Monday, May 28, 2012
Work Week One Complete!
What a wonderful first week we had here in Recife! We ended off the week with great progress on our project and closed out the SOW. I have had a great experience with my immediate team and also with the rest of the extended IBM Brazil 12 CSC team!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Day 2 and 3 with Client
The last couple of days we have been working very closely with Marisa, Adson, and Igor from Instituto Empreender. We have come to a conclusion on what their highest needs are relating the data management of their students and employers. We proposed to have a short and long term solution to them and they agreed.
Last night we had our first IBM CSC team meeting, where all the 5 teams discussed their progress, issues, SOW, client interaction, etc. This was a good meeting because we got to understand what each team is doing and share knowledge/suggestions between the teams if needed. We will have a team meeting every Tuesday night until end of assignment.
Today we had a three way meeting between Instituto Empreender, CDS, and the IBM team. The focus was to make sure that we were off to a good start and the client was satisfied with our plan of action. After the meeting we went to have lunch in the nearby city of Olinda. Olinda is an old city built on a hill that was first colonized by the Portuguese back in the 1530's. Very beautiful views. See below.
Rodrigo from CDS (Washington DC) and Joyce from IBM Rio de Janeiro will be heading back to their home cities tomorrow, so we decided to have a dinner with them before they left. We went to a crepe place and it was absolutely amazing!
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| Left to Right at Instituto Empreeder: Igor, Sharon, Etsuko, Adson, Marisa, me |
Last night we had our first IBM CSC team meeting, where all the 5 teams discussed their progress, issues, SOW, client interaction, etc. This was a good meeting because we got to understand what each team is doing and share knowledge/suggestions between the teams if needed. We will have a team meeting every Tuesday night until end of assignment.
Today we had a three way meeting between Instituto Empreender, CDS, and the IBM team. The focus was to make sure that we were off to a good start and the client was satisfied with our plan of action. After the meeting we went to have lunch in the nearby city of Olinda. Olinda is an old city built on a hill that was first colonized by the Portuguese back in the 1530's. Very beautiful views. See below.
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| Overview from Olinda with Recife in the Background |
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| Lot of Catholic Churches in Olinda |
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| View of Recife |
Rodrigo from CDS (Washington DC) and Joyce from IBM Rio de Janeiro will be heading back to their home cities tomorrow, so we decided to have a dinner with them before they left. We went to a crepe place and it was absolutely amazing!
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| Left to Right at Crepe Dinner: Rodrigo, me, Joyce, Kenichi (Japan), Yvonne (UK) |
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Client Kick-off Meeting
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| Kick-off Client Meeting |
After the meeting, all 5 groups went to their respective client's office to officially start the CSC assignment!
At the Instituto Empreender's office, we meet with Marisa, Adson, and Igor to discuss in more detail their organization and the issues they are facing. It was like many people say "Drinking out of a fire hose". We were just bombarded with information. Now we just have to digest it and figure out exactly what our official statement of work (SOW) we are going to agree to complete by the end of our 1 month assignment.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
1st Couple of Days in Recife, Brazil!
So after an excruciating 22 hours of travel (Austin - Charlotte - Rio de Janeiro - Recife), I was able to get to my hotel in Recife. I got here on Saturday May 19th. As soon as I looked out the balcony window of my hotel room, I knew this was going to be a great experience! Look at the view I saw below.
That evening, I was able to get to finally meet (in person) most of the 15 team members that made up our CSC Brazil 12 team plus our CSC coordinators, Rodrigo and Vanessa, from CDS. We went for dinner and had some great Brazilian food and drinks to socialize and get to know each other a little more. Picture of part of our team below.
Today we had a exciting full day of activities with the whole team. We were able to tour the area around our hotel to familiarize ourselves with the primary basic services (supermarkets, bakeries, shops, transportation, etc). We did walk for a couple of hours but the beach breeze definitely helped with the heat :) . Below is the picture of all 15 that make our Brazil 12 team!
We also had a great team building exercise with our team in the afternoon. Acely from IBM Sao Paulo and Joyce from Rio de Janeiro joined us at the exercise. It was an awesome bonding experience and we are off to a amazing start!
Tomorrow we have our official kick-off meeting with the clients starting the day at 8a.m. Can't wait!
That evening, I was able to get to finally meet (in person) most of the 15 team members that made up our CSC Brazil 12 team plus our CSC coordinators, Rodrigo and Vanessa, from CDS. We went for dinner and had some great Brazilian food and drinks to socialize and get to know each other a little more. Picture of part of our team below.
Today we had a exciting full day of activities with the whole team. We were able to tour the area around our hotel to familiarize ourselves with the primary basic services (supermarkets, bakeries, shops, transportation, etc). We did walk for a couple of hours but the beach breeze definitely helped with the heat :) . Below is the picture of all 15 that make our Brazil 12 team!
We also had a great team building exercise with our team in the afternoon. Acely from IBM Sao Paulo and Joyce from Rio de Janeiro joined us at the exercise. It was an awesome bonding experience and we are off to a amazing start!
Tomorrow we have our official kick-off meeting with the clients starting the day at 8a.m. Can't wait!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
2 Days Before Brazil!
The trip to Brazil is finally starting to sink in. I had a farewell happy hour yesterday with my co-workers and friends. It was fun to discuss the CSC program and assignment with them.
This morning we had our last team call before our trip. Our next team meeting will be in Recife!!
A little bit of information on my assignment:
My immediate sub team (IBM teammates from Singapore and Japan) will be working with a nonprofit called Instituto Empreender (IE). There company's main objective has been to provide job training and education to disadvantaged and at risk youth groups. Our assignment objective is to conduct a formal assessment of their current information monitoring and program reporting processes and develop a solution for compiling, processing, and presenting this information in a smarter, more cost-effective way.
Next time I post I'll probably be in Brazil, so I be sure to start including some photos on my posts!
This morning we had our last team call before our trip. Our next team meeting will be in Recife!!
A little bit of information on my assignment:
My immediate sub team (IBM teammates from Singapore and Japan) will be working with a nonprofit called Instituto Empreender (IE). There company's main objective has been to provide job training and education to disadvantaged and at risk youth groups. Our assignment objective is to conduct a formal assessment of their current information monitoring and program reporting processes and develop a solution for compiling, processing, and presenting this information in a smarter, more cost-effective way.
Next time I post I'll probably be in Brazil, so I be sure to start including some photos on my posts!
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Less Than 2 Weeks Before Take Off
Welcome to my first blog ever! This blog will be covering my experience through the IBM Corporate Service Corp (CSC) assignment. I was very fortunate to be able to be selected to such a great IBM program and am really excited for this opportunity.
For those of you that are not familiar with IBM CSC, it is a philanthropic global leadership program where a group of 10-15 IBMers from different countries and skill sets are sent to emerging markets on a four week community-based assignment. If interested in learning more about the program, see http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/corporateservicecorps/index.html
I am part of the CSC Brazil 12 team. Our in country assignment will be in Recife, Brazil and it will run from May 18th through June 16th. So I have a week and a half before I fly out of Austin to Recife!
I have already completed my 3 month worth of pre-work that is required for the program, have my Brazilian visa on hand, and have gone through the required immunizations needed for the trip! I just need to finish getting some last minute items and finish packing and I will be set to go!
For those of you that are not familiar with IBM CSC, it is a philanthropic global leadership program where a group of 10-15 IBMers from different countries and skill sets are sent to emerging markets on a four week community-based assignment. If interested in learning more about the program, see http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/corporateservicecorps/index.html
I am part of the CSC Brazil 12 team. Our in country assignment will be in Recife, Brazil and it will run from May 18th through June 16th. So I have a week and a half before I fly out of Austin to Recife!
I have already completed my 3 month worth of pre-work that is required for the program, have my Brazilian visa on hand, and have gone through the required immunizations needed for the trip! I just need to finish getting some last minute items and finish packing and I will be set to go!
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