Cerulean Cordillera

Posts Tagged ‘AMD’

Last Tuesday, I’ve began my job at AMD’s Markham location. This would be my very first official, proper job, as all of my previous jobs dealt with selling knives at people’s houses and working little jobs in little chain stores. I wouldn’t belittle those jobs, as I did feel I learned much from them, but AMD’s experience will be very, very different.

For one thing, this is an office job. I get a cubicle with plenty of space, and throughout the course of the day, instead of punching timeclocks and following orders strictly, I am free to meet my position’s needs however I want to. Hence, my performance is now completely my own responsibility. If I want to be outstanding, it’s totally up to me – my own initiative, and my own efforts. In a nutshell, I work in a team of roughly around eight to twelve people. Our team is called the Component Quality Engineering (CQE) team, and we basically do preliminary regression testing for component code that come out of the dev team. In order to perform my work, I need to first get familiar with the software associated with my tasks, then I need to gain the necessary experience to make good decisions in monitoring daily changes in the code, and there’s a bunch of miscellaneous tasks and responsibilities as well. All the people in the team have been very nice and helpful so far, especially my current mentor, who has been explaining things to me nonstop for the past week despite having his voice going noticeably hoarse at least twice now. I will try to learn quickly to make their jobs easier.

The software we’re working on is basically the various drivers for AMD’s graphic cards (the ATI cards). Particularly, I volunteered for the application portion of these drivers. The most significant thing I’ll be doing testing for is ATI’s Catalyst Control Panel (CCC). This is a rather visible piece of software that everybody who has an ATI card must be very familiar with, and I have to say, being a part of this company culture, seeing the scale and orderliness of the corporate system here, and working on something that will enter so many gamer’s daily lives – all these makes me feel quite important. It looks like I’ll have to learn VB for this job, but more importantly, I’ll be getting real experience and knowledge on how the software development works in these huge and successful companies, and I think that will probably be the most valuable part of this experience.

Since the past Wednesday, I’ve started driving to work. Traffic in the morning was alright, but traffic in the afternoon is usually horrible. It takes about a bit less than an hour in the morning to get to work, and up to an hour and a half in the afternoon to get back home. The good thing, however, is that I’m already getting lots and lots of driving experience. I look forward to see how incredible of a driver I’d be after sixteen months of driving like this. As long as I’m careful, I’ll be able to avoid accidents. Access to a car also means quite a bit of freedom that I never had before. All of a sudden, my world no longer extends only a few blocks outward from UofT, although I have no idea what new possibilities are opened up. It’s like playing Age of Empires 2 and having just researched the cartography tech – all of a sudden you can see the terrain of the rest of the world, but there’s still the fog of war preventing you from knowing what’s really in those places. Haha, what a geeky metaphor, though I’m sure if anyone has played any RTS game they’d know what I’m talking about.

To everyone else who are starting their jobs: good luck, work hard, and be smart!

Originally posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2009

It’s been a while. I have updated the articles page with photographs from the remaining two days of the cruise trip. Those two days were merely days spent at sea, so there’s not much new things to take photographs of. In any case, this closes the chapter on my week cruise.

<Edit: Since moving to WordPress, the “articles” page is no longer the location for the photographs. Photographs for days 1~5 can be found in previous blog posts. Photographs for days 6 and 7 are here.>

I’ve also updated the cool links page with a few more articles mostly about China and Tibet. One article, the one by Michael Parenti, has an overwhelming amount of citations and sources, whereas the other one, by Peter Hessler, is written with quite a neutral outlook. They’re quite a refreshing change from the media’s constant bashing of China’s Tibet policies. With the Tibet issue, I recognize that there are lots of things that we don’t want to see, like government creating an unofficial state of martial law by sending in lots of soldiers. However, I’m of the opinion that before you demonize the Chinese government, at least try to understand the situation as situations are often much more complex and harder to deal with than people think. The more articles I read on this, the less certain of the whole picture I become, and thus the less I want to make conclusions about it.

This past Saturday I visited a friend whom I haven’t conversed with for a very long time despite the fact that she lives just down the street. From the visit, several things were made apparent. Our lives certainly grew apart since university began. She still houses the same spirit of self-improvement that I no longer share. Actually, that’s not true. I think it’s our psychology that’s different, and thus our methods for tackling our own growth differs as well. I am not as strong or disciplined as she is, so if I try to handle things like she does, I will get burned out easily. This is why a better strategy for me is to maintain constant harmony with myself and allow my irrational desires to push me to grow at a natural pace. And with my rate of growth, I’m quite content.

It seems that we no longer have many things in common to talk about now. It’s kinda interesting actually. She kept on insisting me to relax, and don’t always be so serious, or something like that, yet I kinda wanted to point out that Innis in general is extremely clean, organized, simple, and square-like just like any office building. When I entered her room, I saw two computer screens in a neat room. One screen was displaying news from BBC, the other screen was on several communication streams including Skype. When I sat on the bed, she would be talking to people over IM not unlike a scene where an office worker is communicating with her client over the Internet. When the phone rings, it is immediately picked up in a professional-like manner. When we talk, her voice was quiet and efficient. In that kind of environment, it feels like waiting at a receptionist desk. Naturally, I got into my “serious” mode without even realizing, and later on when I tried to get out of it, it just didn’t feel natural.

I think most of my other friends would agree that I’m usually quite balanced between being serious and being goofy. That’s how I am naturally, but for some reason this becomes restricted in Innis, I guess tis one of the reasons why I dislike that building.

Hmm… Woodsworth rez is probably worse.

Ah, right. I got an AMD job, and it was quite an ego boost. PEY results for first round was released last week, and I was ranked #1 for two positions. When I went to the PEY office, the people there told me that you don’t see people with multiple offers very often during round one, and if you do see them, they’re usually for people with top marks in the program. My GPA right now, although on a rising trend since I rebounded from the fall during first year second term, still only reaches a 3.3. Yet, of the six applications I got a response from, I got four Interviews. Of the four interviews, each one of them went very well, and I got ranked #1 for two of them. It seems that my efforts got me results.

Since the beginning of PEY, I made sure to treat each and every job application as if it’s the job that I absolutely just have to get. To do this, I did my research and made sure to cater every cover letter to the position. It was important to show them that I understand what the job is about, and I tried to do that to the best of my ability. This included attending info sessions, talking to past PEY people, and doing online research on the company and positions. Every time I submitted an application, I would know that my application will be the one that looks a great deal more solid than the average application.

Apparently, doing this got me quite a few interviews. According to the career center, if a company wants to reject a student, then the company must indicate this on the PlacePro system, so I would know if I was rejected. I applied to about 20 places in total, got responses for six, and no responses for the remaining. Some of those companies probably backed out of the PEY system due to the economic scene, others probably haven’t reached a decision yet. Out of the six, I was rejected by two, but got interviewed by four. This can probably be roughly considered as a 66% interview rate, so clearly all those research was worth it.

Then I adopted a perspective of confidence. For each and every Interview, I was never nervous or fearful of rejection. I made sure I dress well. Upon meeting the person I made sure to shake hand firmly and project an image of confidence and professionalism. The thing with Interviews is that, if you can deal with the nervousness of anticipation before and when meeting the person, then everything after becomes perfectly normal. I knew that I was perfectly capable of tackling any problems or questions they might throw at me because I had confidence in my abilities and my personal growth in the past. Throughout the Interview, I didn’t treat it as them interviewing me to see if I’m good enough. Instead, I treated it like we’re both interviewing each other to decide whether we can work well and create something together. Apparently, once you’re in that mindset, talking was easy, efficient, and fun. At the end of each of these Interviews, I’d feel this awesome sense of self. It made me start thinking that if I ever need a mood booster, an interview would do the job.

And apparently this worked. Out of the four interviews, I was really only weeded out by one, and that was the interview where I was interviewed by four employers at once, and it was a management position. I believe I only lost that position because I lacked the experience or training. For the other three interviews (one hardware, two software), I got ranked by them all, as each of them sent me an email afterwards telling me I’ve entered their final selection pool. And out of these three, I got first place for two of them.

So, on Monday, May 18th, I’ll be beginning work at AMD’s Toronto office. The position is a testing position, but quite an extensive one. The idea is to make sure various AMD graphics chips are compatible with all sorts of operating systems, programs, and platforms. Not only will this offer quite some experience with computer graphics in general, there’s also a chance to work with Windows 7 before anyone else. There’ll be lots of challenges ahead, but I’ll definitely be able to overcome them. Meanwhile, this also means I need to obtain my G2 license before May 18th. I’ll also need to look for housing for the summer and next year.

I also attended an info session on graduate school yesterday. The session was hosted by Willy Wong, my old prof for E&M. Graduate school seems to be really tough both to get in and to stay in, but the idea of it is very awesome. Apparently the minimum requirements is a mid-B average. If I maintain my current level of grades, and improve a little in first term fourth year, I’ll have a chance, and if I have a chance, then my pro-activeness will make it an almost certainty. I’m still not going to make a decision about it until after PEY, when I have better knowledge of the industry’s conditions. However, I think it is likely for me to try for a M. Eng after getting my degree. And then if I’m still ambitious (I’m fantasizing now, lol), I might go for an MBA. Ultimately, I want to make a difference with my knowledge and skills, and I want to do it in my own natural way.

I’m getting hungry now. Recently I’ve been criticized by several people for not eating healthily and not exercising. These are things I will get to eventually, but for now, other things have higher priorities.

Originally posted on Sunday, November 16, 2008

I had a dream last night… It wasn’t a nightmare; instead, it was rather frustrating and entertaining at the same time. I forgot the details. All I remember is that it involved some Christian pastor. Meanwhile, it looks like my 7-Eleven shift changed to the evening. I don’t know if this is temporary or permanent, but at least it gives me a wakeful day. As soon as I finish this, I’m off to bed for two more hours.

So far, I’ve applied to seven jobs, out of which six are AMD. My parents told me that if necessary, I can borrow my mom’s car for a year. I wonder what life like that would be like… Actually, it wouldn’t be far from what my parent’s life was like back in Dallas, Texas. They had to drive about the same distance to work every day. Let’s suppose that work is eight hours per day, from 8AM to 4PM. That means I would get up at 6:30, have breakfast, and drive to work. When I finish at 4PM, I’d drive back, and return by 5-ish. Cooking dinner hopefully will take half an hour. Cooking, plus eating, and dishwashing, plus a bit of extra time, I should be done by 6:30. I would probably get to bed by at latest 11:00.

That doesn’t sound too bad, actually. Also, I’d get both weekends off in the truest sense… I wouldn’t even need to study.

Hmm… I wonder how much more difficult it would be to find a place that allows cars.

Originally posted on Friday, November 5, 2008

Ruby: ATI Mascot Girl

I went to the AMD session today for PEY. The whole process was pretty exciting. AMD is pretty much the biggest employer for PEY, as they offer more than a hundred jobs for PEY students from UofT. Basically, if I just randomly chose jobs to submit applications for, and went through the PEY process that way, chances are I’d land myself in an AMD job.

And it’s not a bad company either. I’m sure pretty much anyone who has even the smallest interest in computer/silicon technology has heard of them. If not, well, have you heard of Intel, the company behind the Pentium-4 Processors or Core 2 Duo? AMD is their direct competition. My computer runs on an AMD chip, and I’m willing to bet that half of the computer packages at Best Buy also run on AMD processors. This is also not the only fame you’ll get with AMD. Since 2006 they’ve combined with ATI, the maker of Radeon graphic cards, and it seems that lots of work with ATI cards are done here in Toronto, in their Markham office.

I like their perspective towards PEY. See, since they’re such an old partner with the PEY program, they’re familiar with what it is. Also, since they hire so many students per year for many years already, they’re familiar with the amount of skill and knowledge we have. At the session, we had the chance to talk to the managers and members of each of their design teams that will hire. They were all very amazing people. Some of the people are current PEY students, and from the way they talk and the amount of knowledge and skills they hold, it’s hard to think that a year ago, they were just students like us. Though, I should probably also keep in mind that they hired more than a hundred people last year, and the people who showed up at the meeting were only a handful, so I was probably seeing the best of them.

Even so, they’ve done more than just show their knowledge and maturity. On top of that, they’ve demonstrated and made it clear that the path for students like us to grow is perfectly open. They’ve told us about the challenges the job will pose, but if they conquered such challenges, then why shouldn’t we? They offer a goal, and they offer resources. We can shine too; we just need to be smart and work hard.