Cisco Express team in the Philippines

First time in PH, but have heard a lot about how friendly Filipinos are. The traffic here is really bad and you can expect to drive against the traffic in times of emergency.

In Philippines, I have worked with a lot of System Engineers and they are very friendly and helpful. One of my tasks in Philippines was to backup almost the whole of Cisco Express but to do so will require a lot of time. I work closely with them and arrange a proper schedule to do the backups.

The most important thing, welfare of Cisco staffs, was very well look after. I was given USD$60 per day to spend on food and transportation. Of course I wasn’t able to spend that much a day because I’m on-site the whole day. I ordered dine-in breakfast almost everyday and dinner on one of the day.

Apart from working in Philippines, the working environment in Cisco is very good. Cisco is ranked 6th in Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For”. We have free flow of Oreo cookies, coffee and can drinks as and when we like. The working culture in Cisco, at least for me, is that we don’t have to follow day by day tight schedule but at the end of the day, we have to finish our task(s).

In summary, I just enjoy a lot working in Cisco because I learnt a lot here too.

Cheers,
Ivan Khor
DMIT Year 3 student

Kenneth Lum (DECC), Ng Kee Way (our lecturer), Ivan Khor (DMIT)



With the Cisco team in the Philippines



The Cisco Express team from Singapore



Testing for the Cisco Express launch in the Philippines

Dalian's Update on OIPP

On the day of China National Day, we went to the XingHai Square and XingHai Castle. We had to walk up the long stairs which are like the miniature of Great Wall of China to reach the top of the castle. The Shell Museum is located on top of the castle and we had taken a lot of pictures on the mountain. We went to the HaoLeDi KTV at night. It was very grand such that it looked more like a hotel than a KTV. As the English Support Team would start reporting to work on the same week and we are separated into 2 shifts, we had enjoyed ourselves and cherished the time that all the 7 of us had spent together.


Xinghai Castle

Annually, Hewlett-Packard would organize activities for all of the employees. This year, we get to join the full time staffs of English Support Team to go to the theme park in Dalian, Discovery Kingdom. It is located at the north-eastern side of Dalian, which we took around 2 hours of bus ride from company. The theme park is huge and it is separated into different themes, such as green forest, castle, desert, etc. We tried many of the rides and, enjoyed the cooling weather and magnificent scenery. We had such an enjoyable time that the day shift team gets to join their department to Discovery Kingdom for the second time on another week. On the same day, Marcus and Samantha’s mentor, Zheng Ling Cheng, treated us to dinner at a Korean barbeque restaurant. The food was superb and one of our favorite dishes was the black pepper mutton.



Discovery Kingdom

On 28th October, the weather was freezing and we saw our very ‘first snow’ from our own apartment. Actually, it was not snow that was falling but was small, little flakes of ice. The temperature on that day was 1°C with a wind chill of -6°C at 35km/h speed. We also noticed that the hill behind our apartment has changed its colour from green to brown.


The day that it snowed

As the winter is drawing nearer, the weather in Dalian is getting colder and colder.

Let's look forward to more updates from the 7 dalian's oipp nypians.=)

More pictures

Reported by the 7

OIPP @ HP - Dalian in China

Our 7 'reporters' stationed at HP in Dalian reported their happenings of Overseas Industry Placement Programme (OIPP) in Dalian, "LIVE" at OLT:



7 of us with our lifestyle coordinator - Weiyi

Our apartment !!!



Let's wait for more news from the 7 reporters as they embark their journey at dalian's oipp :)

Meanwhile enjoy the photos here


Reported by the 7

Doing Projects in Beijing, China

Life @ BITC - From strangers to good friends.

Arriving on 27 May 2007, Departing on 20 July 2007.

Dragging our feet to lab every morning, just to make sure that we complete whatever we have to do for the day and then enjoy ourselves after lab time by doing some group exercises such badminton, basketball and soccer. Time to work out!!

Miss those times when we go out to explore Beijing as one whole group and enjoying those places of attractions over there. Settling our meals at various eateries and at times complaining about the standard of their service as well as the quality of the foods.

Oops =X

On the very last day, I guess most of us can’t bear to leave each other; after all, it is a bond of two quality months together. Leaving our comfortable home, to somewhere where we have to rely on ourselves and one another.

More Photos here ...

Contributed by Josline Lim

OIPP in France!

Our 6 students (3 from DECC and 3 from DMIT) who went for OIPP in Paris, France have just touched down to the sunny island yesterday morning!

They were sent to École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs en Électrotechnique et Électronique for 2 and a half months for their industrial attachment, and boy, looking at their online photos, they must have thoroughly enjoyed themselves, while working on their projects!

Stay tuned for this space as we bring you their reflections and thoughts on this trip-of-a-lifetime! But please do give them some time to settle their still-excited mind (*wink* as I understand, a French guy will be landing in this sunny island very very soon... hehe.. *wink*) and get back to normal life. 8-)