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

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