After first day

Well, good news. New Employment Orientation (NEO) started a little bit late. But it was amazing that it held weekly. Each week, I think there about 100 new employees come and join/transfer to Microsoft. From the slides, 8% of total employees are new hires. One thing for sure, they inspires new employees very well. They did do a good job. And I got my security badge and ready to change the world step by step. From now on, I will my update my blog regularly to improve my writing skill.

Tomorrow is the first day at Microsoft

I'm so excited and I think I can not sleep tonight. I need to be at the new employment orientation at 8:30am. Becoming a part of one the biggest software companies, is a huge chance to work with a great enthusiastic people and an opportunity to develop my career. I'm gonna be a Software Developer Engineering in Test. Last few days, I have been reading "How do we test software at Microsoft" by Alan Page book. This book gives me a huge preparation into my field. I think I'm loving this place. Right now I'm living in Bellevue, which is just 15 min from Microsoft. For next one month, I will be riding my bicycle to work and it will be a nice exercise for me. I can not believe that I will a part of this great company. So my career's adventure trip begins tomorrow. Good night everyone!

Extra Reading

Ceruzzi in A History of Modern Computing focused mostly on hardware, giving very detailed descriptions of how the great mainframes were built and be whom. He also discusses how transistors and microchips were developed and came into use in computer. Overall, this book is fast-paced and very well organized, written, and researched.

Technology and the church

Technology has improved the quality of life and makes our jobs easier. The great benefit of technology in the Church is the ability for each Church member to be more efficient in the work they do. With the vast amount of information on the internet today, any individual can learn almost everything about the LDS Church. A member of the LDS Church simply referring an individual to www.mormon.org, alone, is not enough. Technology is allowing us to do more work with less effort.

Online Gaming Addiction

Video games may look innocent, but can be addictive as gambling or drugs. This addiction often exists as a sidekick to other addictive behaviors or psychological problems. I don't have a problem with gaming, as it doesn't really interest me, but what Elder Ballard said, about keeping a balanced life and not idling away our time, is something I still have to work on. I probably spend more time than I should keeping up on shows and programming, and less than I should exercising and caring about other things in my life.

Internet addiction

Internet addiction is on the rise. It is a lot more than constantly surfing the internet. More and more young people getting hooked on the interactive online games, compulsively spending hours playing them. The other day I was talking to a friend about addictive behaviors; he plays poker on the Internet and his opinion was that although some people ruin their lives gambling, it is possible to gamble responsibly. At first, the conversation did not seem to apply to me; don't I avoid all addictive behaviors? However, upon further reflection, I realized that the answer is no. With the Internet, it is possible to get addicted and ruin our lives. Responsible Internet usage is a must in today's society; it is important for all of us to recognize the danger and realize that we are not immune.

The world is flat

Recently, I read Thomas L. Friedman's book entitled The World is Flat. If you want to better understand the world that we are living in today, I would strongly suggest this book. Friedman does a great job describing the modern world, identifying the important issues that we are facing, and presenting all the information about each issue - both the good and bad. One of many points that Friedman makes in his book is that in today's world to be marketable we need to have specialized skills, often that span previously separate disciplines. This point is especially relevant to students graduating with computer science degrees; we are moving into a world where just writing code will ne longer be a top of the line source of income.

One of the advantages of the flat world is that companies no longer have to rely on local employees in order to build a viable business. Remote and off-site work allow companies to hire from places like China or India to get quality work for a much lower cost. We have already started to see this trend happening in the software engineer industry. There is an increasing number of companies moving their coding work to foreign engineers who will work for less money.

But there is still a way for computer science majors to be highly marketable in a flat world. As simple coding jobs fall out of the market in the United States, employers will be looking for Software engineers with a level of expertise in other subjects. Engineers who can not only write code, but also contribute in other ways, will be in high demand.

As the lower-skill jobs disappear for computer science graduates, they will need further specialization in other areas in order to be competitive in a flat world.