Living Dreams, Inspiring Moments

The outset of my days in Penang as an intern kicked off with a loud blare of the morning Muslim prayers at 6am. Fortunately I've decided to be up on the exact same time, having the alarm clock ringing in harmony with the loud prayers echoing from a distance, else it would be a comfortable slumber totally ruined on a cold Monday morning. After some preparation and a quick breakfast, I was out on the road towards Intel Penang Design Centre (PDC) by 7am.

Traffic was surprisingly smooth despite all I've heard about the morning jam as everyone rushes to the offices located around the Bayan Lepas Free Trade Zone. Locating Intel was no trouble at all as the building stood out like a rose within thorns. A friendly security officer at the guardhouse kindly directed me to my destination (PG-1) as Intel PDC is quite large and has about 12 different buildings. Parking was abundant, and it made me proudly believe I was rather early to work. I looked over my phone, it was 7.20am.

I proceeded to PG-1 to drop off some documents after applying for a temporary pass tag at the PG-4 security booth. A nice lady which I believe one of the PDC admins kindly took care of my documents as I was rather lost as I stepped into the quiet and large office. At 7.45am, I was back at PG-4 waiting room for my supervisor to come pick me up. The world is certainly small, as I've met another senior who have graduated from UNITEN not too long ago who came to start her 1st day as a project engineer. We shared a short conversation before my supervisor came by 8.20am.

My office is located at PG-2, a short walk from the waiting room and after searching for my cubicle, my supervisor, Mr Vinodh took me down to the cafeteria for breakfast. I'm pretty happy with the place as the food was satisfying in variety and fairly priced. There was also a free flow of drinks, so no reason to not have a proper meal before work. I got to know more about what I can expect during my 3 months stay at Intel PDC from Mr Vinodh over a nice cup of coffee. Oh did I mention that the place is VERY clean? I'm beginning to love the place.

I belong to the Circuit Marginality Validation (CMV) Team which comprises of around 30+ people. We run tests for hardware/software on different situations or varying variables such as temperature, frequency and etc. I've got a comfortable cubicle for myself, complete with plenty of lockable drawers and a complete desktop. Stationeries are aplenty, the pantry is well equipped and the washroom was well maintained. As I was left idle, I took the opportunity to explore the place and had a nice colleague (Miss Ho) to show me around.

Time flied and it was already lunch time, Miss Ho offered to take me along to the cafeteria over at PG-12 nearby. The place was packed, but getting seats were not a problem. With the help of Miss Ho, I located the places to produce my identification tag and where I could collect my starter kit from the admin. As lunch ended by 1pm, I'm back in my office and got further briefing by Mr Vinodh on what my work is about. Back in my cubicle, some nice emails welcomed me to the team and also promised some interesting activities during my stay at Intel PDC. I was already feeling delirious by the motion being set on this roller coaster ride.

Focusing on controlled automation tests, I need to familiarize myself with scripting (Perl Scripting to be exact) and fortunately they are almost similar to the other programming languages which I've learned before such as C and assembly language. The challenge lies more on the new syntaxes and some the new software that I need to use. Mr Vinodh enlightened me on what the CMV Team is about and the project I will be involved in. Luckily I don't feel too lost on all the terms used, thanks to techie news and microprocessor subject back in uni.

My 1st day in office ended by 5.15pm as the office grew desserted. It was an awesome beginning of my journey here and I'm already excited about the next day. Tired I am but the experience is something you definitely can't just pay for. Bed awaits and thank God for a hearty dinner in Penang's Gurney Drive (so much good food!), my day is complete. =3

P/S: Unfortunately I can't provide any videos or pictures yet due to company restrictions. Will enquire about it soon enough for educational purposes. :)