12 weeks have elapsed since I arrived in Seattle. In the grand scheme of things, 3 months probably doesn't seem like that much time. But in the context of my life so far, that usually marks a point at which something moderate happens: the end of a soccer season, an academic marking period/semester, a summer job/internship (or more generally, the summer), etc. So usually after this much time spent doing something, I've come to anticipate a certain amount of change. For the first time, though, that won't be the case.
I didn't expect something to change at this point. My plan has always been to stay here for maybe 3-5 years and then re-evaluate how things are going, how (if at all) my interests have changed, and what other opportunities might be available. I'm not opposed to doing this earlier, but I certainly need at least a year under my belt before I can adequately judge the state of things. So I'll stay the course for now, but will start to make some larger plans like traveling to Japan and possibly starting grad school (though I'm perfectly happy NOT being in school right now).
On Thursday I had yet another (and final) orientation at work. This one was specifically for the group I work for, that being Apex (Apple productivity experiences). Effectively, what we work on is Microsoft Office for Mac. This was a day-long event where I learned about this history of our group and how it's changed over time. I met executives and people that have been working on the team for 20+ years, as well as lots of other people that just joined the team. That includes people that work at the Mountain View and Beijing locations. Part of the reason I didn't have this until 3 months in was that they only do this twice a year since it does involve people traveling from other areas.
As I think I've said before, I find learning about this history incredibly fascinating - getting the inside scoop of a company that was a major influence on the history of the entire industry, and more specifically my team's role in that history. I hear about products that were done in the past, how we build them, what worked and what didn't, and how all of that influences how and what we do now. The team had celebrated their 15th year anniversary a couple years ago, and they showed us the video that people made to celebrate it. Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates made appearances, so it was really cool to hear them talk about the immediate group that I now work for.
The first thing we did was get to know some of the people there. I had already met about 8 out of the 30 people at the event, but there were still plenty of others to meet. There were people from Redmond I still didn't know, but also plenty of others. One person I met particularly stuck out in my mind. He just started in Redmond earlier that week and had just got back from an international backpacking vacation with his wife and kids. He's from Philadelphia, and consequently a Flyers fan, so we were commiserating on the likely lack of a season this year. He's deaf, and so he had sign language interpreters (yes, plural) there to help him out. I realized that I think this was the first time I'd ever interacted directly with someone that couldn't hear or speak, and I found myself curious about a lot of things. Should I look at him or the interpreters when talking? We discussed some confidential stuff at the meeting, so are his interpreters under the same NDA as everyone else? How much can actually get translated into sign language? The interaction seemed very normal, but it stuck with me for the days after, so I've decided to take a sign language class. The local colleges offer classes, and I think it'll be interesting to learn about everything associated with it.
Other recent activities include restaurant week, meeting people at a friend's housewarming party, karaoke, and more soccer. We met some different people at the park and got a good game going. I've also seen people at another park playing cool games like bicycle polo and foosball. Foosball involves playing soccer on a tennis court, but the players are attached to ropes stretching across the court so you can only move laterally. I'll have to take pictures at some point because it really is awesome to watch.
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