Today was my first day at RISE Viktoria. Every other Friday there is an office-wide breakfast, and I was lucky to arrive on such a day. The entire office was involved in what seemed like a mini-challenge to come up with a ''moon shot'' idea on teams and present them to everyone else. As I understand it, the challenge was issued last week or two weeks ago, and presented today. I could tell some teams worked pretty hard on the challenges. Others clearly spent less time. Matlida introduced me to the entire room, I had a quick chance to say 'hi' and even said a few sentences in Swedish before the teams launched into their presentations. Nothing that I saw seemed to rise to the level of moon launch, but I got a small taste of what everyone is working on. It ranges from reusable clothing applications (circular economy etc) to energy to 'x-pods' that will carry everyone on a public transit all over the place.
It became clear to me fast that I'm going to have learn to speak Swedish if I want to enjoy my time here. It's what everyone speaks to each other and I felt like a fool even introducing myself in English. Best to know both. This is very humbling...having people slow-talk, but I'm grateful that people are willing to give me the chance.
After the presentations, I met with Marcus to discuss the many different portals that the office uses. He helped me set up my email and sign into the application that helps us keep track of time and assignments. We didn't even get through all of them. It was a bit overwhelming.
Around 11, Steve joined us and we launched into more detailed discussions about my specific assignments. Much of it I had already heard, but it was nice to hear refresher about Steve's different research initiatives. He's working on an overwhelming number of projects- even one of them would be a lot of work for anyone. I was impressed.
Around 12, we met with Hans and (other) Marcus from Ubigo. Marcus will start work in about 3 weeks, and apparently I'll be working with him a bunch.
Then Steve and I returned to the meeting room to go over the specific project I'll be working on at first. It's a European project called IMOVE, and it involves collaboration with offices all over Europe. It seems I'll be conducting interviews for part of this project in the next few months. Should be great.
I have a lot of mixed feelings going into this. Firstly, I'm excited about the project area and the potential for MaaS, although I'm still not 100% certain what it actually is...I also feel very humbled and bit like a grad student. I suppose that just comes with the territory of learning new things. I woke up this morning feeling a bit degraded and regretful about leaving a job where I managed my own hours and decided my own projects. In some sense, it'll be the same here. Work hours are flexible. No one is watching you enter or leave the building. And the environment is very collaborative.
Ah yes, I also had a chance to meet some coworkers. I'm sitting next to Agniezca (sp?) who also just started here in January. She's from Poland originally, and commutes all the way to GBG from Halmstad! Not everyday. But holy crap.
I have my work cut out for me. Lots of reading at first, and basically starting as Steve's research assistant...again, mixed feelings. I really like Steve, but I'm coming into this midstream.
It became clear to me fast that I'm going to have learn to speak Swedish if I want to enjoy my time here. It's what everyone speaks to each other and I felt like a fool even introducing myself in English. Best to know both. This is very humbling...having people slow-talk, but I'm grateful that people are willing to give me the chance.
After the presentations, I met with Marcus to discuss the many different portals that the office uses. He helped me set up my email and sign into the application that helps us keep track of time and assignments. We didn't even get through all of them. It was a bit overwhelming.
Around 11, Steve joined us and we launched into more detailed discussions about my specific assignments. Much of it I had already heard, but it was nice to hear refresher about Steve's different research initiatives. He's working on an overwhelming number of projects- even one of them would be a lot of work for anyone. I was impressed.
Around 12, we met with Hans and (other) Marcus from Ubigo. Marcus will start work in about 3 weeks, and apparently I'll be working with him a bunch.
Then Steve and I returned to the meeting room to go over the specific project I'll be working on at first. It's a European project called IMOVE, and it involves collaboration with offices all over Europe. It seems I'll be conducting interviews for part of this project in the next few months. Should be great.
I have a lot of mixed feelings going into this. Firstly, I'm excited about the project area and the potential for MaaS, although I'm still not 100% certain what it actually is...I also feel very humbled and bit like a grad student. I suppose that just comes with the territory of learning new things. I woke up this morning feeling a bit degraded and regretful about leaving a job where I managed my own hours and decided my own projects. In some sense, it'll be the same here. Work hours are flexible. No one is watching you enter or leave the building. And the environment is very collaborative.
Ah yes, I also had a chance to meet some coworkers. I'm sitting next to Agniezca (sp?) who also just started here in January. She's from Poland originally, and commutes all the way to GBG from Halmstad! Not everyday. But holy crap.
I have my work cut out for me. Lots of reading at first, and basically starting as Steve's research assistant...again, mixed feelings. I really like Steve, but I'm coming into this midstream.
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