Just started my placement year..en Suisse!
I'm bored at work today so figured I may aswell make a post, since I havn't in a fair while :)
I've just started my Industrial placement year for my uni course (computing science). I was lucky enough to get a job working for Novartis (big pharmaceutical company) over in Basel, Switzlerland! :D I'm working in the department that develops document management software (used for filing scientific reports etc, its more interesting than it sounds honest :P) for novartis worldwide so its a pretty decent job.
I've not done much yet though..the rest of the department is involved in a big project atm which means there isnt much time for someone to try and get me up to speed with what goes on (its only a small team of 6 people + 2 students) but this should change soon enough. Spent the past few days just surfin the web and sitting on msn..boring enough but i'm sure in a few weeks i'll be complaining that I have too much to do so I guess i should try to enjoy it while i can :)
By far the best bit is living in a country like Switzlerland though. Its just...such a great place. They have public transport that is cheap, and reliable(!) Trams and busses cover the whole city and run on time..its hard to get used to the fact that you can get to a bus stop and a bus will turn up at the time on the timetable :P The weathers great too, at the moment anyway, always in the high 20's/low 30s - although its going to get much colder soon as we hit winter :( I've got a great place to live too, right on the rhine and only 10 mins from work. Biggest pain here is the cost of living - its so high compared to the UK. Looking at the important stuff for comparison, a Pint of beer will cost you 7.50CHF which is about 3.20..and thats reasonably cheap..You can pay alot more in some of the clubs too. Its nicer beer though, stronger too.
So, enough showing off :P Anyone else here recently started a placement year? If so how are you getting on? If you can't tell already i'm loving it despite not having any work to do yet. Or even better, any swiss hexites here??
