Last day at UBS

Yes, I complete my 6-month stint at UBS today. I am extremely appreciative of the opportunity that UBS provided me to move to Zurich, Switzerland and to work in the HR GCB department. I have learnt a lot. In particular, I have come across some of the core challenges being experienced by the IT departments of large organisations, such as:

• engendering a particular culture
• incorporating design, development, and architectural standards
• maintaining (and enhancing) legacy applications
• onshore / offshore consulting
• organisation hierarchies

A very rewarding experience, hopefully I will stay in contact with some of the fellow work mates I have met at UBS (and the progress they make!!).

PS: I must admit though, I will look forward to using a US keyboard again; the non-alphabetic characters, at times, are difficult to find on the ol' Swiss keyboard :)

Senior Java Developer, UBS

Europstrasse 2, originally uploaded by markyjones.

Well, it is not often I post about work, but yes for the last month, I have been working at UBS, Opfikon, Zurich, Switzerland. I have been significantly impressed with the IT department I have been assigned to, for a number of reasons:

(1) openness to new approaches / ideas! with a new project in scope, there has been open discussion about the technologies to implement, design patterns to use, etc.
(2) egoless developers who are involved in design, and architects who develop! a strong core set of senior developers who are professional, adept and continuous learners; most technical issues have been dealt with a fair amount of common sense
(3) good collaboration; use of online chat is pervasive; so instead of meetings, online chat, with multiple people is encouraged - this works suprisingly well especially when dealing with teams offshore (e.g. India)
(4) a license for IntelliJ v.51 and v6 - hello world!
(5) ability to stream the TDF to one of my 2 monitors; too good

Will try and post a better photo in some time ;)