[jason@sun ~]$: The Solaris junkie finds a home

I keep losing this number. If you're a Sun employee, and you need to schedule Sun training, call the Sun Learning Center at (800) 422-8020.

Just give the operator your student number, or if you're like me and you can't remember, your employee number will do. Then just mention the class number, date and location, and your manager's name. The operator will schedule the class and charge your department.

Easy.

This is one of the big benefits to working for Sun. In the few months that I've worked here I've had a ton of training. Between classes, web modules, and certification exams I've racked up tens of thousands of dollars of training costs.

Sun works hard to educate their people, and it pays off. I'm consistently amazed at how smart and capable my coworkers are. It's great working with people who are smarter than you; there's always someone to teach you something.

I don't even care about sounding like a Sun nut anymore.  Working for this company is great. 

It's been a while since I've blogged about new hire stuff...

Ok, so I took the IBIS training and I still couldn't figure out how to get the access I needed.

As a PS guy I neeed time card and iExpense access.  Easy, right?

The time card part was easy.  When you're requesting access (https://idm-2.east.sun.com:8181 from the SWAN) you fill out a web form where you have to select your job role.  I chose the PS team member role which let me then choose time card as one of my IBIS functions.

So what about iExpense?  You need to fill out the form again and choose COMMON SUN ROLE for your job role and you'll be all set.

It's been a few days since I've posted new hire stuff.

The new hire packet that I received included instructions for setting up direct deposit.  The process seems a little strange; I think it's a throwback to the earlier days of Sun.

You start the direct deposit process by running an old Solaris application called GALAXY.  It looks to me like it was written in Motif.

The first thing you have to do is change your initial password.  You can't logon before you do.  Done.  Easy.

Then I started looking around the app.  It has a pretty typical design; navbar on the left, body text on the right.  I looked at every option.  No direct deposit.  In fact, I couldn't find any function in the app that hadn't been migrated to a newer web-based tool.

I called the HR hotline and asked for help.  They mentioned the direct deposit tool had been moved to... you guessed it... a web-based tool.  https://paycheck.central.sun.com/paycheck/login.html.  Sun-internal, mind you... fire up your VPN first.

Also, you can't log into this tool until after you've received your first paycheck.

This is one of those rare things you actually need to go to the office to take care of.  I asked the HR hotline person if it's possible to change your initial password without using the legacy GALAXY app.  Nope, no dice.  I suspect the initial password change functionality will be migrated to a web-based tool soon as well, but right now you're stuck.

An SE friend of mine told me about a tool called Punchin.  This lets you VPN your Solaris box into... I want to say the SWAN, but I'm not sure about that.  GALAXY might work remotely this way, but I haven't had a chance to test that.

I just went through the benefits enrollment process.  It was pretty easy.  Actually, it was downright painless.

The whole process was electronic.  You'd think electronic benefits enrollment would be ubiquitous these days, but that's not the case.  My last company asked me to fill out -- by hand! -- photocopies of questionable quality that I'd then have to fax off to HR.  Aside from being a pain, there's no error checking with paper.  Mistakes are a lot easier to make.

Anyway, the link to enroll is http://hr.central.sun.com/BENEFITS/HBK_LIFE_EVENTS/CURRENT_RELEASE/.

I got a little tripped up because I didn't read the instructions on the front page.  You don't use your regular Sun LDAP account, instead you need to click on the "create new user" link and set up an account specifically for the benefits page.

It's handy to read up about the plans first, which you can do within the SWAN at http://sunwebcms.central.sun.com:8001/sunweb/cda/mainAssembly/0,2685,9995_27682,00.html.

As I navigated through the options there's a table at the top that shows how much pre- and post-tax dollars your benefits cost, as well as how much Sun's paying, and what the impact to your bottom line will be.  This was nice, because if I just looked at the cost of the benefits I would have turned down many of them.  For example, the dental benefits cost, between "low" and "high," were significant, but bottom line-wise the difference was only four bucks.

When done, the site displayed a nice summary of benefits, which it encouraged me to print.  Lepoard let's you print directly to PDF, which I prefer.  Just use File->Print, then there's a PDF button with a down-arrow.  Easy.

By the way, when you receive the email from HR telling you to enroll, you've got 30 days to do so.  Once you start the process, though, you only have 5 to complete it.

I met with my FSO today, and I have the skinny on what paperwork it takes to order up a Sun Federal ID badge.

SunFed badge paperwork:

1. Dedicated Staff Certificate
2. US Citizenship Verification Record
3. Copy of passport

Now, number 3 has to be physically seen by your FSO.  They tell me that you can get around this if you're far from a SunFed office, but you'll need your photocopy of your passport to be notarized.

I just got my MacBook Pro today, so I've got a bunch of software to load.  I'll post the process for requesting software once I've got it figured out.

Last Friday I called Paul to talk about my first day.  He said to arrive around 10 EDT.

I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get to the Sun building.  It's about 50 miles from my house, so I left a little early.

Around 9:30 I got to the building.  This one's so new its address isn't on Google Maps, nor does my Garmin GPS know how to find it.  But I had been to a nearby building the week before (business development misadventure for my previous employer), so it wasn't too hard to find.

The receptionist gave me a paper temp badge and said that Paul wasn't there yet.  What is it with temporary badges?  I hate them.  Maybe having the real deal fosters a sense of belonging.  There was another noob in the lobby; I learned later that his name is Paul as well.  I'm terrible with names, so this was a relief.

It wasn't long before Paul showed up, introduced me to Paul₂ and showed us to our conference room.  Paul had reserved this room and an office ahead of time.  Sun employees very rarely have a permanent office.  Most of us are out and about doing stuff, so if you want time at a desk in a Sun building, you schedule it ahead of time.  And since we have Sun Rays (huzzah!) nobody has workstations or any of the associated pains in the butt.  I think Sun calls this something like their "Open Work" program.  (I had a lot of buzz words bandied at me today, so please forgive my memory.  Bad with names, remember?)

In the conference room Paul asked me and Paul₂ for our I9 paperwork.  Sun must have had a lot of trouble with incorrectly filled-out I9s, because now we:

1. fill out section 1 at home,
   
2. have our manager fill out their bit on day-one before the new hire orientation,
3. photocopy our ID (I used my passport),
4. fax these to Sun's legal council,
   
5. wait to hear back from said council to see if the forms are correct, then finally
6. stick the forms in a UPS folder and send them out.  

It sounds like a pain, but it's actually a good idea.  I especially didn't mind the diligence since any mistakes in this form can delay your pay.

Once we had faxed off the draft I9s Paul cut us loose to wander around the building.  In hindsight this probably wasn't the best idea since Sun Federal buildings like the un-badged to be escorted.  Nobody challenged us, and a fellow named Jim (who is apparently quite the guru), let us into a lab labeled "burn-in."  Paul₂ and I looked around a bit in the lab.  It was pretty standard entry-level and mid-range fare.  They had some old Blade 1000s, even an old E450 -- I loved those things.  The biggest things in the lab were an M5000 and some Blade 6000 chassises.  (Those 6000 chassises are sweet, by the way, you can use SPARC, Intel, or AMD blades all in the same enclosure.  I haven't had the opportunity to play with one yet, but I plan to take full advantage of that lab before my customer's ready for me.)

Around 12 EDT it was time for the conference call.  There weren't any surprises there.  A bunch of new hires dialed in to listen to an HR lady read a script.  A webinar would have been just as good -- we still could have asked questions -- and it probably would have been cheaper.

A handy web site is http://learning.sun.com/newhire.  You can see more stuff one you've got your LDAP account.  One thing to keep in mind, though, is many of the links are internal SWAN (Sun Wide Area Network) addresses, so you'll have to VPN in first if you're not at a Sun building.  I don't have my nifty "enigma card" yet (awesome name), so no VPNing for me.  As I recall, Paul submitted the enigma card paperwork before I arrived; no action necessary on my part.

After the concall Paul took Paul₂, Pete, and me to Friday's.  Pete's an engineer who's been with Sun for a while.  Paul warned Paul₂ and me that Pete would give us a dose of reality that would curb our Sun-ny enthusiasm.  Pete had no horror stories.  In fact, he reinforced my theory that Sun is a cool place to work.

Once back at the building Paul₂ and I played around with our LDAP accounts on the Sun Rays.  Paul₂'s home directory never got created, and my session server was dog-slow.

Before we left, Paul grabbed a FedEx envelope to send off our Dedicated Staff Certificate.  Sun Federal has an additional badge to the regular Sun Microsystems, Inc. (SMI) badge.

Not a bad first day.

Important forms for day-one:

1. I9
2. Dedicated Staff Certificate
   

My name's Jason Callaway.  I'm a Solaris geek.  Today's my first day with Sun, and I've got to say, I'm pretty excited.  

My previous gigs have been with big government contractors.  You know, the system integrator, butt-in-seat types.  With companies like Lockheed Martin, or GTSI it's always the same: get to the site, charge the contract, go home, lather, rinse, repeat.  This isn't bad, mind you.  There are certain advantages to this paradigm.

Sun is just different.  I'm working for the Professional Services business unit within Sun Federal.  I expect a certain amount of contract charge-ery.  How much?  Well, my manager Paul says that as a team we're expected to be 65% billable.

65 is a far cry from 100.  In the rest of our time we're supposed to be honing our skills, training, learning with colleagues, playing in the labs -- all of the stuff Unix geek might be caught doing in their free time anyway.

So, like I said, I'm pretty excited.

Paul mentioned today that nobody has compiled a list of all the things a new hire needs to take care of.  I-9, W-4, 401(k), SF86... the list is somewhat long.

Blogs are perfect for this sort of thing.  So I'll be posting about all the things I've had to take care of as a new hire. 

Heck, I'll probably be posting a lot just about what it's like to work for Sun.  I'm like a kid in a candy store here.  I've based most of my career on Sun technology, and I've had a blast doing so.  The chance to work for the company that makes the stuff with which I make my living... that's pretty compelling.  I'm sure there will be cons; no company is all pros. 

It's not like I've drunk the Sun kool-aid. 

Well... maybe a sip.