Riverbed !
I feel great about it when I say / think Riverbed !!
After thorough evaluations, Riverbed offered me a SharePoint Developer position at Bethesda, MD location. My joining date: 19-Oct-2015.
One week before my joining date, I received an email from HR on induction details. The time mentioned was 9am - 11am PT. Yes, headquarters is in San Francisco. HR also mentioned that whoever attending outside San Francisco, they will have to use the webex option and the time at Bethesda would be 12pm - 2pm ET.
I was confused and thinking when do I need to reach Bethesda office, at regular office hour or 11am ET?! I stick to the regular office hour, 9am ET. I decided to go by metro. I live in West Falls Church. It would take 1hr 30 mins to Bethesda by metro and takes only 20 mins by car !
Metro: West Falls Church -> {DC Area (Catch another train)} -> Bethesda
Car: 495 route
On 18th night, I kept alarm on 2 devices, iPhone and iPad because I should not get bad impressions on first day by going late. ;)
The day has come 19-Oct-2015 (Monday). iPhone alarm was ringing at 6am and iPad alarm failed !!!!! Good that I got up on iPhone alarm. I got ready and had one banana, milk, an apple and an egg as a breakfast. Time was 7.30am. It's time to catch bus. I started running towards bus stop, took a bus to West Falls Church metro station. Once I got down at metro station, I saw huge crowd due to usual metro delays. Tensed & Worried !
Took Orange line metro, oh god!, running on very slow speed. Got down at Metro Center and took Red line. Somehow I reached Bethesda metro station at 8.50am and surprised to see a loooooooooooooong elevator (like Rosslyn), ~2 min 15 seconds. Finally I reached office at 9am sharp. :)
One associate saw me sitting idle at reception and approached me with questions. I told him that I'm a new employee here. He provided me a temporary ID card and walked me through few important places, my cubicle and IT support team. On the spot they handed over me the lenovo's high end laptop, ~$2500. Logged onto my machine and was checking few important things. IT member was helping me on few things because the entire network has been upgraded last weekend.
My manager, Sara, came to office and met me, also I met two other co-workers. Sara walked me through main areas at office, Conference rooms, server room, IT support room and cafeteria. Cafeteria is very good, filled with many items ! I loved it.
HR induction started at 12pm where 9am in San Francisco. At break time (Lunch), I grabbed banana and nuts from cafeteria. HR was informing me about Q4 meeting arranged next day and asked me to attend. Induction ended at 2pm with vital information.
Then I started configuring my Yammer, Outlook and Office 365 profiles, created SharePoint group in Yammer. Meanwhile, Co-worker approached me and we were having few mins chat. I asked him about good restaurants for lunch. Immediately, he took me out and showed me the restaurants. He is very nice because he was in middle of something and he put it on hold and took me out. And the restaurants, oh man!, so many restaurants nearby within 10-20 footsteps. :)
Came back to office and my manager Sara asked me to get comfortable with the place and outside view. :) She asked me to send few lines of "About Me" for welcoming me in Yammer. I sent her and IT person installed brand new advanced telephone for me. End of day has come! I left the office at 5.45pm and reached home at 7pm.
So far so good !
Nice environment, Great people, Exciting opportunities !
Thank you Riverbed for introducing me to new culture ! ! ! ! !
