New Job Day 1

I started my first day at my new job yesterday. I wanted to chronicle some of the events so that I can go back and remember them. We will see how long I can keep this up.

When I first arrived I went through an orientation session with the company. There were 2 others in my class. One working at the same office, another working at a new DC for the northeast. The session was informative, yet not too much HR. I immediately noticed that they run Windows XP and, of course, Internet Explorer 7. I enjoyed the tour and learned that they have a fitness center and cafeteria, plus free coffee. You can't beat free coffee. The building is only 2 floors with bathrooms outside locked doors, meaning I could not use the bathroom on my own for the first day because by id badge was not yet setup for the doors.

Then I was off to meet up with my department. I first sat with the head of the department and learned a little about what I would be doing. I also found out that he incorrectly put my start date at September 12 before realizing in the morning that my laptop was not there and attempted to fix it. I started being introduced to the different department leads and some of the members of each department. So many names and faces, it will take some time to remember them all.

For the morning, after the meetups, I had about an hour before lunch. Without a computer, I had little to do. During lunch I decided to switch my previous work-paid phone into a personal one. I went to AT&T and spent way too long getting it done. The person with whom I worked was very courteous, but he seemed to be at a new job as well. If he had called the correct number in the first place, I would have been out in half the time. Instead I waited and waited and argued about why they need to do a credit check again. Finally I caved; it turned out they did not need a full credit check, but they needed my SSN to check on my last application. Everything went ok and I made it back to work after only 1 1/2 hours!

When I arrived back at my desk, I had my new laptop. It was a new Lenovo Thinkpad T420. It is a very nice laptop. It feels very solid. There were some issues setting up my new password; I think because I tried to change it same day as it was created. Anyway I finally got it changed and began to explore my pathetic Windows XP desktop. I quickly worked to get some of my macros working for Excel and Word. That is always a fun experience to get the install working correctly.

Then I tackled getting access to the SAP systems I required. I got to meet with basis and learn the naming conventions. Then I had to get the system details and get them setup. Their SAP PI system appears to only have the ABAP side running. One step at a time I guess. I did setup alert categories in the sandbox system. One was for integration engine alerts, the other for adapter engine alerts. They have pretty a nice setup in their operations department with multiple 42" LCD monitors on the wall.

I also got invited to my first meeting about Solution Manager. Solution Manager always seems to be the system that everyone wants to like, but never seem to use. Before the meeting, I tried to prepare by reading up on setting up monitoring for SAP PI beyond just the standard alerts. I later listened to full circle podcast which had details on a protocol called MQTT presented by Andy Piper. It made me think of how to integrate it into monitoring. http://andypiper.co.uk/tag/mqtt/. At the meeting, I got my first taste of what it means to be in retail; no system changes during the holidays. The meeting involved Basis saying they could not implement anything this year for monitoring in solution manager. I agreed to be the point person for business process monitoring. I learned that there are some speed/application issues currently occurring in production. I am not sure that anyone knows the cause, but, of course, each area believes they are not at fault. I inquired about our strategy for setting up an SLD, since I know both solution manager and SAP PI require one. I found out that I am to propose a strategy. I may need to contact ASUG and find out who made the presentation that I saw for Harley Davidson's approach to setting up a federated SLD.

After the meeting it was quitting time. I found out that my badge still did not work on the doors. I will find out when I go in today if that is still the case. I also learned the few points where I will hit traffic. At the first, it is not too bad since most cars continue southwest while I turn northwest. The other traffic point is due to bridge construction. It is not too bad going north, but I saw quite a backup going south. Overall I think it was a good first day.

Until the next time.