Tue, 24th Apr 2012
After taking the Translink staff bus from Europa Buscentre at 8:45 (which I’ll probably do every morning I go to work for the next two months) I arrived at Translink’s office at Milewater Road in the northeast of Belfast near the shipyard the famous Titanic was built at.
Paul McGrattan, my supervisor here at Translink, gave me some information about the department I will work for: Information Services (IS). Probably this is the only IT department which does not have IT in its name. 😛 I learned about the department’s structure and general tasks, the core network infrastructure and some other general IT stuff. After being introduced to the colleagues (whose names I can’t remember, except for maybe three or four people) I was shown my desk:
Before getting a user account I had to read the User Acceptability Policy (UAP), which consists of rules and guidelines on how to use the IT infrastructure.
I also had several nice talks with my new colleagues. One thing that really fascinates me is that people in Northern Ireland are so friendly. Even when just asking someone for the way he notices you are not from here and shows interest in where you are from and what are you doing in Belfast (as René already posted). I can’t imagine experiencing something like this in Berlin.