Another amazing week of my internship has passed and I really feel integrated well within National. I continue to work with many different people and on interesting and diverse projects.
Yesterday, for instance, I went to work early because I had a deadline to meet. I had been put in charge of preparing PowerPoint slides for an Executive meeting. That involved pulling sales data from IBM Cognos software into several different sheets, reformatting graphs and preparing the PowerPoint presentation. Due to the large amount of different data, the size of the spreadsheet and download waiting time, it took me half an hour just to get the data from Cognos and then another hour to implement the data into the spreadsheet. Fortunately I got everything finished on time and my manager said that this project could be a regular one for me to do on Monday mornings.
The weekend was mostly filled with taking a deserved break from a busy week. We went to check out the local bars last Friday and enjoyed a cocktail at a Latin bar but we soon moved to the 'regular' British bar 'The Brit' we had been to before as drinks where less pricey and we enjoyed the nice atmosphere there. On Saturday, we went to the 'Saddle Rack', a country bar with live country music and a large dance floor. We enjoyed a good night and had an adequate lie-in the next day.
We continue with our usual 'programme' of going to the gym at SJSU straight after work. We will be going to the National work gym starting from next week as we are going to move to Santa Clara in around two weeks which is closer to work and just a five minute Caltrain commute away. Furthermore, National has some really nice leisure facilities including a National employee recreational park which includes the aforementioned gym, a soccer pitch, tennis courts, an amphitheatre where presentations, at times, are held outdoors and an area for barbecues. It is perfect for taking a break and walking around the park which also comprises some water fountains, ponds and well kept gardens and grounds.
Sometimes we also go for a swim in the outdoor pool at SJSU after going to the gym there. This is especially indicated on some days when the temperature climbs to a warm 29°C. It is though never too hot and it usually feels nice to be out and about as there is never a stifling heat. Air conditioning may be needed but it is not always so much of a necessity as it must be for the other Saltire interns who work in Texas.
At National you will hear from this part of the US much more often now than you would have in the past. That is because of a large company that is headquartered there - Texas Instruments or simply TI. Before Kieran and me were accepted for the internship at National, TI had acquired National Semiconductor. Texas Instruments, like National a manufacturer of analogue semiconductors, was keen to increase its market share in this segment which would see a combined TI/National having a significant share in the analogue market. This week's blog title reflects this situation in a comment made by another co-worker when working together on a project and me using a Texas Instruments financial calculator. This remark was meant as a joke as most calculators are from either TI or Casio anyway. One employee though I have met has already switched 'allegiance' to TI and gone as far as hanging up a Texan flag in his work cube thus showing his support for the TI deal. This, however, is a rather rare occurence.
The actual acquisition deal and the 'nitty-gritty' is about to be finalised in the next weeks and there has been a lot of speculation among staff what exactly it will entail. Also, different departments have their own views on the deal. In Kieran's department people are generally quite happy about the merger with TI which gives them access to TI's resources but in my building which comprises most of the administrative functions of National including Finance, there will likely be a significant reduction in headcount. Thus, there has been a lot of speculation and gossip among employees what will happen and who is going to be affected. A lot of people though and a few I have had the pleasure to meet have already moved on to other companies within the Bay Area. It is impressive how flexible and dynamic the job market is here but there is also an abundance of certain jobs that might not easily be found elsewhere. In essence, a lot of employees just see this as an opportunity to move on. However, not everybody of course is able to move elsewhere or make the transition to another company. It is likely though that the latter will be kept by TI or that they are being offered a position in Dallas. This is, however, something that a lot of people I have spoken to find rather unattractive as moving there would mean taking a significant pay cut with living costs being much lower there than in Silicon Valley and because many prefer to stay in California.
Be that as it may, it has been an interesting few weeks experiencing this transition and it will be interesting to see what is going to happen in the next few weeks. My workload has been constantly increasing and it feels good to see the impact of one's work making a difference to the company. I will likely be even more involved in the weeks to come which is very good news.
With these sunny prospects ahead, more projects to work on, more to learn and to take in, I would like to conclude this week's blog and thank everybody for showing an interest in my blogs be it family, friends and others that are reading my blog - wherever you are. Greetings from San Jose!