Work

My New New New MacBook Pro

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Yesterday (as of writing not publishing this) I got my new MacBook Pro for work. I requested it in May and due to several factors I only received it in late August. The good news about living through a huge lead time was that after the new model was announced I got automatically switched over get that one since they couldn’t source the old one. Turns out they will order you a new computer when the battery starts bulging on the old one to the point where it won’t lie flat on the desk anymore. On top of the fact that it was out of warranty.

Thew new MacBook Pro is pretty nice. It is a well-equipped 15″ touch bar in space gray. I spent all of my spare time over the past two days including last night on my couch trying to set it up. In many ways this computer is more powerful than the 2015 13 inch pro I have. In others it’s not. It has the same amount of RAM. It also comes with the same SSD size. The processor is several generations newer. There is a discrete graphics card in it and it is the same weight as my old 13″ model since prior generations made the machines lighter.

The biggest first world problem I have with it is that it’s a 15″ machine. It doesn’t fit into the bag I have and love. It may be the same weight as what I had previously but compared to a new 13″ model it is a pound heavier. One of the reasons I opted for the larger one is that a lot of time I work from an office that I am not officially based out of that is nearby. I don’t always have the opportunity to get a desk with a monitor. Working off a 13 inch screen with my eyes isn’t the most fun thing to do in the world. The 15″ is a bit better but still not obviously the same thing as sitting in front of a 24″ or 27″ monitor.

The decision I had to make was what has become the typical laptop trade-off question. Do I go for size at the detriment of performance? Or do I go for the bigger much more powerful machine? In my case I yin-yang and went with the larger MacBook. The final deciding factor was simplicity. The size and configuration I ended up with is a standard offering. The smaller 13″ MacBook would have to be a special order and thus take more time. The feedback I got from friends who tried it said just buy the 15 inch and be happy with it. So I did the opposite of what I did several years ago when I went from a 15″ to 13″. I went from small to big. My reasoning changed because my situation changed.

One of the huge downsides of the new Macbook’s are the fact that they require USB C. Since most devices are not USB C I need dongle’s. I have two USB to USB C adapters in my bag. A USB C to DVI adapter in my bag. On top of that I have a small dock in the office I travel to and a full dock at my regular office. Hopefully more USB C native devices will come out however its been a few years since these models were launched and its not much better than it was when they first came out.

Next up is getting my stickers on it…

My 10 Year Anniversary

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It was 10 years ago today that i started with Thomson Reuters.  It is the most recent chapter in my career.  it is also the longest.  Last year I did a run down of some statistics.  This year I add moving two offices and a continent to those numbers.  Lots of work changes coming up.  In some ways work here is still as interesting and challenging as it was 10 years ago.  Having several roles, managers, office locations over those 10 years helps make everything new again every few years.

With big changes on the horizon with the organization I am curious on what is to come in the upcoming year.

So you want to move to another country Part 2: You Need a Job

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This is part two of “So you want to move to another country”.  My overview of the process we went through to be able to actually move to London.  So far I am still writing the series so not sure how many parts it will eventually come out to.  I am finding it very therapeutic to write this all out.  Hopefully friends and family enjoy it and anyone on the internet thinking of doing the same thing might find it useful.

Having the ability to work in the EU with MC now being an citizen of an EU country was only the first step. Even though it felt very complex and stressful in and of itself it was likely pretty easy compared to what came next. Let’s face it MC was able to prove her criteria to be a citizen. All she had to do is jump through the hoops to get the paperwork. Finding a job on the other hand was nowhere near as guaranteed.

MC and I both agreed that our most viable option would be if there was an opportunity within my company. Where she worked was very small and niche. The challenge was at the time of those discussions in the summer and fall of 2016 there appeared to be no opportunities in my company availible. MC and I still agreed to move forward with citizenship process anyway since it was something that kind of always wanted to have done anyway.

Opportunity presents itself in the weirdest ways sometimes. At the end of March of this year my group was part of a large reorganization within the greater technical operations group. As part of that reorganization some of the work that was currently part of the group I managed was getting spun off into a new central delivery group. What was left was purely a support organization. I’ve done IT operations support on and off in my career for years. I have done operational support more than anything else however prior to that group I was doing service delivery and I liked it. In my role at the time service delivery was a small part of what i did and I was a little frustrated with it going away. When my boss at the time asked me how I was doing after the announcement of the reorganization we had a long chat. I voice my concerns and he presented an opportunity to lead the group that was being formed out of the people from my current group and my peers groups in the new organization. At first I wasn’t so sure I was interested.  It would be a smaller group and doing something different.  It was similar to what i had done at a smaller scale in the past and i enjoyed that.  Even if support can be tiring I sometimes enjoy the adrenaline of under pressure problem solving.  I had mixed thoughts about the opportunity however the more i thought about it the more interesting it became.  The final deciding factor was that there seemed to be an opportunity for overseas relocation.  In my group at the time i was responsible for Americas.  It was very regional and no real overseas opportunities.  The new position was managing a global team again.  The was a case to be made to do that job from England.  My new manager agreed and was interested in seeing if we could make it happen.

At that point it was only an idea but it sounded promising.  Due to some other re-org related dependencies I had to stay quiet about my job move until late April / early May.  Once that change was announced i started in my new position.  I also started working with my new manager to make the business case to his management about my move. His manager seemed opened to the idea and wanted to see it written up.  Once that eventually got approved it had to go one level higher for approval.  During that time there was debate over where to send me.  London was an option that i assumed I would goto, however there was another site in England that was an option too.  MC and I would have been happy with either.  During the summer it seemed like this decision was more we are going but not sure where yet however nothing was in writing.  In August i got word that everything was approved for London.  The next part of the move was to have our Mobility and HR groups get involved.  it wasn’t until early September before i got the details of the offer.  It was another week or two before I had paperwork to sign.  It is one thing to know something is happening and it is another to actually have something to sign.  The entire process from hearing it was a possibility to do in March to having signed papers in September was almost 6 months.  It was totally worth it however as they say the waiting is the hardest part.

When this originally started looking like it was a possibility we were targeting a move at the end of 2017 or early 2018.  Even with things feeling like it took a long time it turned out that my finger in the air guess on when we could move would actually come true.

In Part 3 of this saga I will describe the process of actually selling our apartment…

Hello Hoboken, I Will Barely Remember You

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Hoboken, you make it so difficult to dislike you. The Times Square office had a fantastic view. You had to go on one off that with a gorgeous skyline view of Manhattan. You took a standard desk setup that I had for 2 years in Times Square and you had to kick it up a notch with a hydroelectric standing desk standard. Now that is cool and I promised my neighbors to annoy them with the hydronic lift randomly let’s face it that function is lost on me. Simply for coolness factor it gets points though.

Then the office has to be nice and bright with lots of personal space to go if I needed it. Then there is a boutique coffee shop only a few blocks away that was on par with Grumpy’s.

I almost like you Hoboken. Almost… all the things I discussed are great yet you still will always be geographically undesirable. My morning commute was around one hour and twenty minutes. I took a local for a seat however at the time I traveled the express isn’t that much faster.

In the end let’s face it I will hardly remember you Hoboken. You are a 4 week layover until London. I footnote in my life. I will be back a few more times. Till then…

Bye For Now Times Square

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Times Square can be a challenging place to work.  It is crowded with tourists most of the year.  The tour bus people always harass you to buy tickets even when I feel like it is pretty obvious i am not a tourist.  Then there are the off brand cartoon characters trying to get you to give them money to take photos with them.  30 Rock was totally on the money about them.  With all of that I still love working in Times Square.

When describing were i worked i had to be more detailed than just i work in times square.  Especially for those from out of town.People would ask oh where in Times Square? And I would say right in time square… If you look up from my window you see the ball. I would also tell the story about the 10 stories high red Walgreens sign flashing at my window annoying the crap out of me for about two years. I get the blinds closed pretty much the entire time.

I do remember many days over the years I would grab my coffee and start walking to the office and enter time square with all the activity even at 7:50 in the morning you get kind of excited. It may be a New York centric thing to say however time square is arguably one of the centers of the world. Even with all the negatives it was has been cool working here.

Friday however was my last day working out of Times Square. My group is relocating to an office in Hoboken. I found out about the Hoboken move after my London relocation was already pretty much done. The move wasn’t really going to impact me much since the overlap of me going to Hoboken before London would be for only a short period of time. It works out to about six weeks between when the move happened and when I will relocate. During that time. I’m glad i am relocating to another country since this move adds about 20 to 30 minutes to my commute. Not the end of the world however it pushes the commute to Borderline challenging especially when I need to get home to pick up the girls,

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Hoboken. We toured the office about a week ago and it looks really nice. The lunch room has a gorgeous view of the Manhattan skyline. It looks like there’s plenty of things to do around the office for food. Maybe not as much is Times Square however how many places have that much stuff to do like times square? It’s just that it’s further from my house and it’s not time square. Sorry Hoboken. I’m just being honest. You’ll never have a place in my heart like the Times Square office did.

I’m also going to miss a lot of my old group. I might have moved organizations in May however I still sat near people I worked with for several years. We would still go to lunch and grab drinks after work. I know all of that would change when I move overseas however this brings that date up by six weeks that I was not originally planning on.

I still hope to grab drinks now again before I leave. I have to pass right by the Times Square office on my way home from the Hoboken office anyway. It’s not really that far out-of-the-way to meet up with people. I wonder how many times actually will do it. It is still my intention to make the effort while I am still in NY.

I don’t think I’ll find another office when at 8:15AM you will hear cheering in the background because some crowd of people is yelling at the TV morning show being filmed a block or two away.

Start With Why

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A few years ago a guy I work with sent me a TED talk video of Simon Sinek.  After  watching one of his videos I immediately watched the second one. Both were very fascinating. It inspired me to want to read his book start with why. The reviews however basically said if you watched the TED talk then you really don’t need to read the book. At the time I didn’t.

Over the summer someone at work challenged me to come up with my personal brand. I floundered for a while not knowing what to do since I am terrible at self-promoting or so I thin I asked the same coworker for thoughts on where to star on doing an exercise like that. He suggested going back to start with why He also pointed out that there is or was a course that Simon Sinek offered that helped people come up with their personal why.

What my coworker said made a lot of sense I ended up buying the book even though the reviews suggested I might not need i I’m three quarters of the way through and it’s been pretty interesting It is an easy read however very insightful information.I started reading the book in August I noticed that the course my coworker mentioned was being turned into a book that was published in September.  Once I am done with Start With Why  I hope to get that book and read it next.

Coincidence

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“Never ignore coincidence. Unless, of course, you’re busy. In which case, always ignore coincidence.” Crazy that a Doctor Who quote is semi-appropriate for describing how I feel about something at work.

Of course during the same issue I kept thinking and said out loud at least once “if Woody had only gone to the police, none of this would have every happened. I guess that I am just well rounded in my pop culture quotes.

8 Years and Counting

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Today is the eighth anniversary of my starting to work at Thomson Reuters. On one hand it does feel like I’ve been here for a long time. On the other hand it’s still challenging to grasp that it’s been eight years. One of the things I’ve learned that’s good about a large company is it changes as well as your role changes so even though it’s been eight years I’m not doing the same thing I was doing when I started in September 2008.

Thomson Reuters for me by the numbers was something I was thinking about in my head the other day. In the eight years that I’ve been working here lots of things have changed for me. I have managed five different groups. Six if you count the one I had for about a week or so however I don’t. I’ve had five different positions. I’ve gone through three different managers. Funny enough I switched between all them within a three-month period that started with a voicemail when I was returning from my honeymoon. I have worked out of three different offices as well as working from home however if you really counted out I’ve gone from Office 1, to Office 2, to Office 3, back to Office 2.

On a personal side I have lived in three different apartments. I have dated, got engaged, got married. Oh and I also two kids within those eight years. In context my life is vastly different than it was on September 8, 2008. On a personal and professional level far better off than where I was. In anti-climactic fashion I realized about a year and a half after it happened that I have been at Reuters longer than any other company.

Spent the Day at a CIA Listening Post, Well Sort Of

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Today I am in London and I spent my entire day at a CIA listening post. Well that is partly true. It was depicted as a CIA listening post in a James Bond film but in reality it is just a Thomson Reuters Data Center in London. I am not sure of what movie but several people have confirmed it. I can talk about it only because when I pull the area up on a public map the building is labeled.

I was in a workshop all day, but the views from half the building are of the river overlooking the Millennium Dome. I would have loved to take some pictures but I am pretty sure they frown on that. The workshop was very interesting. I have two more days of it but the next two are a bit different than the first one so we shall see how they go. I was just thankful that we got to the office and back without too much drama. The trip was already planned before we found out about the Tube strike. Thankfully we left early enough this morning to get a cab directly to the office. We were able to take the DLR halfway back to the hotel and then got lucky finding a cab. The down side of the morning cab was I went to bed at 11:30 and got up at 5:30 to be out early. Tonight I am aiming to goto bed a bit earlier to get up tomorrow at the same time.  Thankfully the strike is over tomorrow, but I have to deal with it next week if they keep to their plans to strike again

After work I got drinks and dinner with one of the trainers who is staying at my hotel. I was also able to get a pre-pay SIM card so i am a bit more connected for the long trip. WIFI at the hotel is great. Work is more limiting so having additional freedom is nice. Even after all the suggestions from MC, Cathy (thanks Cathy but I am not spending 50 pounds on a Doctor Who tour) and others I still don’t know what to do this weekend while in the city by myself. On that note I am off to bed. I will try to read some travel guides tomorrow night.

Off to London (Aka if this gets posted to my blog I am already there)

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Today I am off to London for a bit for work. My boss is hosting a workshop and then I have a two day training. The trip is longer than originally planned because i am combining the two events.

On one hand I love London and both functions seem very interesting but on the other it is the first trip I have taken since having kids. I started missing T & A while at the airport going through my photostream. I am hoping to catch them and M on Facetime as much as possible but I am not holding out hope i can do that everyday.

The flight has given me the opportunity to at least get in some writing i have wanted to do. This post included.