give any treatment of company hierarchy, or who the central figures are. I didn't notice this until late afternoon of day 1. This is the first orientation where they haven't done exec bio type stuff. So how is authority established? I know JF has been here a long time, as has NK (she less so than JF). I have a pre-existing notion of who the centrals are, but it's not immediately obvious. Her title in db just says "Software Engineer."
TGIF: All company meeting but the room actually isn't nearly big enough to host everyone. So who comes? What happens?
No sick days. Just honor system. Doesn't come out of vacation days.
Fairly diverse crew. UI has TONS of women. Admin too. But three new non-interns of 6? were women, and two seemed to have PhDs in techie fields. One in Stats. What is gender skew in stats?
