Work

A selective timeline of David's life:

• 8665 days ago: begin schooling
• 124 days ago: finish schooling
• 59 days ago: begin first industry job in Denmark

You could say that I've been preparing for a job for 83.9% of my life. But then you'd be ignoring weekends, evenings, holidays, etc. Let's assume that schooling occurs for 40 hrs/week over 9 months/year; that brings it down to 15% of my life.

I've invested this 15% in things that interest me, and it has been very rewarding. My education has taken me from the coast to the mountains to the Jutland, and has provided experiences I'll never forget. This one time, some friends and I got together and built a satellite!

All that to say, it feels like I don't know a thing. I don't know if it's is a moving-to-another-country thing or a first-real-job thing, but there is so much to learn.

I look around my office, and I see engineers that have been engineering while I have been schooling. They've been building while I've been theorizing. I find myself envying their experience.

It's frustrating - after being in school for so long, I almost thought I knew what I was doing. Yet time and time again I am surprised by the gaps in my knowledge. Oh, and that one time, with the satellite? I'm continually realizing that our team was even more capable than I thought. It's happened a few times at work already: Wait, who did this on CSSWE? Oh, somebody (Ian/Nate/Lauren/Quintin/Chris/etc.) must have done that without telling me. Chalk another one on the "to-learn" column.

So I'm learning. Don't get me wrong - I'm excited to be at a job where I will grow as an engineer. I've just been surprised at how much there is to learn.

At the end of my first week, I was mulling over thoughts like these when my friend Karl tapped me on the shoulder and said, "It's beer friday now". Then I turned around and saw this:

The image shows my coworkers celebrating the end of a work week by grabbing a beer and eating peanuts & chips while talking about anything but work. Most Danish companies do this every week! Once beer friday begins, people will usually stick around long enough to enjoy a beer and some snacks before they head home for the weekend. Americans (like me) could learn a lot about work/life balance from traditions like this.