My technical title is Member of the Technical Staff (MTS). One thing I found is that the acronym use here is completely ridiculous. You sometimes think that the church uses a lot of acronyms, but Sandia uses way more, and for all sorts of stuff. Being a MTS just means that I am a regular full-time member of the engineering team. That is cool because it means that I have access to all the benefits of normal employees, even while I am away at school. This includes good health, vision, dental, and life insurance, a very generous 401K matching program, and a lot of other good stuff.
Right now, and probably until next summer, I don't have security clearance. That has a few good things about it and quite a few negative things. First of all it means that I can't be in the Technical area (Blue on the map) without an escort. You have be with your escort at all times, even to go to the bathroom (if the bathroom only has one exit, then the escort can wait outside, but it there are multiple exits, they have to come into the bathroom). All of the other members of my department are in the Tech area, so I am kind of separated from them. If I have questions I can't just go to there office or something like that, but have to call, email, or instant message them. This is sometimes kind of annoying for me. Not having clearance also means that I am very limited in the types of projects that I can work on and the parts of projects that they can discuss around me. That makes it interesting because I fairly often get an "I can't answer that." response to questions I ask, even about some of the uses of stuff I work on.
One of the biggest benefits of not having clearance is that my office (in yellow on the map) is not on the base (the red line), so it is way easier to get to and from it, and it is in a secured area, which is a couple of steps down in the restriction ladder from the tech area, so I can use my cell phone. I got in a little trouble (nothing major, I was just told not to do it again) for having my iPod and using it. Apparently the rules say that you can't have personal media devices. So I can't use my iPod, but a phone is fine, so I listen to all my podcasts and audiobooks on that. It seems a little silly, since my phone has all the capabilities and more than an iPod, but rules are rules.
The area around my office is called the Sandia Technology Park. It is mostly third party companies that have some business relationship with the labs. There are a few offices that are actually leased by Sandia itself, and that is where I am. My building is pretty nice, except for my office is always so cold. I usually wear a jacket. I guess before we (Myself and a student intern named Chen) were there, there were a couple of people with like ten or twelve computers, so they adjusted the vents so that it would keep the room cool enough, but with just the two of us, it is pretty chilly. Supposedly they have made a service request to readjust them, but we haven't seen any difference.
I have spent most of the summer writing a regression test suite for some software that has been written over the last eight years. The software is used to analyze data collected from test launches of the missile defense system. It presents the data in visual charts and then allows the user to use operators like smoothers or resampling to modify the results to get useful information from it. The test suite is a set of automated tests that we will be able to run to show that the code is working correctly. This is useful because then if we make any changes to the code, we can run the tests and quickly see if everything is still working correctly. I have also been helping with documentation for a qualification, which is basically just presenting and proving to a customer that the software is correct. I have helped with bug finding, reporting and fixing.
The work has been okay. Maybe a little tedious at times, because the actual code was written by a bunch of different people and isn't documented hardly at all. That means we kind of have to make the best guess at why they did things certain ways, and try to write tests that not only test to make sure their methods are right, but also that the methods are implemented correctly. It uses stuff from a lot of my classes at USU, which I like.
One funny thing about Sandia is that many people have been here their whole careers. Often when people talk to us about our futures here, it seems like that is the default assumption. From people I have talked to, that sort of thing, while still common, is becoming less so. People have told me that the pension plan and benefits have had to be scaled back, making it less beneficial to stick around forever. Also apparently there is a generational difference where people entering the work force now on average have many more jobs during their careers than the older generation. There are some great reasons to stay at Sandia. One of the big things that they talk about is how easy it is to move around within Sandia and not have to start over or change companies. Sandia does a lot of different things, from energy stuff with solar and wind power, to nuclear weapons and stuff like that, to cybersecurity and anti-terrorism, to chip fabrication, to missile defense. So basically if you get bored of what you are doing after a couple years, you can go and do something new.
I haven't made up my mind about what I want to do, if I want to stay here long term, or if I want to go out into private industry, but I will be here for a while at least and that can help me make up my mind. I am leaving August 12 to head out to Pittsburgh. Then I will be back in Albuquerque next summer, and then back to Pittsburgh to finish my masters, and then I will be back here and have a service requirement of a little over a year (15 months about). Then I can start to make decisions about what comes next.
We like it here in Albuquerque. There are definitely neighborhoods that we'll avoid, but there are places where it would be great to live long term. Our ward is great and the temple is close by. Right now we are substitute Sunday School, Primary, and Nursery leaders. It is fun and we have enjoyed it. Being real primary teachers is funner, because you really get to know the kids, but I guess this way you kind of get to make connections about who is in what families and see the similarities and stuff, so that is fun. We are in the nursery today, and that is the best. An hour of play time, and then snacks and a five minute lesson. Pretty exciting...
If anyone has any specific questions, just let me know and I will try to answer them.
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