BootCamped

Don't be flummoxed by the title 'bootcamped'. No no, I haven't been to any of those military bootcamps, wherein I had to go through the rigorous sessions of physical activities. Nor I have got any special training in military combat. It's just another flashy term used by Amgen (where I work) for the 4-day induction program to the newly hired/intern IS employees. Did I just use IS and not IT ? Many would argue that there's hardly any difference in these two. But they do differ slightly, after I googled it :). IS (Informations Systems) related organizations are more of those dealing with the management of technology (IT) and not exactly developing it. So does that mean I'm not developing anything. Naah..it's complex analogy better I don't go deep into it.

So Amgen is an IS company ? Haha, not at all. One of the biggest biotechnology company in the world, who manufactures drugs/medicines for grievious illness (cancer, arthrithis of various forms, anemia, severe asthma, kidney diseases ..etc). And IS forms one of the bigger groups at Amgen supporting the technology and research. Back to the bootcamp. There is this theory that 'Bootcamp' must have been coined by either the CEO or CIO (both with military backgrounds), but it's not the case.

What was this bootcamp all about ? A series of seminars, lectures, campus tours, team building events, ice breakers and lot of fun. And the best part you get paid for doing all these :). But only 4 days. Day 1 and 2 were great in sense that I got to know lot of groups and sub-groups in the IS. The Directors, EDs, VPs, all came and talked about their division. What work they do, how they do, who are the people involved. And most importantly, why their group is important for running Amgen. Yeah, we know that. But what was important in these seminars that you get to hear lot of different speakers and distinguished individuals. These individuals, who have been at the forefront of some technology or atleast organization/team. I did manage to sit through all these lectures, but with different enthusiasm and feeling. Some were boring, some animated, some truly professional, some personal account and some with accent :P. What was amazing that I didn't know you need so many teams in a Biotech company to have so many IS groups. Damn..that was some piece of information. For rules and regulations, operations, webservices, client support, global operations, enterprise solutions, data recording & tracking, cross-functions ...you have an IS team for carrying all those functions.

Also fun, were the team building and icebreakers sessions, where individuals with different backgrounds and talent eventually end up in IS :( . And its good to know these individuals, their likes dislikes etc. And teaming up with different set everytime to carry some task.

But the highlight of the event was the entire day lecture by 'Jeff Bass'. A truly amazing character. I would say 'character' because he's taken more than 14 years to complete his formal bachelor's education (in which he studied microbiology, ancient greek history, languages, computer science and most of the derivates of science that is offered) and still managed to drive a Rolls-Royce to his school. Wow! I wish I could do that. A person who has a charter plane and who donates millions every year to the arthritis foundation. And who is complete geek and doesn't look like one and also served the military (with two gun-shots). This is a character who has studied all, done all the crazy stuff, earned and donated millions and still looked so bloody humble. One of the greatest public speaker (undoubtedly) I have heard in my lifetime. Try googling him, you won't find any mention... cuz he likes to be behind the scene. And, he was asked to take biology lecture to IS individuals, who cannot understand the basics of biology. DNA sequence, chromosome, mutated cells etc. And he managed to explain us the DNA sequence in our terms (IS terminologies). Like DNA sequence is nothing but sequence of binary (amino acid types combinations) in different repetitions... 30 tera byte times. Some fascinating stuff and now I understand why two different individuals have different DNA. Interesting Fact: many ask why mice has always been used as the sample to test drugs. Because it's a mammal, it's cheap (2 cents/mouse) and most importantly it matches the DNA structure of humans by 96-99%. People like Jeff work at Amgen because of the great work the company does and the lives it has saved or improved. It's really great to realize that you're part of this noble journey.

I'm always intrigued in knowing the stories. Stories that are true...and stories that have some sort of adventure, exhilaration attached to it. And I have heard lot of them in these 4 days. When we were touring around campus (part of bootcamp) it was nice to see the different research areas at Amgen...the biology lab (where mices are cut :P) , the pilot plant lab (where cells are grown), the data centre (where huge networks, servers are managed) ..every part has something different to tell.

At the end of the bootcamp, we were invited by our CIO - Tom Flanagan to his house. And I won't bore you giving out details about how great his house was. But what was important that he invited a bunch of newly hired employees to his house... and played basket ball with them. Just amazing.. I don't know how many other companies would have their "C's" doing that.

Since now the fun part is over (for me) I again go back into the not really interesting, but more or less same job of IS..and I know there are many people standing with their stick waiting for my arrival...gossh... I have loads of work to do. But nice to have such breaks in between.

It's also amazing that you managed to read all these and still not bored (or other way round)... but I managed to keep my promise.. I have been back with something after 2 weeks (it didn't take 2 years :) ).. Thanks for staying...