Students blogs

Doug Thompson

Course: BSc Computer Science (1st year)

Email: ask-a-student@ecs.soton.ac.uk

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24 January 2012

Work continues steadily at IBM. If I told you what I was actually doing I'd have to kill you - such is confidentiality - and I'd prefer not to have to trace the IP of everyone who visits this blog and hunt them down with some futuristic weapon that nobody knows about yet either.

I've always thought there were two major points I'd have to consider when considering a role in a company: firstly, how technical it is, and secondly how artistic it is. In other words, while I'd love to be a graphic designer, I'll probably end up being a database analyst, purely because the job would be much easier to acquire (and with my rubbish level of graphic design skill, much easier to keep.) Working at IBM, where you get opportunities to work in both of these areas, has reenforced the idea that I must find a compromise between them. Might sound odd... I mean, databases aren't meant to look pretty, and graphic design does not require any kind of schema. So this perhaps makes me wonder whether I should move into user interface design or similar, no?

Overall, IBM has been nothing short of a vital learning experience for me. Heck, I'm not even halfway through my placement and I can already say this. Computer science takes a minimal part in said experience if I'm honest - I feel like I can interact with people professionally, organise my life properly and keep pushing through work 'til the cows come home. All this and the graduates here still joke about me being the tea boy. As they say on the internet... soon.

Will make sure to make another post here if I get my manager's job or anything.

15 July 2011

I've finally started my year-long work placement at IBM, and my life's had such a change in format it could easily flesh out a moderately large essay so I'll do my best to summarise everything that's happened here.

Firstly (can't remember if I mentioned this whole process before), I had to go to apply online - an extremely long, boring and complicated trek involving copious amounts of personal data entry and various IQ-style tests. Somehow this all worked out OK so I was asked to visit one of IBM's assessment centres - this one being located at IBM's UK headquarters, Portsmouth's North Harbour site. After discovering what 'business dress' meant, I and many other hopeful industrial trainees - which I'll refer to as ITs from now on, as this acronym defines me within the scope of the company - were made to complete the IQ-ish test again. Nobody liked this of course, but it ironed out cheaters. We then had two interviews and group activities and were told within a couple of days whether we'd passed the thing. Somehow, I had, and they passed my CV around the various managers in the business, until mine ended up on the desk of my now-Task Manager. He then phoned me up and explained the job, and after deciding to accept, this long, long enrolment process finally ended.

The first couple of days here introduced me to the company very well, and overall the atmosphere (especially in Hursley, the site where I'm working) is very relaxed. My induction was riddled with continuous banter - something, I might add, that was fed by my decision to walk part of the route from Southampton to Hursley on my first day. Anyway, there were various teambuilding activities and free food. Literally no complaints here.

So about travel from Southampton to Hursley: this route is not very well indexed by buses, with the only bus that would get me to work on time leaving from the Southampton Central Station at 6.30. Not very desirable, especially when considering I'm literally on the other side of the city, and that the bus arrives here two hours before I start work. The next best alternative is a frequent bus from Southampton to Winchester that gets me somewhere close to the site. I tried this on the first day and ended up having to walk an hour (three miles) along a main road to arrive, and had to spend yet more money on two separate buses to get back. I decided this would not happen again. So after my first day I looked up how far it actually was from my house to Hursley (a meagre seven miles) and decided it would be worth, perhaps, biking it (and changing into a suit - required for the induction - once I arrived). Not exactly an easy task considering I was following handwritten directions on a mountain bike that was falling to pieces but, nonetheless, I managed it, only to arrive at the site on day 2 having forgotten my shirt. Thinking on my feet, I improvised using a jumper that at an absolute glance looked like a black shirt... albeit with a zip. Against all odds nobody noticed. Except those who I told as it made for a bit of an anecdote.

So after the two-day induction I was introduced to my department and was thankfully given the option to take off the flippin' suit and come into work looking pretty standard. Hursley doesn't have casual Fridays, it has casual weeks - from what I've worked out, IBM treats the employees here very well and as a result they have a massive work throughput. I've been shown the mainframes - literally amazing stuff. You have to wear earplugs in the server room (they're that powerful.)

In summary, I've just about finished my first week, and I've come out of it more energetic than when I went in. I seem to have adjusted quickly to this - or at least, that's what I'm hoping. The people here are more than nice and buy you food and drink a lot. On that note I'm off to a networking barbecue now, and later tonight I'll be DJing in Southampton. Life is pretty damn good really.

25 May 2011

Looking at my last post is interesting. My attitude has definitely been better this semester (and I know this because I'm not nearly as stressed) but there is no doubt that it has not improved as much as I'd have liked it to. Despite what seems to be some kind of apathy complex, I've pushed myself to lighten up, get back in touch with people, and work (to some extent).

The second half of this year feels like it's taken forever. I definitely wouldn't say this was a bad thing - though it would be better if I'd managed to pull my finger out a little further - but the entire year is now coming to an end and tomorrow brings my first, and easiest exam this time round. The exam, databasing, is a fairly straightforward affair compared to, say, artificial intelligence, which I currently do not wish to discuss. Five exams later, I'll be free for a pretty minimal summer holiday period before being rushed off to IBM for a year-long placement.

About the placement... I'll be doing programming and IT support-type things from mid-July til the same time next year. Some on our course will be doing placements over the summer - heck, one of my housemates next year will be - for the massive CV boost that comes hand-in-hand with the experience of working in industry. As much as the university provides (including several opportunities to land a placement like this), academia can only provide you with a certain degree of employability compared to having worked in a real industrial environment - and it's for this reason that they choose one of these positions. Anyway so - I will be taking the entire year out, effectively deferring my studies for a year, but also (sneakily) meaning my graduation will be in line with my coursemates', most of which are doing the MEng course, which lasts four years, as opposed to my BSc's three. Hope this makes things clearer to anybody considering taking one of these!

I will definitely make the effort to post after exams - and I really hope this happens, but there will be a lot of stuff going on, including a cheeky holiday to Kent with the family - but honestly the main thing I'm buzzin' for is SHADE, i.e. Southampton's Hottest All-Day Event, which will be taking place back at my old halls of residence, Glen Eyre. Still giving that place a visit every once in a while, primarily to see the fantastic people in the first year I've met over the past few months - and also getting in a bit of DJing up at Glen Bar whenever possible. And also eating Q-burgers which are the best thing ever (you'll need to go there to appreciate these.)

Toodles

D.T

10 February 2011

Last semester was, like, totally the worst thing ever. I turned up to maybe less than half of the lectures, was consistency working right up the deadline, leaving revision right til the last second and, I dunno, just generally being what Mr. T would describe as a 'fool'.

To ensure this never ever happens again I've made a few life changes. First and foremost (and I know this sounds unlikely) I've decided to do coursework as soon as it's set. Crazy I know. On top of this, one of those highly expensive 'project organiser' books has been purchased from the Students Union shop such that structured notes can be taken on paper. Last semester I couldn't use my lecture notes for revision, largely because I didn't go to lectures but also because my notes were on my laptop. Now don't get me wrong, I realise computers can be fantastic revision tools - but for me, pen on paper just works better. If you're writing on paper in the exam - which, in this digital age (and on this digital course) is still the standard - I guess it neurologically makes sense somehow.

In summary, I dread my exam grades, and should probably post on here more. With regard to my attitude last semester: never again.

26 November 2010

I think it's safe to say that winter is officially here. I can occasionally see my breath in my house and queuing to get into clubs is now out of the question, while the clubs themselves are beginning to make a packet off the cloakrooms. Negativity aside, I actually quite like this time of year for some reason. It gives you more of an excuse to hug people and stuff.

So far this year has been an absolute coursework onslaught. Eric Cooke, our senior tutor, warned us last year of a virus that can circulate amoung students which forces the impulsive missing-of-lectures - I have very much caught this and am currently losing my sense of taste, so to speak. Taste for knowledge. (deep.) Last week I didn't manage to attend anything that happened before eleven o'clock, and am currently suffering the consequences of this; going through lecture slides by yourself is of course totally fun and awesome. Love it.

Compared to the other couple of semesters I've been through, this one has not been at all easy - it started out looking quite similar to last year but for a large number of reasons (mainly sheer volume of work) it is so, so much more difficult. To reiterate my message to first years: please enjoy it while you can.

Adieu,

D.T

18 October 2010

I'd like to start by saying apologies for the lack of posts in the last few months. This is because life has become rather complex and it has created a writers' block of sorts, but this is a long story that even in the context of blogging could be considered out of scope. Nonetheless, down to business. This post will mainly be devoted to advice for freshers.

I have this habit of starting the academic year by ceremoniously snapping deep emotional ties with someone of the opposite sex. Yes, a female (us nerds are getting pretty provocative these days)... freshers, be advised: while at university it is imperative that, if you want to live any degree of a life, do everything you can to avoid getting tied down too quickly; I make this mistake time and time again and it can potentially cause your life to fail spectacularly - this whole situation has caused me to motivationally run dry. Not useful when you're in the market for a 1st. Take no risks with your degree!

Moving into a house has been fun. Some hooded individuals attempted to break into our shed the other day. Luckily, being as hench as I am, they took one look at me and froze. On the spur of the moment, I shouted an obscenity at them and they ran. I had my phone on me, I had the opportunity to hide and take pictures/videos, and also the opportunity to let them break into the shed (providing evidence), but unfortunately as I didn't take this option I couldn't press charges, as the police explained later - but they definitely won't be coming back as we have knives (which is a joke. [which actually isn't a joke as we do have knives for cooking purposes.])

I'd like to add that when choosing a house, the part of town you aim for will have a large effect on the quality of your living space, and of the surrounding residents - regardless of how much you end up paying to stay there. As this is a professional blog I am not obliged to express my disgust for any particular area of Southampton, so instead I'll make an endorsement: if you want a nice house, look behind the library. And if you're in halls, for goodness sake, treasure the experience - you may not experience such luxury for quite a while.

Promise there'll be less cautionary tales next time. Lovelovelove

-D.T

20 March 2010

End of term is upon us once again. It really has flown by- I am currently sitting in my halls room, surrounded by bags and it seems like only yesterday I was packing up for the Christmas holidays. Anyway, enough nostalgia...

Coursework has really been piling up recently. We now have six courses as opposed to five (in the first semester) and with them come gratuitous amounts of out-of-classroom exercises. I'm starting to see why the recommended time for study (50 hours per week) is in existence now. Due to lagging with work in term-time, a large portion of my Easter holidays will have to be spent working. I believe this is what we call Karma.

There seems to be a lot of conflict in my social world right now, which I'd put down to everyone being completely exhausted. People here (especially living together in halls) have been in close contact for ages now so their differences will no doubt be shown up more than a big flashing light above a guy's head saying "I disagree". For this reason, the Easter holidays will be very good for everyone, though I can guarantee I'll be missing the place within a week.

Farewell...

-D.T

28 February 2010

As life rolls on in Southampton and I begin to get properly settled, the issue of what I should end up doing with my life is beginning to plague me more than ever. I want to become more involved with the societies, my friends, even my course, but apathy has way too much of a hold right now for me to even consider what extensions I could introduce to my uniform life.

The annoying thing is that I have no idea why. I was worried I wasn't getting enough sleep, but I make sure I get a minimum of eight hours now, and yet I still find myself dozing off in lectures. I'm a tad worried by this. My friends say I still don't get enough sleep, the medics I've befriended don't seem to have an answer, and my mildly hypochondrial Mother seems to think it's because of some allergy I don't have any more. Ideas?

On the subject of effort, my skill (and, more importantly, concentration) seems to vary rapidly from module to module, and even from lecture to lecture. I received my results from January's exam onslaught on Friday, and to my sheer delight, I passed everything - including the horrific discrete maths course, of which I am not compatible. I still managed to rake in enough marks to be well clear of a 1st, but these are early days and these marks don't count towards the final degree. I'm hoping this is enough to get me a scholarship; I am told I need to be in the top 10 per cent of the year to get my hands on it.

-D.T

15 January 2010

Term came to an end. I went home. And, unsurprisingly, I found it incredibly hard to adjust - nothing is easy when you feel like it's sending you backwards. Where I was recovering from the two-and-a-bit months I'd spent here, I thought I was smacking my personality in the face over and over, and so, naturally, once January appeared I was gagging to get back.

Home hadn't changed, save for the urge to be with friends more often. And when I got back to Southampton, it hadn't changed either - same generic untidiness (thankfully no-one broke in), same stir-fry every night, same constant push by friends to go to the same rather undelightful nightclubs every night of the week. This made me rather happy.

Having done practically no work at all over Christmas, the imminent deadlines at the start of term were certainly fun. Consequences of this included a horribly written report, rushed presentation slides and the need of an all-nighter to build a Tetris-esque game - the night in question was actually quite damned funny due to the instant messenging and Facebook-based conversations being had with various other people in exactly the same situation as me. A real sense of community.

On the subject of Facebook, I have, as the ultimate test of endurance and perseverance, decided to ban myself from the site until exams come to a close. I am sure people will miss my zany status updates (this is a lie) and I believe this is the best decision I've ever made regarding my academic life.

Happy examinations

-D.T

9 December 2009

Following on from my previous post I'd like to say, well, what a surprise. Housing is definitely not something to think about yet. Thank you for clarifying that, SUSU. No applications for housing can really be made until February. Despite this, people are choosing to select their housemates now. Insert confused face here.

Since I've been in Southampton, I have not felt even the slightest touch of homesickness. Christmas is (sort of) almost upon us, however, and towards the end of term, regardless of which type of educational institution I am attending, I just want to collapse into a tired'n'moody adolescent heap. This makes home seem all the more appetising right now, regardless of how annoying my family can become, especially in these times of 'joy and celebration' - and on that sarcastic note, I think I shall definitely consider spending Christmas with friends in the near future.

In any case, as implied in the previous post, this has been one heck of a term. Love, hate, joy, depression, alcohol and sunglasses have all made an appearance at one point or another - this may sound fairly 50/50 in terms of the good and the bad, but I can already tell this ain't gonna be anything but one of the best years of my life. If this was the first two months, I can't come close to imagining what craziness awaits.

Adios

-D.T

30 November 2009

Well that was quick. I know this term is only just over two months long - but it would seem that once you get started at University, you lose all sense of time. This applies to, one, being horribly late for lectures, two, coursework deadlines, three, to how long you've actually known the people around you (it seems like forever a lot of the time), and finally four, to how long you've been here.

So today I learnt that, at a push, I could stride from the Glen Eyre halls to my lecture theatre in ten minutes - this was due to a fatal timing misjudgement involving a supermarket. I still want a bike though; the path from halls to theatre is completely downhill. And who cares about getting back up? You don't exactly have to rush back to halls for any reason at all, trust me on this.

Coursework is much easier to put to one side than college - I had to find this out the hard way, of course, and things tend to get sorted a bit quicker now. You don't have too much time to do coursework - usually a couple of weeks - though, granted, using careful time management, this can be viewed as a LOT of time. But what they're asking of us at this stage isn't too much anyway. This will inevitably change drastically come the second semester.

It's like only yesterday I woke up and had to go to my first induction meeting and meet my fellow brainboxes. But then again, compared to home (and more specifically, college) I'm surrounded by my friends so much more than before, giving me the subtle illusion that I've known them since birth. This is undoubtedly a very good thing - but on this topic, something has been worrying me recently - people are looking for flatmates for the second year. Now don't get me wrong, most people, myself included, have already made some very good friends, but I'm thinking this is just a tad premature, especially seeing as the dedicated 'housing week' is set for February. The Students' Union are holding an event on housing tomorrow however, so I'll be interested to see what they have to say on this...

Until next time...

-D.T

9 November 2009

The temptation of distraction that I had whilst studying at college seems to have carried over to university quite well. There is always this massive urge to do anything but homework; my head even makes it seem that tidying my room is better. Which is a lie. I just need to be more strict with myself, he says, whilst sitting in his room, writing his blog and listening to house music...

Also, on top of this, many of the symptoms from the fabled socially crippling syndrome, Asperger's, seem to be coming back and haunting the hell out of me. Now I fully acknowledge that 95% of ECS students have this so-called 'nerd disease' – it's just that I always think I've dealt with its effects, then it strikes back in some way which I never expect. For me, obsessive anxiety, psychological and social barriers, and (in the worst cases) actual OCD can arise from this, so it's a good idea to stop it before it can get started in destroying my life. The question is, how?

Well, many aspects of my attitude seem to have taken a smack in the chops recently, and I believe it could be put down to not getting any more than seven hours of sleep in the last week. For one reason or another, I always stay up too late, and on the odd occasion get up too early. It took a while for me to notice that this could be linked with the concentration, social and anxiety factors of my life which seem so important to me these days. I'm considering hiring someone to dart me at approximately 10.30 every evening.

G'bye

-D.T

18th October 2009

Hello, eager spectators, and welcome to my page of internet-based thought dumps that many have come to know as a blog. Over the coming months, I aim to provide you with some sort of insight into my scary new university life...

I arrived here petrified. Nothing in this world could've been scarier for me than being thrust into an environment of unknown peoples. As I stepped out of the car I was greeted by a talkative year two – she kept my woes at bay for a bit while my stuff was moved into my room and kitchen by my step-mum, who, coincidentally, talked to the first flatmate we saw before I had a chance to. Then, something strange happened; after about two minutes of moving stuff in I wanted nothing less than to cling to my family and beg to be taken home. In fact, I felt completely and utterly sick of them, and after running away from the family minibus, an overwhelming sense of freedom came over me, and from there things just kept getting better really.

Confidence with other people is not one of my strong points, especially when I have to make friends out of strangers – in terms of social activity I've really been pushed these past three weeks, because apart from anything else, it's unavoidable. In this sense, university is actually good for me. It stops me worrying about these things. I've built up a set of friends at an astronomical rate, something I've never been able to accomplish before, and for this reason, I'm on a high a lot of the time, and though I still worry about social scenarios, most of my worries are now directed towards whether last night's stir-fry gave me salmonella or not, which in my view is actually a lot more of a reasonable thing to worry about.

Before I arrived here in the strange new world that is Southampton, I never really went to any clubs or gigs (or anything normally associated with fun, for that matter). Since I arrived, things have been different. However, the clubbing experience would appear to be a learning curve of sorts for me; amongst other things, I’ve learnt that clubbing alone is a nightmare, claustrophobia is something you just have to tolerate, and that use of shades is generally not advisable for some reason. Now, on Thursday night I saw Chase & Status – quite possibly the biggest drum & bass band right now – at The Cube. Just before they came on, I made my way to the front of the club with my friends. So, shortly afterwards, I had to move to the back, as the lack of room was just too much, and lost my party as a result. The music was amazing but I wasn't getting anything out of it due to a lack of anyone I knew cropping up, so, I left. Waste of £15, a night, and a spectacular live act. I'll know better next time...

Also before I go, time for a shameless plug: I should maybe alert you to my main blog, where I tend to write a bit more aimlessly and randomly – I should warn you, however, that it is not always very tasteful and should not be associated with ECS or the University of Southampton in any way, shape or form. And finally, my proper website should be cropping up soon – this will (stressing future tense) be appearing soon. At the moment it consists of one rather obscure page which was put up for the sole purpose of telling the teacher that I knew how to upload my files properly. Stay tuned if you dare.

Peace out

-D.T