I have been undergoing my internship programme for almost 5 months now, at Intel Penang. I don’t know about my other friends here, but I’m a pretty happy with it. I mean, I’m enjoying (almost) the whole thing.

Lets talk a little bit about it.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to share the whole details and information (or photos) about what I have been doing, because I’m respecting the confidentiality of the company’s information. A big overall picture will do. Basically I am working in a development team that is working on some in-vehicle infotainment system. It is  a pretty new and small team – with some developers, one PM and one PCM, and me, as the only one intern (and Malay) in the team.

At first, it was really uncomfortable to be around all the strangers. Everybody is busy with their work. I felt pretty bad. Unlike my other friends, I don’t have any cubicle – but my permanent place is in the lab. Not like those high school science lab though -  a development lab, with the computers, test system and stuff.

But the learning process is the one that helped me to get along with the team. And I started to enjoy the environment. My SV is the PM, so he is very busy with a lot of different stuff (and he is a very nice funny guy too!). So, most of the time, I have to be very independent – which is something I like, apparently. But he did assign people from the team to guide me through some basic stuff.

The toughest part was to get familiar with all the terms and acronym they used in the documents, emails and conversations. I didn’t expect them to explain to me one by one, but after quite some time, I started to get used to the terms and environment.

Experience.

Although I am just an intern, I am really glad that I am involved in (almost) everything. Project planning, all the project meetings, staff meetings, technical sharing, workshops – everything. I don’t know why, but I really like to go to the meetings. They are kinda fun, main because, they are not really conducted in a very formal way. It is a relax environment – people make jokes all the time. But the main reason I like them, is because of the insights and information I can get from the meeting – it is great to be able to observe how these guys thinks, make arguments and stuff.

Even if I’m listed as an optional attendee for certain technical sharing and workshop among the developers, I always joined them. This is the time where the developers share their high-level ideas and detail information for their planned development task. Sometimes, I have no idea what are they talking about – with all those weird and alien terms on the screen – but I like it. It is something not to be missed, because it is a great opportunity for me – and I’m probably not going to get this chance anymore – not in UTP anyway.

Plus, I have always wanted to know how exactly a product, in a form of a software, is developed in a team environment. The source control, project management, the bug fixing process, the testing and everything – up to the release, and the starting of the next releases. It is definitely a great experience for me.

What am I actually doing there?

Well, some stuff.

I’m not going to put everything in here – at least, not yet. There are still another 3 months to go. It is a great exposure for me – and I’m not going to take this for granted.

Plus, it is a great place to work – I can wear anything to work, I can keep my hair (!), I can go at anytime I want, I can have fun – as long as my works are not affected. And Friday is halfday!

I’m such a workaholic. I don’t want to go back to UTP.