Day 2

So I have just finished my second day of my internship!

I know I was meant to blog last night but after going to the gym I came home to no internet so was unable.

Anyway yesterday was amazing I learnt so much in just a day! 

I arrived at the office around 8:30, and hour before I needed to. I like to be early most of the time, it gives me time to organised myself once I have arrived at my destination.

I checked in with reception explained I was early and went and sat down as I awaited someone from HR to collect me. In the short amount of time I was sat down for, 2 other people also came and sat down. Unbeknown to me they was also starters that day also. One was a senior project manager and the other was a graduate graphic designer.

Shortly after they both arrived the HR lady came and collected us and led us to a meeting room. Now we was sat in this room for 2 hours. She talked about all of the usual things when you start a new job, nothing overly exciting.

We had a short break after she had finished talking, when we came back she then had organised to take us to our designated area for the projects we are working on. But first she took us to I.T services where the senior project manager and the graphic designer collected there equipment. My equipment hadn't been organised yet as my contract was delayed so there wasn't any information about what I was doing, fortunately I had some information. After they had collected there equipment we was taken to our projects. It turns out we are working on the same project, just in different teams as you would expect. 

I got introduced to my team lead I think there position is called. He is a very nice gentleman and also incredible smart. He then explained more about the project, I won't say anything as I'm not sure if I can, but the project I'm working on is something that has never been done before, which is very exciting! He then asked where my machine was I explained to him the situation and everything was fine I just had to occupy myself whilst he chased it. Which was fine as I had both my iPad and iPhone with me.

By the time all if this had happened it was about 1pm. Which meant lunchtime, I didn't feel like going around London for lunch so I stayed in the office and ate at my desk. After lunch there still wasn't any sign of a machine for me, however in the mean time I had been invited to a meeting discussing cookies (not the yummy kind)  and localStorage. 

This meeting was amazing we was in there for 2 hours just discussing why you would use what for what. Going through use cases and working it through, it was defiantly enjoyable and I took so much from this. Once the meeting had finished it was around 4pm and I had nothing to do so I poped to I.T Support to see where my machine was, I was told it would be with my by tomorrow at 10am.

Once I got back to my desk I sat down and went through notes I had taken in the meeting, and wrote them up on my iPad. By the time I finished doing that I was 6pm and my first day as a technologist was complete! I left the office at around 6pm and headed for the train station. It takes about 45 mins to travel across London, this was fine though. There was space to sit on the tube and it wasn't to hot. However when I got to the train station that I needed to be at I had 2 minutes to get on the tube otherwise I would have missed the train, so I had to do the dreaded thing and run. I made it though however there wasn't any seats left so I had to stand from Marylebone to Wendover.

I got back to Aylesbury about 7:30. I was picked up at the station by my partner and we drove to the gym for a swim. We finished there about 8:45 I guess and headed home for some dinner and sleep.

So into today, I knew I didn't have to be in so early today as I know how long it takes me to get door to door, so I was able to get a later train which was nice. The train in the morning was quiet and I slept for most of the journey.

I got to work around 9 and sat at my desk and waited for something to do, around half 9 I was called to a scrum, which is like a debrief on the day before with everyone on your team. Although I don't have a team yet my lead allowed me to go along and experienced them. They was really chill everyone went through what they had done the previous day, what they plan to do today and what possible blockers do they have. This is how a agile enviorment works, which was cool to see. Once this had finished me and my lead headed to I.T to see where my laptop was. 

When we got there it still wasn't ready which sucked. So we headed back to the office and I had to occupy myself again, which isn't that difficult to do when you have wifi and a iPad. Around 11am a lady who I had briefly met yesterday came into the office and noticed I still hadn't received my laptop. She then got on the phone to I.T and from her face I could tell it was rather aggressive, but nevertheless it was putting pressure on them.

After this had finished I met the big boss of the project the guy overseeing everything, this project is worth over twenty million pound and he's responsible for the oversight of everything, no pressure right? Anyway he came and introduced himself to me and he is a real nice bloke and made me feel very welcome. He was also disgusted I hadn't recieved a machine and spoke to a few people and got it sorted within an hour, which you know is awesome. 

I then spent my afternoon reading documentation about the project. Once I had done this I started to look at the prototypes, pulling the code to pieces and making sure I understood what was going on, I need to spend some more time looking at it but I'm pretty confident that I can work it out. I was also told that the project uses SASS. Which I haven't used before, but i read about it for 2 hours, I'm going to build a basic site and play with SASS just to get a feel for it, it seems like an awesome tool.

So second day is now coming to an end, it's been a super fun packed day and I'm looking forward to tomorrow! I never thought I would actually want to get up for work, but I don't even see this as work, this is what I love doing, so for me it's just a desk in a different building!

I'll keep you posted on tomorrow!

Day 1

Wow, this just feels so surreal. I'm here now waiting for someone from HR to come and collect me so we can work the contract and all that jazz.

If I'm honest I'm scared, this is the first day of the rest of my life. This is what I have spent my time working for. The last 5 years have led to this exact moment. I guess it's not scared its apprehension, I have one thousand thoughts flying around my head, what am I going to be doing? What if I don't impress? Will I be able to do the assignments handed to me? It feels like the right apprehensions to have, it's new to me. Also I guess because it's in London it feels like there is an added pressure. People would kill to be in my position right now.

I've prepared for this, I've done my research, I've pestered the right people and now it's time.

This opportunity is huge and one up I intend to take full advantage of!

Ill blog again later in the day, and let you know how I get on.

Preparation

Wow second post time!

I thought I would a update to what I have been doing in prep of my start date. 

So for a while now I have been thinking about purchasing a iPad rMini! However I don't have the money at the moment for one. But yesterday I had a brain wave! 

I have had a 16GB iPad 2 for a year and a half now but hardly ever use, mainly because it had a cracked screen. I decided it would be much more useful if I sold it and put that money towards a new iPad rMini! So I restored it to factory defaults and advertised it on social media, and within an hour i had managed to sell it!

My partner also recognised that I was trying to raise some funds, coincidently he had an iPad 2 the exact same without the cracked screen. We checked the price with a popular high street technology store and made the decision to trade it in there, so I factory reset it and removed the iCloud account and prepared it for trade in.

I still then didn't have enough, but what I did have was a Mac Mini which I didn't use. Due to having a MacBook Pro and a gaming windows machine. So I got the data I needed from the Mac Mini and wiped the hard drive and then priced it up and decided to sell it to the same high street store! This gave me enough funds to make my purchase.

So today I went to the Apple store in Reading and purchased my iPad rMini! 

And if I am honest it's one of the best purchases I have ever made!

I am in love with it already!!

I love how crisp the retina display it, I love how lightweight and slim it is this makes it very attractive as I will be able to use this easily for commuting without to much hassle, also it will come in handy lots when it comes to note taking. It makes the iPad 2 feel heavy and clumsy to use. I love the speed of it I have been able to play quite a graphically advanced game for tablets smoothly without any graphical lag!  I also need to mention the camera, I always hated the iPad 2 camera as it wasn't actually very good and took very low quality photographs. It's nice that Apple have implemented better cameras into the new iPads, I now might actually use it to take some photographs.

So now I have filled my iPad rMini up with Harry Potter audiobooks and note taking applications. I'm avoiding downloading social media apps onto to it also as I find I will spend to much time procrastinating also it is nice to have a device which doesn't have social media. I have enough of it on my phone.

Aside from buying an iPad rMini I have also bought a few new outfits for my new job, kinda of more sensible clothing, smart casual without wearing a suit. The office I am going to be working in is chilled, the people work hard but enjoy themselves at the same time.

Anyway i will post on Sunday the day before I start! Until then...

First Post

Okay, so I've never wrote a personal blog before and haven't had a want to until recently.

I should probably start this by introducing who I am and what I do.

So my name is Ashley Street, im 21 years old and studying at Swansea Metropolitan University.

Me outside the Louvre in Paris.

Great, so that was easy...

In more depth I currently live with my partner in Aylesbury, North Buckinghamshire, but I study in Swansea (long commute, right?) Wrong my final year doesn't have many contact hours so I can study up here and pop down and stay in Swansea as and when needed.

I'm in my third year now, studying Creative Digital Media. I love all aspects of Digital Media, but defiantly favour Front-End Web + App development way more than anything else. 

Recently I have acquired a Internship in London, for a huge company. I am obviously super excited for this as it is a huge foot in the door for me! I start on August 4th communting into London Mon - Thurs. I aim to blog each day about my experience of my Internship, just so I have something I can look back upon when I'm feeling stressed and deflated in my third year and think 'You know what, you can do this, push yourself, motivate yourself and get it together'

I am also working part time as a baker on a Friday and Saturday, I will talk about this but not too much as it's not exciting and everything I do whilst there doesn't account for much, it just offers some financial stability over the summer and during my final year.

In total I will be working 50 hours a week over the summer. Although I am not viewing the internship as a job. It's what I want to do, it's going to be my life, it's the first step to the rest of my life and I am ready to embrace it.

So this is it for now, I will blog again when I have my first day and let you know how it goes!