30-06-08

Hi guys,

Just some details:
I'm starting tomorrow.
Newbury has 20,000 inhabitants --> 10,000 people work in Vodafone Newbury
The fire brigade is supported by Vodafone, like everything here.


03-06-08

Hi,

First of all, I would like to tell you I'm going to write here always in English. That's not because I believe it's cool or anything so. It's just because I need to think in English and writing in spanish would not help me to do it.

Already 3 days working at Vodafone and the experience was great. This first week I've just to know the projects and workmates. So I'm just reading articles and papers and speaking with people to meet them and to know what are they working at.

The place where I work, Vodafone Headquarters, is composed by 6 buildings. Four of them are Vodafone UK and two of them Vodafone Group (Vodafone WORLD). I'm in one of these, within the Edison House exactly. We all have a pass to go into the buildings and also for photocopying, printing, scanning and so.

My particular job in Vodafone, my project, is about browsing on the Internet with handsets (surf on internet with mobile phones). I don't know yet what I' m going to do exactly but each day is getting more clear.

There are conferences sometimes by the Chief Officers of Vodafone Group and today we had a conference in "The Pavilion" by Andy Halford, Chief Financial Officer of Vodafone Group. It was quite interesting because he talked us about the strategy of the Company and his department during half an hour and after we had another half an hour just to make questions. You have to know that Vodafone is the 9th world company in debt. It's unbelievable! So, in those conferences Vodafone give us a bag with the lunch so we don't have to pay it. The assistance to the conferences is completely voluntary.

We usually eat in the canteen; it's like a big Sodexo (now without "h") but with more food and much better quality. ;)

We've got people from all over the world working there. There are lots of people from India, Turkey and Arabic also (with turbants). My boss is Welsh and his boss' boss is Italian: Guido, who works in Düsseldorf (Germany) I think (Miguel and Miwi to confirm).

So, I think it's enough for today. See you next time!

Markel

PD: +44 7765 776965 --> Don't hesitate to call me!

14-07-08

The second week here in Newbury and Vodafone was better than the first. In the first everything was novelty and I was excited. This second week I am going more into the work.

Specifically, all my first week was just reading paper because the profile of my intern is very technical; so it was very boring. This second week I started working more seriosly with my collegaue Simon Hawkins; we're working in browsing in mobile world. I already did a comparative analyzing and I'm working in another one. I never thought that a simple program could have so many features. I mean, from one version to other, or one browser to a competitor's one there are 720 features to analyze to know which one is best. Before this summer I used to think that speed and comfortability were the only important things (security is something intangible sometimes so we can not know how secure is a browser or not).

That is overall what I am learnin; how many features to analyze are in just one part of thousands in mobile world. We are not 5.000 people thinking how we can improve everything. Each one is very very especialized in one part and each person has to analyze a lot of features so it can be thousands of improvings from each person of the company.

Moreover, this week has been better because I'm meeting more people and I'm talking more to people who I know; this aspect is very important for me because I'm here without any classmate and sometimes I feel a bit lonely, also because it is difficult to find someone in the same situation as mine (I'm making investigations in this aspect and I already contacted with some of them). I'm also seeing that however people is very kind, not many people tent to indroduce his/herself. I mean: when you're working in a place and you see there's someone new, you usually go and introduce yoursfelf, is it? So here people tend more just to ignore you until you go to them to introduce yourself. In one hand, that seems bad because people look sad; but in the other hand, it's good because they force me to move and be more independent because much times I'm forced to speak with people because maybe I need some data, some file or just some suggentios.

Like always, sorry for my english, I know is not perfect.

Have a nice week!

Markel

PD: This thursday I have to do the GMAT.
PD2: ¡¡Yo quería estar en el iFeeeeeeeeeeest!!

01-08-08

Hi falks,

First of all apologize I haven't written anything untill today. Here you have my weekly report:

This week was quite different. My colleague Simon Hawkins, who is the person that tell me what to do, have been on holidays; so I have had more freedom to work.

I have had to summarize a list of requirements about different browsers. The input I have been looking for is a classification of the requirements (core, high-level, etc.) So I spend all the week with that. We had a little team meeting on Monday as every two Mondays and it was very interesting because I learnt more about what my team is doing and also his expectations about my internship They expect a report, a general report; they call it my “big project”. It is about browsing in handsets, present and future. It is not very good defined but it’s being soon. I have today still a meeting with my manager about it.

The rest of the week was working on my weekly issue. There are not interesting things about that.

On Wednesday I met four more intern people. Some of them are not as polite as normal people but I finally could find someone in the same situation as mine for enjoying on evenings and weekends. He is German and he use to be as bored as me. So that is a great new for me.

Today we had another team meeting. In this case the bigger team. It was with videoconference with Düsseldorf. It was ok but my manager’s manager was to aggressive and it was a little bit disgusting.

That’s all folks. Cheers.

P.S.: I passed the GMAT!!! Richmond, here we go!

08-08-08 (Olympics started)

This week I finally started with my big project; the reason of being here. Last Friday I had a meeting with my manager to speak about it and this Monday I did a guide of what I was to do.

I started with the browser assessment and once finished I did the requirements impact assessment. They are two chapters of my big report. I thought already which are going to be next two chapters.

It was quite a normal week. I joined the gym and today is going to be the 4th time there. I’m improving in my relationships with colleagues and other people of Vodafone.

That’s all folks. Cheers.

15-08-08

This week was quite normal; I have continued working in the big project. In this case, with the Mobile Bandwidth’s evolution. 4G is coming!

Yesterday I had a long meeting (6 hours) with some guys of Vodafone Group (Newbury and Düsseldorf) and Opera. It was quite interesting because I learnt a lot how this company works; dealing with providers and customers. I understood how Opera works and which other departments are in Vodafone Group. I met new people and that is important too because we share some point of view about some products.

Today is sunny in whole day, something strange is happening. I suppose is going to rain soon, because I am in England. People here say “today started summer, today summer is over, that’s all”.

Tomorrow I’m seeing a horse race here in Newbury. People say it’s funny. Let’s see.