Jansepar.com

I guess my goal of posting once a week failed. I don’t know why really, I have a lot more free time now that I’m working full time without having homework.

In case anyone is wondering, so far EA has been great. The people are fun to work with, they are quite easy going and willing to help me out with any problems or questions I have. I was concerned for the first couple of days because of how little experience I had compared to the people I was working with, but that worry has been put to rest. They really encourage me to learn as much as I can, and I’m definitely all for it.

Now, the question is, what do I prefer, working an 8 hour shift and going home with no immediate responsibilities, or going to school with a pile of homework? Whats more appealing? Well, to tell you the truth I dont have an answer to that question, at least not at the moment. They both have their ups and downs. One of the obvious benefits of working an 8 hour day is that when I come home, I can do whatever the hell I want, without having to worry about finishing off my math assignment or reading a million pages from some history book. But when it comes to school, there are days were the homework won’t be so bad, there will be long stretches of not much to do at all, and then you’ll get hit by a tsunami of homework and studying for two weeks straight. It all depends on what you want, and how highly you rank consistency in your life.

Maybe its just me, but in the last 5 semesters, I’ve constantly had courses that I’ve had to do, and I’ve constantly have had homework piling up, and its started to become routine. My first two semesters were hell, but I’ve become used to the structure of the university life, and frankly, its quite a different experience only having to work. One of my major concerns when starting at EA was adjusting to a full 8 hour work day. Back in the day when I worked at Wal-mart, I worked all the time, because the job required my constant attention, but when I got my job at SFU, very little work was required. I’m expected to do my job when I need to, and when there is nothing to do, I’m not expected to do anything, nor do I seek it out. I’ve been doing that for a good year and a half, so I feared that I wouldn’t be able to work for 30 minutes without taking a break by finding the latest funny video, reading a new article on digg, or chat on MSN. Luckly the transition wasn’t very difficult, because I’m motivated at this job.

The question is, how long will it be until one runs out of motivation. EA might be a bad example, because with the way the company is structured, and with all the great benefits they offer to their employees, it seems like it would be hard to run out of motivation. But I’m sure that if I was to do another coop at some other company (unless it was Google), then it would be a big step down, and maybe school would seem a lot more appealing at that point. Its all about how well a company motivates you without pushing you over the edge. Its a good thing I don’t plan on working for anyone when I graduate ;-).

While it is nice to come home from work and have nothing to do, being at school forces you to have lots of things to do, things that usually force people to interact with one and other, and since it starts over every 5 months, you’re constant meeting new people. That’s generally the part I like more about school then work, the fact that interaction with a lot of DIFFERENT people is a lot more frequent, which can be scary for some people, but its something that I enjoy. And this isn’t saying that I don’t meet people at EA, because I’d say each day I meet as many new people at EA as I do at SFU. But the thing is, the people I meet at EA are generally all of the same type, and lets just say there is a significantly smaller ratio of men to women then there is at SFU. Now, if you’re the type who just goes to school, does there homework, and nothing else, then I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that work is definitely your preference. But if you take advantage of what your post-secondary institution has to offer in terms of getting involved with the school, then you’re going to miss these things at a company (unless the company has a great culture that allows you to get involved). At SFU, I get envolved with societies and clubs as much as can, whether it be running my own club or working with my department’s student society, and its these kinds of things that I would miss from working at some run of the mill company.

At the moment, I love working at EA. I love what I do, I love what I’m learning, its just an overall great place to work. The question is, will there be a day when I go to work, and I feel like I’m not being challenged enough. When it comes to a full time job, the day you step into that facility, and you are no longer being challenged, you better either find another project to work on within the company (EA actually encourages this, which is a great benifit), or find something you’re passionate about. Basically, the reason I can’t answer the question at hand is because right now, I’m feeling more motivated and challenged then ever. But I could see that changing, and not specifically with EA, but with any nine to five job. I’m getting a taste of real life right now, and while its great, I’m guessing that when its all said and done I’m going to look back s and realize that those carefree days of sleeping through lectures were the best of my life.

I guess we’ll see ten years from now if I’m right.

So, today was my first day of work, although it wasn’t really “work”, it was an orientation to get us started with everything. One of the first things we had to do was sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (sorry everyone, that means I won’t be dishing out any inside secrets!), and a bunch of other minor details, such as getting paid and such ;-). The people there are pretty cool, and I ran into Curtis there, which was unexpected. The majority of the co-ops there are from UBC and Waterloo, there was only about 3 SFU students out of 30 co-ops, which is surprising since I thought SFU was a better CS school then UBC…

The campus is one of the most amazing buildings I have ever been in. Foosball, pool, soccer, hockey rinks, basketball courts, beach volleyball courts, you name it, its all there at my disposal. And there are games everywhere, on every floor, free arcades and everything. I’m really looking forward to playing NHL 2009, I hope its playable right now! I also get games for $20 bucks, and I think I can get some for friends, so, any requests?

The most mindblowing thing for me was the fact that the gym is open 24/7. Thats right, its open all the time, and I THINK they said I can get a pass for one person (or it might have been for regular employees, not 100% sure, I’ll have to check on that). Not sure who I’m going to give that to, I want to give it to someone who would get the most use out of it.

Besides all that, we got an extensive tour of the whole building, as well as some manditory presentations about policies and practices, nothing too exciting. Tomorrow all the co-ops have to do a Software Engineering information session, and then Wednesday I finally get to meet the team I’ll be working with! I’ll post about that stuff at the end of the week. I would post every day, but I’m lazy, so I won’t make that promise.