Lay off culture

It was the first quarter of year 2001. My company was having financial difficulty, and this gave nightmare to every employees. It was the first time I heard of "lay off", and witness personally how cruel this could be.

We were scared that we would be laid off, and have to go back to our country after just 3-4 months in the USA. Eventually, we got to stay, as we were the cheapest employees among the others.

Not so lucky for others. The direct impact for us was our program coordinator was gone. Then a coworker who was pregnant, gone too. It was such a brutal process. You come to work, you got an email saying that you are laid off, you go to see your manager, get your compensation pay, and you are no longer the employee of the company.

Some people cried, some was worried, some changed job, the moral and spirit was low.

Anyway, life goes on. I left the company in 2002, and since heard that both my managers in my two rotations were laid off too. Most of the people who worked with me during that 18 months had gone. I understand now what is the meaning of "high turnover".

To do research for companies, use Masterseek

During my MBA studies in USA, I had to do many research on companies to do either financial reports or case studies. It was a tough job as some search engines provide too wide range of information. I was hoping to get one search engine just for business information. And now it exists. I just look into Masterseek to consider buying a share for a company, and it gave me all the essential information to decide on this share purchase. I will sure come back for my next hunt.

masterseek

Bloggerwave is here

I have tried to find out some chances to earn pocket money as a blogger. I saw this Bloggerwave advertisement in someone else' blog, I was like, there's no harm trying. So I wrote a post on my personel blog www.tbeeean.blogspot.com, and 4 days after I got paid $10 in my palpay account. So, I'm letting you know, I really get paid by writing a post about Bloggerwave.

Tried it out yourself.

Bloggerwave

Mardi Gras in New Orleans

My coworker suggested that we go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras festival, we took up the idea and just went for it. At the end, I was crying in the bar bcos some guys grabbed my ass, but it's New Orleans! People told me, they grabbed you bcos they think you are cute!!!



Look how free they are!!

My first Christmas

A lot of "first" time experience happened in the US. I guess it's due to the huge cultural differences. For example as a non Christian we would not have cool Christmas or even a Christmas celebration.



Thinking about it, I rarely cook in Malaysia, but I managed to make this Chinese pudding. Crappy, but at least I tried. It's amazing how my cooking skills have improved! This would not happen if I still live with my mother. Never need to move a finger when I lived with her.





One thing I like about US is it's multiracial population. See, we had white, yellow, brown, just lack a black.

First trip in US: San Antonio

It was new year 2001. We went to San Antonio. My first trip in the US. It was cold and I remember wearing a pair of shoes that have my toes exposed. Everybody was amazed that I can stand the cool so well. Well, I'm not now.



The Riverwalk





Christmas tree near the Alamo



A famous church



We had a ball night, my first ball night.

Austin, Texas

Austin is the nicest city I have ever lived in my life. It's not too big but not too small. It's a hill country so the view is spectacle. It has several lakes where you can do some water sports. It's the capital city of Texas and it's the second silicon valley in US. Life in Austin is not chaotic but relax. Plenty of restaurants cater to different needs.



US and Austin flags



Capitol of Texas



Congress: One of the main road in downtown Austin.



A colonial building in downtown Austin.



The tourist bus circulating around downtown Austin.



University of Texas (UT)



UT football stadium, Austinites are crazy about football.



A colonial house in Austin



The special mailbox in on of the range road



Texas license plate



Austin 360 (aka Capital Texas Highway): A road we usually take to go home and go to work.



There are plenty of squirrels in Austin



Squirrel again. See, I told you Austin has plenty of them.



The sprinker, I found it amazing to have this automatically water the surrounding.



Sheriff, county police



You found this scene easily in most of the corner in Austin.



A school bus passing William Cannon drive, close to Motorola Oakhill.

Motorola Austin Texas

Motorola semiconductor division had become an independant entity under Motorola group. Now the semiconductor division is called Freescale. It has 3 main officers in Austin. The main one in Oak Hill, south Austin; one in Ed Bluestein, east Austin; and one in Parmer Lane, North Austin. I worked in both 3 facilities during my 18 months there. The below is the facility in Parmer Lane where I had my first rotation.




I loved this facility the first time I came. It's very beautiful, like a college campus. It has a cafeteria so no problem for lunch. One thing that this cafeteria doesn't offer discount price like the one in Malaysia. Then, in the building, they have pool table and game facilities for their employees to play between break times. You seldom see this in Malaysia. No employer would want to see his employees playing games during working hours.





I was in a finance team consisted of a finance controller and a senior analyst. I was there to help out but they didn't give me much responsibility. Saying that they wanted to give me time to adjust to the possible culture shock. At one point I did ask for more responsibility. However, I didn't get as much as my friend who took over this position in the second rotation. She got a new controller and she got to involve in every tasks in this team.



The first time I saw my cubicle I was like wow, it's so tall that nobody can see you. I guess that's the point, people needed privacy here. In Malaysia, you can see everybody from your cubicle, easier for manager to observe who's working and who's not.

My first car

The British intern took an afternoon off to drive me around looking for an used car. He contacted 3 sellers. First was a BMW. Too big and too old. Don't remember the other two, a pitch of memory that one of them was severely crushed during an accident.

A Polish trainee brought me to see an Honday Civic. It was a 14 years old car, but still running well. He checked the engine and everything looked good. The seller told me that this is a very nice car, it has never broke down before. I like the fact that the first owner was the seller's mother, and all the maintenance's documents have been neatly saved in a folder.

USD2000, the most valuable thing I have ever bought.

I enjoyed this car very much until the air conditional broke down around 6 months I bought her.