Hung Truong: The Blog!

There IS Free Lunch!

So one of the things that has surprised me about grad school in comparison to my undergrad is the large amounts of free food being offered every day. I think it has to do with the fact that UNM was a pretty small school and Michigan is a behemoth of schools. I’m always getting emails just from my own school within the U (School of Information) about events with pizza and pop (soda!) included.

There’s almost always free food for me to eat on Thursdays. Fridays are good too. I actually end up spending quite a bit of time planning where my next free meal will come from. For example, there’s a Teach For America thing going on tomorrow at the Union that will have food from Zingerman’s. Thursday there’s a company info session and Friday there’s a panel/session, both of which will offer free food. That’s already like, $20 in food savings for me (if I had eaten out at some place near campus, which would be the most likely scenario)!

At one point I pondered whether I could run an experment: to eat only free food for the entire semester! I decided that I would probably end up starving or getting really weak while begging for food.

I found a site called “Hungry Hungry Coeds” that lists free food events at some select campuses. Luckily it seems that the creators of the site went to Michigan, or at least the main contributor goes here. I’ll be checking it routinely to see if I can maximize my free food intake. Maybe I should also keep a log of all the free food I eat per week. Could end up being another blog…

Internship Status Update: Microsoft (Microhoo?) and Zazzle

Since the last time I wrote about internships, I’ve applied to quite a few places. The two places I’ve heard back from so far are Microsoft (I talked with some people at the Engineering Career Fair) and Zazzle (they replied to my email like, 45 minutes after I sent my resume and cover letter!).

Both companies I “interviewed” with (I got some short informational interviews) were looking for PM types. The PM here is either product or project management. I think they’re pretty similar and the actual job really depends on the context of which company it’s at.

I think the PM stuff differs quite a bit from standard software engineering in that you’re expected to think about the product as a whole rather than the implementation details alone. So that involves stuff like considering the design, the user, how decisions affect both, and tradeoffs that each solution results in. It’s pretty interesting stuff that requires a lot of thought. I’m sort of training myself to think a bit more critically about things than I have in the past.

Anyway, hopefully some more companies will contact me too. I’m still waiting to hear back from Zazzle and Microsoft (which might include Yahoo, who knows? But that possible merger probably won’t happen for a while). Hopefully I can get a better idea of what these jobs entail, and make a decision on what I want to end up doing after I graduate.

Office Snapshots: A Blog With Snapshots… of Offices…

While looking at places to intern during the Summer, I came across this blog called Office Snapshots. You would think a blog that had nothing but pictures of tech company offices wouldn’t work, but oh, how it does!

The author gets pictures of offices through Flickr, or sometimes by actually visiting the offices himself. Then there’s a funny weird writeup about the company and their office. The blogger doesn’t take himself too seriously with quotes like this:

McAfee has been keeping our computers safe from spam, viruses, spyware, phishing, and the like since the 80s. They’re like the sheriffs of the web. Except they have less shoot-outs and more Internet (a lot more).

Overall, it’s a good read. There’s something really enjoyable at seeing how cool other people’s offices are versus your own. I mean, my office doesn’t even have windows, though I do get my own burgundy line of office equipment. Maybe I should send pictures to Office Snapshots to see if they’ll get posted…

They Might Be Giants Podcast: 31A!

For those of you keeping track, I sorta like TMBG again. They’ve gained back my trust with their newest album and powerful live show.

Anyway, today is a new podcast day! TMBG was pretty much doing podcasts before they existed (even before iPods existed!) via their dial a song service. So this is sort of an extension of that. Except the sound quality is much, much better.

Of special note are some new versions of old songs! According to the TMBG wiki, the songs were recorded at XM Studio, whatever that means. It’s pretty neat hearing new versions of Shadow Government, Withered Hope, and Mr. Me! The turtle sounds thing is pretty funny too, mentioning the Fibonacci Sequence. There’s also some songs about numbers that are no doubt directed towards turning children into fans of TMBG at an early age. Clever…

Anyway, I kind of want to split the podcast up into the individual songs and listen to them over and over and over. It’s that good!

University of Michigan Internship Fair ’08

So I headed on down to the internship fair today happening at the Union.

First thing that I noticed was that everyone was wearing suits! My opinion on suits is that I hope I’ll never work anywhere that requires one, except for maybe at a company formal party or something. I guess it’s pretty standard attire for an internship fair, but I think distinguishing yourself is important too. Everyone looks the same in a suit. Luckily, I distinguished myself as the idiot who didn’t bring a suit.

Mostly I just wandered around looking all the companies. Quite a few had really long lines just to talk to a recruiter. The place was packed, too. There were probably a few hundred people in any given room.

I talked to some people from Liberty Mutual. The guy was laid back and pretty cool. He told me to check their website for any openings, and I got a pen and a weird bendy thing (it’s like, a blue bendy stick).

I also checked out this local web development company called Enlighten. They were laid back as well. I talked to them a bit about web development and they gave me some cool magnetic thinking putty. I played with it. It’s sorta magnetic, but not highly magnetic. Like you wouldn’t replace an industrial strength electromagnet with it or anything.

Most of my social interactions went pretty smoothly, I must say. There was one that I could probably call the worst of the year so far. I went up to the Macy’s corner and some guy said something and stuck out his hand. Now, I know when a person wants to shake my hand, I’m not an idiot. But I didn’t hear what he said, and I thought he said something like, “name?” So I was like, “Hung,” and I pointed to my name tag. Then he said something else I couldn’t hear, so I said it louder and pointed more furiously, “HUNG!” I thought he wanted to take something, instead of shaking my hand. Anyway, I finally shook his hand.

Then, I asked if there were any engineering type jobs at Macy’s. He said that no, there were only management type jobs. I guess our interaction could’ve just ended there. But then I noticed something.

Standing right behind the guy was a larger version of the guy. It was him, but bigger, and printed out on a large piece of paper.

“Is… that… you?” I slowly asked with furrowed brow. “THAT’S YOU!” And indeed, it was him on the promotional banner. He said it was taken a year or so ago. Without thinking, I said something like, “Could you stand next to it and do the same pose!?” I think he was starting to get tired of my shenanigans. He actually contemplated it before not doing it. Then he suggested I leave by saying something like, “well, good luck in your internship search!” I took the hint, but not before asking for a bouncy Macy’s ball.

It glows when you bounce it.