An easy 10am start was on order on Wednesday as I pulled myself out of bed at 8.30, thinking already how I was going to get up an hour and a half earlier on Thursday to be in for the usual time of 08:30! A quick dash to the Post room in UL to post a package to France, then pick up my colleague in Castleconnell before commuting to our workplace, a fabulous, modern and spacious office block located on a hill next to Shannon Airport. Half of the office looks down on the threshold to the Runway at Shannon and is a perfect vantage point for watching the planes land and depart. Sadly, my desk doesnt look out this window, although I was pleasently surprised with what my desk looks at (more on that later).
We arrived at the building shortly before 10am and waited in the foyer of the office block, an elegant staircase winding its way up into the emptiness above us. We waited on the leather sofa as the security guard at the main desk sourced us some visitor passes. At precisely 10am, the Head of Technical Operations and the man in charge of us, Ivan, came up the stairs to greet us and lead us to the office. This was it, the start of hopefully the best 8 months of my life!
Ivan lead us down the stairs and towards the office, through the door using the electronic card and first impressions... Wow! What an office!
When you enter, the first thing you see is a small circular waiting area with a tv and 4 leather, modern seats. Unusually, the doorway is in the middle of the office, with some of it behind you and some of it in front of you. To the left as you enter, neatly hidden away out of sight and adjoining it sits a circular living room, with tv. It houses 8 wonderful cloth seats that recline, swivel and rock back and forth! From there you walk back to a large conference/meeting room again in a large circle, with a large horseshoe shaped desk with about 16 seats at it facing the screen. Behind the desk and chairs are more built in seats. The room is called the tony ryan room, named after the founder of Guinness Peat Aviation, who started SES back in the early 90s.
Going back past the entrance leads you to the main office floor, a large room with unusual, large desks. They are in pods shaped like the letter Y with 3 people accommodated per pod. Some drawers and a filing unit with a garage door are located on one end of the desk. In the centre of the office are 3 small meeting rooms. They are separated by glass walls, that is frosted with the pattern of a jet engine on them. The same technique is used to partition the MD's office tucked away in the corner.
Overall the office is very cool, the circular shapes everywhere representing the engines. It is a great place to work, very relaxing and inviting. Our tour also allowed us to meet every staff member in SES, which was quite cool. Not a large company at all and already I know quite a few people there!
The work so far hasnt involved much, it is more of an induction period where we become acquainted with the company, the databases and the terminology! Aviation is full of Acronyms and it is good to be learning them. Already I know loads, I can tell you what sort of an engine is on an A340, a Boeing 737NG and many more, and what the engine codes mean! Im learning loads and all the staff are friendly and approachable with most going out of their way to answer your questions should you have any.
A meeting awaits us at 9am tomorrow, where all technical matters will be discussed. It is a fast and exciting business. Our first project is involving the sale of 2 CFM56-7B engines, between them worth over $8m! No pressure then.
I am looking forward to next week, when we are in the swing of things and will largely be independent of those teaching us now.
Roll on!
PS - my desk and the way it faces... It is facing one of the world clocks, the one that tells the time of... Paris, where I will be travelling in a month to see Celine!
