How the halls of Mariani have changed!
Last fall Joseph, my manager from Apple, asked whether I’d be interested in coming back to work part-time during January. Joseph has built up a very strong intern/co-op program over the past few years, and one thing he likes to do is overlap internship periods so that the outgoing veteran intern can help train the newbie interns. With the long winter break, this wasn’t possible for the 3 new co-ops starting in his group. I’m in the area, and my class schedule worked out pretty well.
Mariani is the building where I work down there, and during the fall they put in new carpet and painted the walls. The sad part is that all the artwork and posters that made Mariani such a cool place to work is gone. At least, not put up again.
It was nice seeing everyone though, joking around with Jose and Guillermo, watching Diep do her magic, and Erturk’s sense of humor. The first intern to arrive, Rushi, is a (real!) Ph.D. candidate from Georgia Tech – an easy-going, really sharp guy. He’s doing real research into wireless power at the moment. His family is also from Gujarat, and he showed me an all-you-can-eat Gujarati restaurant just a mile from Mariani! I met the 2nd intern today, Will, who came in from Carnegie Mellon. It’s a firehose for them right now, but in 2 months they will be different people, like Joseph likes to say.
So yeah, just working part-time, helping the new interns and working on some real stuff, and the extra money on the side isn’t bad either. Will have to stop it in a few weeks though, because school takes priority.