I swear this is will be the last post about work for the next little while. Man, going to work is tiring. I’m in training until next Thursday and each day begins at 9am sharp. Don’t get me wrong though, I thought the first day went really well. We all got a big binder full of lecture notes and reference material. We also got a schedule of what we’re going to cover for the whole course.
I have to say that this is the most comprehensive on-the-job training I’ve ever seen for any company I’ve worked for. The training is quite impressive. It also nearly guarantees that any software engineer starting at EA will have a known set of skills when they complete the course. This way, managers know exactly what each engineer is capable of even before that engineer starts on a project.
Now that I’ve been spending full days in the Burnaby studio, I’ve had several instances of deja vu come over me. For example, parking my car in the back outside lot this morning (like I did hundreds of time before) made me wonder if this was really 2002. Sitting in the cafeteria eating my lunch today made me realize how many countless hours I’ve spent inside that building. It was all very weird.
Adding to all this was that I actually talked to two people whom I worked with when I was a tester. In the cafeteria, I ran into Cindy who was my lead when I was testing FIFA. She still recognized me and asked me what I was doing here. I told her I was here for training but I’d be at EAX when I was done. She seemed almost relieved when I said I was a software engineer now. She also told me she’s out of QA now and into the production side.
At the end of the day, I was walking to go see Garrett when I heard someone yell out my name. I looked over to my left and it was old Petey himself, the man with the infectious laugh. Peter and I tested Triple Play Baseball together back in 2001. He said that he thought he saw me earlier but didn’t believe his eyes. He went to his desk and checked his Outlook address book, and sure enough, there I was. He tells me he sent me an e-mail but who knows when I’ll get it since I can’t even check my e-mail while I’m EAC. Peter is now a producer on some unannounced game and he invited me to check it out sometime. I will take him up on that offer.
Alright, I gotta try to get to bed a little bit earlier tonight, the operative word being “try”.