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Week in the life - Armughan Javaid (part 1)
I’ve been meaning to write a “week in the life of” type post for a while and this past week was as good as any so here goes. This should give a pretty good picture of my weekly activities and tasks – though I do not travel every week but since our team is spread around Dulles, NY, Columbus, Dublin and Bangalore, travel this year may be on the rise.
Monday Feb 12, 2007
7:30 a.m. – Home
I wake up around 6:30 a.m., get ready and then grab some quick breakfast while checking email. New email count in my inbox: 51. I answer a few and keep some flagged for when I get into the office. I leave for work between 7:45 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. on most days for my 45-minute commute to our Dulles, VA HQ. Traffic has improved this year in the area ever since I-66’s 4-lane expansion (each way) to my exit completed. But I take the backroads anyway.
8:30 a.m. – My desk
I stop by at the cafeteria and grab a steaming cup of “proudly brewed” Starbucks. Get to my desk and dock my laptop to fire up the key apps across my two LCDs: Thunderbird, Calendar and AIM on one screen and IE, Primavera, Word, Powerpoint and any other app that I actively need on the other. I plug in my Treo and hit synch while I work on clearing my inbox a bit more.
9:15 a.m. – Team member’s desk
I synch-up with a project manager on my team on a key integration project for the Publishing program. He leads a daily integration team conference call but had been outof the office the week before and I had tried to fill in for him. Wequickly agree onthegoals for the week: making progress on the hardware estimates and getting development LoE for a part of the integration effort.
10:00 a.m. – My desk
I complete routine, but important, Monday morning tasks of approving timesheets and finish up some other admin work.
Mailcount has increased to 45. Oh well.
11:30 a.m. – Colleague’s Office
I meet an esteemed peer of mine for our weekly 1-1. We discuss upcoming projects and the development pipeline.
12:00 p.m. – 12C:A00 Conference Room
I meet our product team to present our project intake and change process that my team will be managing – our aim is to keep it very lightweight so that the process can truly help development and meet our commitments to [internal] customers. I get some good feedback which I make a note of to incorporate into the deck.
1 p.m. – HQ Gym
I squeeze in 30 mins on the treadmill. AOL Dulles has two 24-hr well-equipped gyms though I have not been making much use of them lately. One of the goals this year is to get back in shape! I grab a salad from the cafeteria after a quick shower.
2 p.m. – My desk, Conference Call
I join three of my colleagues for a2-hr conference call to discussthe Publishing roadmap with one of our key internal customers in New York. I have plans to attend a follow-up meeting on Tuesday in-person in NYC. Though mother nature seems to have other plans…
3:30 p.m. – 12D:A00 Conference Room
I am able to leave the call earlier and join a status check-point meeting for a key launch for an AOL channel. Most of the Publishing deliverables for the project are on track but the team agrees to aggressively monitor progress and mitigate any risks.
4: 15 p.m. – Geneva auditorium, HQ
I hop over to the HQ building to attend a talk by Anne Collier – co-author of MySpace Unraveled: What it is and how to use it safely. Not much new info but the authors had some good thoughts on how to make “social networking” a safe experience for kids and teens. I wonder what she thought of AOL’s Parental Controls which have actually been rated as one of the best (including Internet Access Controls – a project I managed couple years back). I would've asked during Q&A but I had to leave the session early.
5:00 p.m. – My desk
I wrap up for the day and clear my inbox. I setup a couple of quick 1-1 meetings in New York for tomorrow. I check the weather and its not looking good – freezing rain and snow/sleet. Yikes!
5:30 p.m. Head home and pick up my daughter from daycare.
Tuesday Feb 13, 2007
5:15 a.m. – Home
Alarm goes off on my Treo. I look at the time and think this can’t be right – it takes a moment to register that I’m supposed to go to NY today. I jump out of bed and get ready in a hurry.
6:30 a.m. – AOL HQ lobby
I wait for the shuttle to Dulles airport in the HQ lobby. It is raining outside and conditions are icy. Usually there are quite a few people on a given day that go to NY but today I am the only one in the lobby. Hmm… anyways the shuttle shows up on time.
6:45 a.m. – Landmark Aviation lobby, Dulles Airport
I AM the only one on the shuttle this morning! The AOL shuttle is operated by Landmark Aviation (opposite the Avis lot at Dulles) and the great thing is that there is no wait for long security lines. I grab a copy of TheWashinton Post and hop over to the Dornier 328 aircraft with the air hostess. We chat about the weather but she says we’re still on for take off.
7:15 a.m. – On board Dornier 328 – AOL Shuttle IAD-TEB
Wheels up after a quick de-icing. It feels strange being the only passenger on board. The hostess brings some coffee and bagels as I work on updating my deck from yesterday. Pretty soon the pilot announces we’re beginning our descent into Teterboro (TEB) airport NJ so I shut down the laptop and gothrough the Post.
8:05 a.m. – AOL Shuttle bus to Manhattan
Traffic is pretty bad this morning but that is usual for NYC I guess – the Lincoln tunnel is backed up in a major way. Ironically, the bus ride from Teterboro, NJ into Manhattan takes longer than the plane hop from DC to NJ!
9:15 a.m. – AOL Office, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, Manhattan
I go up to the 6th floor of 75 Rock and setup shop in an empty cubicle. I meet a colleague of mine for coffee and we discuss the plan for the day.
10:00 a.m. – My temporary desk, AOL NY
Mailcount: 79. I catch-up on email and review the presentation for later in the day. I dial into a conference call with our Dublin team for one of the on-going larger projects.
12:05 p.m. – Lunch
I grab lunch with a colleague at a nearby restaurant. We discuss the projects in the pipeline and our current commitments.
1 p.m. – My temporary desk, AOL 75 Rock, NYC
I get on a conference call with a few team members about a support issue we are having with a vendor. Apparently, we are not getting enough support to enable us to install another instance of the software. I make a note to review our contract and reach out to the vendor next week to get some traction on this issue.
2:00 p.m. –Training room, AOL 75 Rock, NYC
I join my colleagues for our presentation to one of the key [internal] customers of Publishing. The presentation goes well and we get some good feedback as well during the Q&A. Halfway through the meeting I get a voicemail from our travel office advising that my scheduled return shuttle flight to D.C. that afternoon had been canceled due to bad weather!
4:15 p.m. – My temporary desk, AOL 75 Rock, NYC
With the presentation over, I make an urgent call to our travel office to try to book me on a train back to D.C. Luckily, Amtrak’s Accela has one seat left for the 5 p.m. train. I reserve it asap, gather my stuff and hop into a cab for Penn Station.
4:50 p.m. – Penn Station, NYC
Made it just in time! The train is on time and I am able to get some work done on the way. I love Accela for its speed, great seats and laptop power ports. If only they had Wi-Fi…yeah I know I could do EVDO/EDGE but its not the same.
Somewhere around Wilmington I catch some shut-eye.
7:45 p.m. – Union Station, Washington D.C.
Wow – freezing rain and icy roads, all airports were closed. There is a very long line at Union Station for cabs – had to wait for 30 minutes out in the open for my turn. Cab ride took an hour+ to AOL [to get my car] but I guess it was still better than having been stranded at airports.
10:00 p.m. – Home
Check mail and send out some mails I had composed offline. It had been a long day and I turn in for the night.
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