The Real World

Hello family,

I've been getting hassled a bit recently on Facebook (Jack's doing), text (Jack again), and email (some John Chambers dude; probably Jack's friend) trying to get a straight answer out of me about where I am, what I'm doing, and where I'm going.  After that glory of a football game on Saturday that probably even turned Cripes! Marty into an Irish fan, I guess it's time.  I don't know what correlation there could possibly be between ND winning and me actually wanting to write something, except that hell must have frozen over sometime since Friday.

As most of you know, after a long and difficult struggle, I found a job that has sent me here to Minneapolis for the past two months.  The company is called PTC and is best known for its CAD software, Pro/Engineer (now called Creo).  However, I will be primarily be working with one of their other software solutions, Windchill.  I have been spending the last couple months learning how to use and install the system along with 16 other new hires from around the country.  They are from all around the country/world - I've got coworkers from 15 different states/countries and 11 different schools (the 4 other ND grads with me kinda messed up that number)  The kids break down into 11 engineers, 2 math majors, 3 business, and 1 science (with a Phd in Microbiology...and here I was thinking Shannon was the only one crazy enough to do that).

So far, our training has been mostly "Death by Powerpoint": sitting in a conference room with instructors going through presentations for 8 hours/day.  Honestly though, it's not too bad - we spent a week learning Java and just began our first case study today, which supposedly means that I know what I'm doing at this point.

I tried to explain what this software does to some people while I was home, but I really didn't have a very good idea myself.  We install our Windchill system at design and manufacturing firms around the world such as NASA, GM, Levi's, Coach, John Deere, Volvo, Whirlpool, and Boston Scientific.  The point of the software is to automate processes and workflows in order to cut down manufacturing time and costs.  For example, instead of having someone run plans around a building or even emailing them, the software automatically sends designs, forms, or other data to the correct people as soon as they are complete. My job will mainly consist of mapping companies' current processes to our software and migrating data from their old system to Windchill.

I will be here for the next eight weeks until my training is complete, and then I'll be moving somewhere else.  The job requires me to fly to the client site every Monday and fly home on Thursday night.  I then work from home on Friday, hang out for the weekend, and do it all over again.  I can live anywhere in the US, although they suggest to live on the East Coast, so I've narrowed it down to Orlando (cheap rent, direct flights anywhere, no state income tax) or going nomad.  That would just mean that I would have no home and basically live in hotels for the year.  It's actually one of the cheapest ways to live, but probably starts to weigh on you after awhile.  I'll be making my decision in the next month-ish, so let me know soon if you've been thinking of going to Disneyworld sometime.