Training Week 1 : WOW!

It was the first day of 3 months working experience at Philips Semiconductor in my humbly hometown of Seremban. I had to sleep much earlier that usual instead of the usual late nights as I had to awake at around 6.30 am the the next day. This was because I had to be up earlier to travel to office as I was not familiar with the traffic to my workplace. Traffic seems smooth and it takes around 15 minutes to travel from my home to the workplace which is near Senawang, the industrial area for Seremban. Philips Semicon is situated ajacent with many companies where the most familiar name would be Samsung.

I made my way into the grounds of Philips and was immediately approached by a guard as I tried to find a parking space near the permanent staff carpark which had stickers on them. He then told me to go to the guard house to register and parked my car at the other end which was nearby a field. I made my way thereafter and registered myself. The guard then explained to me that outsiders who come into Philips or to any other factories would need to register themselves at the guard house before going into the building. I was obliviously to this as I had never set inside a factory except the opening ceremony of my friend's father's factory when I was still in primary school. I signed in a log book and receive a temporary trainee tag and was asked to to wait for Puan Junaidah, the person whom I had contacted earlier about the industrial training and who was in charge of trainees coming into Philips to train. There was a sitting area in the guardhouse itself where I believe new workers would wait before being brought into the building. I was the only one waiting to be brought in that very morning.
Puan Junaidah came thereafter and escourted me into the building to the HR department. The place reminded me a little bit about MMU. The office space consist of cubicles where workers can be seen indulging themselves in their work. I notice a familiar face in that office as I had seen this guy in MMU or could have fetch him back to Cyber before when I was car pooling with Steven. However, it took me some time to finally realise that it was him as I had not seen him much after the lift. I was then ushered to an empty cubicle where I had to filled in and signed three documents that consist of an agreement document, code of ethics and a comfirmation documents which states my duration of training and the amount of the monthly pay that I would be receiving. After I had finish filling in the documents, I was then lead by Kak Intan, who was a trainee herself from Koleg Negeri to the store room which was situated at the inner part of the factory where I got a plastic overall and a pair of shoes. This are the two items that I would be wearing when I entered inside the production line which was declared a semi-clean area. This attire is to maintain the cleaniness of the area where the production line is so that it would not affect the semiconductors which was being produced. I was then given a locker in the changing room where I would be able to keep my overall and shoes.

After that, I was then brought to the Engineering Department to meet my supervisor, Mr Soo. However, he was not around at that time and I was shown to a place where another trainee was at. There, I met Pei Chin, a computer science student who had already been training at Philips for the past 6 months and was approaching her seventh. She brief me a little about the working life here and what are the times that we should remember for breaks. I was surprised to know that we have 3 breaks per day which is 9.30 am, 12.30 am and 3.30 am. Breakfast at 9.30 am and tea at 3.30 am would take around 15 minutes while lunch at 12.30 am takes around 45 minutes. Work starts at 8 am and ends at 5.30 pm. Overall, workers spend around 9 hours and 30 minutes of the day at Philips whereby 1 hour and 15 minutes would be spend on breaks. It just sums up that it takes about 8 hours and 15 minutes of working time. However, this duration of time would be the maximum for anyone as many people take more time on breaks. Its quite a relax an environment as there you work for about two and a half hours and then a break.
I entered into the cafeteria for the first time for breakfast and saw the place almost pack to the brink. The guy whom I recognise earlier at the HR department joined us and he seem to know Pei Chin. I soon found out his name was Ah Fong and he then brief me about the working environment in Philips considering the amount of knowledge he gathers at HR. It seems that my prediction were right and that working in Philips seem like a breeze for many. He told me that it is quite relaxing to work here. Besides that, Philips seem to have a policy of not firing people unless they have stolen something or are caught sleeping while at work. One can practically sit around, do nothing and chat around and still able to obtain a paycheck at the end of the month without getting the axe. It seems pretty odd for a multinational company like Philips. I guess European companies seem to be more lenient about the employees. Speaking about leniency, workers at Philips do not need to check in and out everyday. They just enter in and out from their workplace at the specific times.

I got to meet another engineer by the name of Mr. Elfiz at my cubicle after breakfast who seems to be my second supervisor. We introduced and I told him that I was waiting for Mr. Soo to report to him. Mr. Elfiz was apparently one of the module head and was reporting to Mr.Soo. Both of them are currently working on a project together which I would be undertaking, succeeding the work of a previous trainee by the name of Woon who happened to be from MMU as well but in Malacca campus. Mr. Soo arrived shortly and we introduced brieftly and he then explain to me briefly the nature of the project that I would be assign to. It seems that I was going to be doing some programming and had to learn Visual Basics and database. I was then given two weeks to get familiarise and learn about VB and database before I was given my next task. Pei Chin then pass me a VB book to read up.

This would be my assignment for the next couple of days. To study and to get myself familiarise with the new programming language before I start work on the real thing. It was pretty boring to stare at a book and try to read everything especially for someone who have a relatively short memory and was more inclined to practical then theory to learn. I then brought my laptop a few days later and installed the necessary software so that I was able to familiarise myself with the whole new programming environment. I went back home to download some online tutorials from the net to assist me in my learning. VB seems a little different then other programming language that I had studied before such as C and Java which were more code based. On the other hand, VB is a program that consist of a template with buttons and things to choose from. All I need to do is to drag and drop the things that I want on a template called a form. However, there was still codes involved in it as I had to state the functions of a particular button or template. This was the part I still had to practice. My supervisor would be trying to obtain a PC for me to get my hands on it but at the mean time, I would be bringing my computer to try out. Practice makes perfect.

The environment of the working place is quite condusive as all the computers were only connected in an intranet and there was no internet except for a few people who were given access to it. I did not seem to mind not having a connection or a computer for that instance. It seems like I have outgrown connection although spending a huge amount of my uni days having the internet at my fingertips. Without the internet at home does not seem to matter any longer as I seldom go online when I am back. There are more other interesting things to do like watching TV, reading newspapers and sleeping than onlining. I gave up the idea of installing Streamyx knowing that I would not be going online that much and am not a heavy user of the internet that would cost my phone bill and internet account to explode to reap the value of broadband.

The people in Philips seem to not be on the more friendly side especially to people who are new like me. I had expected at least a warmer welcome from those around me but it seem like smiles that I give as an introduction of myself seem to be in vain. They noticed my presence yet do not seem to try to connect. However, I guess it takes time to familiarise myself with all of them as I had yet to work or talk to them regarding about work which would seem like an appropriate ice breaker compared to a smile. I was fortunate to meet a fellow church member, Matthew who is working in the same department as I am and is one of the module heads. He was nice to have come up to me on the first day and volunteered to bring me around the production line to see how each part of the factory functions and what they produced. It was a very educational trip as I got to know alot about the factory. However, there was so much datas and facts to absorb that at the end, my brains were so full that I could not digest it. Figures after figures, graph after graph, reasons after reasons. It seems like a simple layout whereby the production only produced a type of product with that are of 3 types with myriads of models yet it exhibited a huge amount of data that I find it hard to cope with. However, this was the only time that I had spoken to Matthew besides the usual smiles and waving of hands as acknowledgement of one's presense. He seem to be occupied with work and could be seen going out with his other collegue that I do not wish to disturb though I know him.

It was nice to meet another guy who seem like the most friendliest guy toward new trainees like myself in the whole office. His name is Ah Hew and he comes up to my table once in a while to ask me how I was doing and to chit chat a little. He brought me and the two other trainees out for lunch at the end of the first week to Senawang. Food does not seem to be all that bad at the cafeteria though it was Malay food. I had grown accustome to the food back in Cyber which tasted far worse than this. Besides, the food is relatively cheap in here as a huge portion is sponsored by the company. A plate of mixed rice with two chicken and a vegetable cost only RM1.60. A similar plate like this would cost be double or even tripple in Cyber. It is the cheapest meal that I had ever had considering the amount I usually take that would normally top the list in terms of price as compared with others who eat with me. We decided to eat out that day as there was not much food on displayed. This was quite common sometimes at the cafeteria. Ah Hew seems like the most knowledgeble guy about food in Seremban whom I had met so far. My information on the best places to eat in Seremban seem to increase everytime we are out for breakfast, lunch or tea, be it in or out. I could now say that I relatively know the best and more places to eat in Seremban besides the usual beef noodle, yi tau mai and hakka mee which I would normally bring my friends to eat when they pop into Seremban. It seems there is an array of food that I have yet to sample such as lo shi fan that comes in the short or long one, hainanese chicken rice, pork porridge, bak ku teh and a whole lot more that can be found all around Seremban.

It has been a swell one week at Philips although there is a relative amount of boredom or "sieness" due to the long working hour and worst still, sitting around and doing nothing. If you ask me, I do not mind working long but not working at all.