Category Archives: Mentoring & Other Business

Tanya Jankot and I have arrived home safely to the Bay Area
from our trips to Dublin, Grenoble, Prague, and Hamburg.
I was delighted and inspired to meet so many very cabable Engineering
staff. We are honored that so many of them have chosen to apply
to SEED.

SEED is open to receive applications through midnight California
time Monday, 14 November (which is tomorrow for me). If someone needs
more time to prepare their material, they should submit their web
application form with as much information as
they have by the 14 November deadline. They will have until
18 November to send in a revision. All material from applicants,
managers, and recommenders is due 18 November. We will select
and announce the 25 SEED participants from Dublin, Grenoble,
Prague, and Hamburg on 22 November.

36 Applications so far:

• Czech Republic: 14 [ 39% ]
• France: 7 [ 19% ]
• Germany: 8 [ 22% ]
• Ireland: 7 [ 19% ]

We are receiving a wide range of applicants: development Engineers,
managers, program managers, and quality Engineers. Most are from
Software but there are a few from Sun’s Scalable Systems Group. I
hope some of the Service and Sales Engineers will also apply.

As usual, there is also a wide range of location of origin. Origin
information is interesting
because it gives us one indication of an applicant’s breadth of cultural
experience. The majority of applicants come from the 4 countries where
the sites are located but there are also applicants who started from
Bosnia, Australia, Slovak Republic, Romania, Russia, USA, and India.

Unusually, very few women have applied so far to this SEED term.
While we hope to see more, we expected a lower number of female applicants
because of the much lower number of women in Computer Science in 3 of
the 4 target countries. According to a U.C. San Diego study* of 21 countries
last August, the factor by which men are overrepresented in Computer Science
relative to their representation in the other fields is:

• 1. Turkey 1.79
• 2. Ireland 1.84
• 5. United States 2.1
• 13. France 4.57
• 19. Germany 5.58
• 21. Czech Republic 6.42

* “University diplomas in computer science are overwhelmingly
earned by males, according to a new study of 21 nations, but
significant country-to-country differences in the gender gap
imply that much more than genetics is at work.”

“Why Aren’t More Girls ‘Geeks’?”,
August 15, 2005 – University of California San Diego,
U.C. NewsWire

I am flying home tomorrow morning from Hamburg, Germany. I have had
individual meetings with many of the impressive Engineering staff here
and in Prague. I hope to see most of them apply to the program.

We have had 30 applicants so far:

• Czech Republic: 10 [ 33% ]
• France: 6 [ 20% ]
• Germany: 7 [ 23% ]
• Ireland: 7 [ 23% ]

Applications are due Monday, 14 November. All other materials (resumes,
letters of recommendation, etc.) are due
18 November. I will announce SEED’s selection decisions on 22 November.

When we were working at Sun in Beijing last April, my husband John and I often
used taxicabs to get across town. We took the subway and buses too but
usually taxis. There were ranks and orders of taxis, some obvious and
some subtle. The little red taxis with the cage for the driver were
at the bottom (and cheaper) rank. The fancy cabs with seat covers and curtains
were at the top (and more expensive). The most expensive was the hotel limo.
John and I ended up taking any cab that would stop for us and could figure out
where we wanted to go despite our lack of Mandarin. Since John
is very tall (6′ 3″, or about 2 meters), the drivers of the little red
cabs would laugh to watch him fold himself up like an origami crane trying
to fit inside.

On my visit to Sun Prague this week and last, it seemed that there was again
a hierarchy among the cabs. First, it seems that the locals all prefer to ride
the excellent public transport system. Unfortunately, my hotel was a very
long way from the office and I was there until after dark so I took cabs
instead.

The first cab I hired in Prague was friendly and clean and got me to work
quickly. I asked for his card so that I could hire him again. But that
night when (speaking no Czech) I gave his card to the receptionist and asked
her to call for me, she said “Oh, we can do better than this!” and she called
someone else. I ended up taking a variety of cabs during my time in Prague,
including one very expensive and inadvertent ride in the hotel limo. (When
I questioned why the limo cost me double for the same ride, I was told
“It’s a Mercedes!”.) Like the cabs in Beijing, the Prague taxis are decorated
in little ways. One had a small soccer ball hanging from the rear view
mirror, another had a wooden rosary. Two had white fuzzy bobble head dogs
on the dashboards.

Last night, for the first time I got a cabbie who had no English at all.
It took quite a bit of cross purposed communication in his Czech and my
English to figure out that he had been called for someone next
door and that a second cab from the same company was coming to pick me up.
He was still determinedly waiting by the time my taxi showed up to take me
to the hotel.

This morning’s cab ride to the airport ended up being in the same taxi that
I had taken on my first trip. The cabbie was still just as pleasant and the
little bobble head dog nodded to me all the way there through the cold fog of
late autumn in Prague.

I am now working from Sun in Hamburg, Germany. I am learning to use a
German-style keyboard with a Z where I expect a Y to be. I have a big
window looking out over train tracks where a red train zips by from time
to time. My husband the Railfan (a.k.a. “train nut”) will be jealous.
The SunRay hotdesking worked perfectly: I pulled out my badge in Prague
last night and popped it in at my new desk in Hamburg this morning and
my session was right where I left it. So very cool!

We have had 18 SEED applications for this first European SEED term so far:

• Czech Republic: 6 [ 33% ]
• France: 4 [ 22% ]
• Germany: 1 [ 6% ]
• Ireland: 7 [ 39% ]

Most applications are looking good. Two so far with all “Superb” performance ratings
during the last 3 years. There are a few new hires with no annual
ratings. Two applications are complete.

I give both the all-managers and all-Engineering presentations today and mz
schedule is filling up with individual meetings. I am in Hamburg through Friday.

SEED applications are due Monday, 14 November. All other materials (resume,
letters of recommendation) are due 18 November.

I just gave my Engineering all hands to a large group at Sun Prague and I think it
went well. Current SEED participant Martin Matula did excellent work setting
everything up and Site Director Pavel Suk has been very supportive. I went to
lunch with the three current program participants and had fun talking with them.
Tanya Jankot sent me email saying that she has given two SEED presentations in
Grenoble and she is feeling encouraged by the positive response.

We have had 11 applications so far:

• Czech Republic: 4 [ 36% ]
• France: 1 [ 9% ]
• Ireland: 6 [ 55% ]

Many folks seem to be waiting to meet us before they decide. Others may be taking
time to put together their application materials. There is enough response that
I think all will be well.

Applications are due Monday, 14 November.

I am finishing my first day of work at Sun in Prague. It is early evening
here on a cold misty autumn day. I have had a full day of meetings about
mentoring and am about to call for a cab to take me back to my hotel, the
Radisson Alcron near Wenceslaus Square.

We have had 7 applications so far to the first EMEA SEED term. 5 from Dublin
(where Tanya has been this week) and 2 from Prague (where I am now). I hope
that when Tanya gets to Grenoble and I get to Hamburg next week, we will hear
from them as well. The deadline is 14 November.

Tomorrow, I fly to Prague to start talking with Sun Engineering
staff about the SEED mentoring program. I talked with Tanya Jankot
this morning. She has already given a presentation to the Engineering
staff in Dublin and she thinks the visit is going well.

We have had
a much lower initial response from Dublin, Grenoble, Hamburg, and Prague
than we had from Bangalore and Beijing. However, these are smaller groups
and they probably want to talk with us in person before submitting their
application materials. Tanya and I have been in good communication with
the site leaders and SEEDs (from both the current and prior terms) so we
are still hopeful.

I will be working out of the Prague and then Hamburg Sun offices, back
in Menlo Park, California on 12 November. The SEED term application
deadline is 14 November. (We pushed it out a bit later to accomodate
a holiday in France.) We will announce the participant selections on
22 November and then we start the matching process. The actual term will
run January-June 2006.