Lessons learned in Scotland

I've now been working for five weeks at Picsel Technologies. The last two of which I spent at company HQ outside Glasgow, and the branch office in Edinburgh, going through training and meeting people. The group of new recruits I was with for the first week was very varied, with men and women of varying ages (I was most likely the youngest) and nationalities and home countries. All had very solid software engineering backgrounds though...

So far I'm quite satisfied with my change of workplace. Although I still only work with Japanese mobile phones, which is probably one of the most interesting thing one can work with, I now get to deliver to all the major operators, manufacturers, and platforms. The engineering processes at Picsel are pretty solid, and the quality of the software is sincerely impressive, which makes developing software there feel meaningful.

The training, on the other hand, was of more varying quality, but at least included some new and interesting material towards the end, even stuff worth putting in the resume. Scotland, however, is frankly one hell of a shit-hole, especially I suppose in December, and I wouldn't recommend anyone to set foot anywhere near it, which includes the whole of Britain, and possibly all of Europe as well. After a few years in Japan, it's hard to take the rudeness, impoliteness, and untimeliness one has to endure in the outside world.