2007.06.16 | finally some interesting things

so a few very exciting things have been happening lately. the most important one i think is the fact that i'm now employed.

i was accepted into the polish division of samsung's r&d department. i'm very glad that i got into an engineering related job as there are not many jobs in my specific field. i was also offered a job at an it company just a few days before my offer at samsung was finalised. i got the job on thursday and started my first day yesterday.

i'll most likely be developing c/c++ and/or a subset of java for digital tv platforms. the technology i will be working with is the multimedia home platform[en|wiki] or mhp. the technology acts somewhat like a virtual machine so that you can develop platform independent application for interactivity between the user and the broadcaster (interactive television). i don't know exactly what i will be doing with this technology but even if i did, i don't think i could write about it here (non-disclosure & antitrust policies).

the ibc building is nice and close and only takes about 25 mins to get there by public transport (if you look at the map, my house is just past the "filtry" area on the left of the ibc). there are tons of benefits such as medical, insurance and access to a gym/swimming pool. there is also a chance to travel to various other r&d departments around the world which i think is fantastic. the dress code is also a quite casual as we don't deal with any clients directly which is another plus.

everyone in the company speaks english (which makes my life easier in case i don't know a polish term) and all the slides and documentation i have seen so far are all in english. some of the big bosses in the office are korean which is probably why all the docs are in english (thank you multinational companies :). the working times are flexible which means you can start anywhere between 7h30 and 9h30 and finish working between 16h30 and 18h30. this works out to eight hours of work everyday plus an one hour for lunch. quite clever if you consider that not all people are morning people.

i haven't done much yet yesterday, except read some literature on mhp, but so far the material is very interesting and i think the job will be quite fun. but more on that later.

also in other news, my grandfather was offered a job away from warsaw at a horse ranch for a few months. he is administrating and overseeing the various technical upgrades currently being performed on the ranch. so as a result, i have the warsaw flat all to myself, which is quite a nice change. once my first pay check gets in, i see many parties happening here.