Me and Blue

HAPPY 100th anniversary, IBM!

2011-06-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

This year IBM is turning 100....yes 1,0,0!!! Me and my friends wanted to send our wishes to IBM on such a special occasion:-) Check our video:

IBM turns 100 this year :-)

2011-01-21T01:53:00.001-08:00

we call it our centennial, a moment of pride and the time to celebrate all this great history of IBM. Check this superb, cool, mindblowing video from below and discover how we look at the DNA, that the "monther" of your motheboard is in IBMer, that the cute fractals are the masterpiece of an IBMer or that we developed the nice scrolls on your laptops so that you can forget your mouse...and more. Enjoy!

My affair with IBM

2010-11-06T22:35:00.000-07:00

Four years ago I joined IBM :-) It may not sound like a long time ago to some of you but for a young person in an emerging country like Romania, it is. And I never thought I will make it, which must have helped: seeing your present job as your last one and keeps you doing your best.

So about four years ago, on a Friday I had my last interview with my first manager and while he was writing a note to HR asking them to hire me I got to pick a date when to start. I said 7th...thought it would be a nice anniversary present for my boyfriend and a date easy to remember...my lucky number :-) ( yes, people think at all kind of stuff during interviews:D). So 7th is was, a very cold and rainy day with me not being able to enter the IBM building...I so would have left and went back to bed, but I stayed and the job turned out to be so exciting that I kept coming early every day.
Then my manager left to his home country and I thought that was it. Gotta find a new job, again. But then I realized on my own skin that networking rules, I got an assignment with IBM Germany. Moved to Hannover to talk about our Global Delivery capabilities and had what I thought it was the BEST YEAR...or year and a half of my life. Such a great experience, such nice colleagues and such a nice country to explore during weekends. Danke, Deutschland!

Again I thought that was it, assignment was ending and I didn't have a job in Romania to come back to. But all the people I have worked with, my mentor Chris, my friends at IBM, really made it happen. I got the coolest job ever, then one I had today and I even got to work from Romania at a time when my family was badly needing me. It just couldn't get better :D

But it did, and it did every single day: the job is awesome but the people I work with are more than extraordinary. I enjoy planning& executing all kind of things with them, love connecting with all corners of the world, traveling to so many countries and collaborating in some global programs. Must thank my Liz for this opportunity and the fact that I never felt like I don't want to go to work on a Monday morning :-) (yes it is Sunday 8am now:D).

And it still got better. I have more friends than I could ever hope for (and I'm not talking about +400 Facebook friends). I have been really blessed to meet people who touched my life in all the countries I have been to or have worked with virtually or not, so many nice, brilliant and inspiring people. Friends I have spent vacations with, friends I am planning to take on a tour of my country someday, friends who I hope I will see very very soon :-)

I love the feeling of "it can't get better than this", especially now that I know it will. Can't wait for year #5 and see where this journey will take me!!! Thank you all, dear IBMers!

IBM ranks #1 for social software

2010-07-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

Did you hear that?
IDC just ranked IBM as the worldwide marketshare leader in the Social Platform market based on total software revenue for 2009 . Cool huh?

The IDC report states that worldwide revenue for the social platforms market was $369.7 million in 2009, representing growth of more than 55 percent.

IBM's portfolio of social computing, mashups and Web 2.0 technologies, includes blogs, communities, profiles, activities, shared bookmarks and more.

According to IDC, the social platforms market includes IBM Lotus Connections (which I LOOOOOVE) as well as the cloud based offering, LotusLive Connections.

IBM Lotus Connections is software that empowers business professionals to develop, nurture and remain in contact with a network of their colleagues; respond quickly to business opportunities by calling upon expertise in their network; and discuss and refine new creative ideas with communities of coworkers, partners and customers.

LotusLive Connections is an innovative set of Web-based collaboration services combined with social networking capabilities. LotusLive Connections features include file sharing, business instant messaging, activity management and networking.

Over 35% of Fortune 100 companies have adopted IBM's social software offerings. IBM Lotus Connections clients include Berlitz International Inc., Sogeti, Digital China Holdings Limited, and Rheinmetall AG.

Also check this cool video on THE MAN who should have used Lotus Connections :-)

Proud.

Blue Church

2010-05-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

Something that seemed perfect for this blue blog :-) While in Bratislava Slovakia, I discover this beautiful church: the blue chruch

Let's meet in Web.Alive

2010-04-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

Did you hear about web.alive? Is a very cool platform which easily enables virtual collaboration. And I mean it: easily! For novices: it's a "smaller" version of Second Life (meaning is not that big, no islands, no teleporting and no flying :-)), very easy to access and use and that has very nice features when it comes to uploading presentations, projecting videos, webpages etc. Which is more than Cool!

Ran several events at IBM's Virtual Analytics Center (which you can always visit)and it was great. Even leaders enjoyed who easy it was to enter it, loved the virtual world like aspect, the by default use of VOIP and what else.....me wearing the nice Indian Sari? :-)

Check the video below to see some of the features and how it can be used for brainstorming, learning, meeting or even replacing the traditional team calls ;-)

So what you say? Let me give you a tour and let's meet there ;-)
Let me know here or @silviaemilia in twitter! See you there!

People in Global Delivery

2010-04-21T06:02:00.000-07:00

Was checking some updates and found a cute page. N Was nice to see some colleagues from IBM talking about a career in a Global Delivery Center (GDC) and even nicer to see what they have in common. Even someone from my country, Romania :-)

Sawubona

2010-02-24T05:19:00.001-08:00

I just returned from a very inspiring trip in South Africa, Johannesburg, the gorgeous country as big as all Western Europe and inhabited by almost 40mil people. Must admit I never stayed for a week at any of my delivery centers so I also got more time to spend with the people and enjoy the city.

First I got impressed by the IBM location. You can see it's so green, with a lake, colorful fishes, rare birds and lovely flowers (guess I would work from outside the building all day long :-)). Absolutely the nicest IBM campus I've seen so far.

Second I learned that there is no sense of emergency - JUST NOW actually means SOMETIMES SOON :-) which is pretty cool you must admit.

3: fruits and fruity juices everywhere, for such a fan like me was paradise :-)

4:everything is green in this city, even just a city, you can hear birds singing and see the stars in the night, seemed I was in vacation every evening! Gorgeous place!

5. Went to Rhino& Lion park and saw lots of animals in their natural habitat. Pretty impressive and I enjoyed it very much!

6. Warm people: must admit I was pretty afraid after coming from Amsterdam and thinking Dutch people left their fingertips on Africa :-) but 10.000 miles distance did their job very well. Would like to think that I did make a few new friends!Also loved the fact that everyone has a predecessor somewhere outside South Africa, felt very very multicultural!

7. Ate here a couple of times, pretty nice Italian restaurant www.luigis.co.za. In case you go there DO take the lasagna and the panna cotta :-) Delicious!

8. Last but not least (although I could go on forever), a vibrant city expecting the Football World Cup. What else can I say: GOOOO BRAZIIIIIILLLL !

A Decade of Smarter

2010-01-12T23:25:00.000-08:00

Great involvement from IBM's CEO, Sam Palmisano, addressing business and civic leaders at Chatham House in London this week. He described how forward-thinking leaders in business, government and civil society around the world are capturing the potential of smarter systems to achieve economic growth, near-term efficiency, sustainable development and societal progress. Read more here

Back from Cairo

2009-12-15T05:06:00.000-08:00

Went to Egypt last week to help around cooms IBM's delivery centers. Won't talk too much about it as there are other ways to update you ;-) First the business part:

Second the fun side of work:

Surely will go back!

Blue Brno

2009-11-12T05:48:00.000-08:00

This week I was in Brno, Czech Republic to work around comms, meet the people and of course run some cool activities :-) If you don't know yet, in the old and beautiful city of Brno, IBM has a huuuuuge Integrated Delivery Center (IDC) with about 3000 people coming from all over the world and speaking all kinds of foreign languages. Absolutely amazing!

So meeting people from Portugal, India, Poland, Germany and even my own Romania was super fun! Recording them for a video even more fun! And as a small proof that we could rebrand the city in IBM Brno, I took this picture :-)
Even the tram has IBM on it! Love it there, will definitely come back ;-)
Til later,
@SilviaEmilia

Super Halloween Festival in Second Life

2009-10-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

And the great news :-)

Starting with the 29th of October (THIS THURSDAY) and ending on the 31st we'll host the greatest, biggest, most funny & spooky Halloween Party in Second Life. Colleagues from all over the world can pick their most suitable time zone and join us. Friends of IBMers, students, partners and families are more than welcomed :-) We'll have live music and costumes contests, give candy bars and take you for a trick or treat. Graveyard, huge pumpkins, ghosts and candles are already in place, so feel free to check them!

Are you new to Second Life?
Don't worry.Just download SL, install it and create an avatar www.secondlife.com. Then we can all meet at one of IBM's islands ALMADEN (copy and paste this link in your browser) :http://slurl.com/secondlife/Almaden/70/129/26

Of course if you have problems teleporting you can always ping me - ANTHI ARIDA (<<< that's me in Morticia's dress :-)).
Looking forward to seeing you there and give you some cool masks :-)

On Escalation

2009-10-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

Recently I discovered this great blog written by Nigel Dessau -Chief Marketing Officer at AMD. The blog is called 3minutementor and has very very good tips on preparing for an interview, assignments and all the possible things you could ask a mentor. And of course all the answers come through 3minutes videos. Pretty cool!

What I really found useful for all the professionals out there was the video on escalations, how we escalate, who/ what, when and why. A brilliant video I must admit! I think it shows that all the people who see escalation as something mandatory, person related and as a great weapon are absolutely wrong (maybe we do that cause we have a Latin origin? :-)).

Escalations can be avoided and we must try avoiding it by discussing about it, trying to convince the person to do a job in a different way and most important if we proceed with it, then we be sure the person will be informed in advance. After all the purpose is not to make someone feel miserable but to get a job done. Then we don't escalate PEOPLE but PROCESSES, TASKS, etc. So before you write a bad email or make the call, think about what upset you and if there is really a need for escalating this. Ask for advice: escalations are not about punishing someone but about finding a solution. Check the video below for more tips. Really hope to see less silly&personal escalations and people focusing on facts and goals.

Blue and the 220 orphans

2009-09-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

When I joined IBM the center in Eastern Europe was in a set up phase: new building, new people, great plans. One of the first things we tried to make happen however was to find a social project that would be the most suitable for us and make a bigger difference. So we asked employees to let us know if they know any organization, community or project who would need our help. About 2 days after we have been told about a village named Valea Plopului. It seems it was the same place I was running into when searching in google for "social project", but under a different name.

It is a magnificent place where a priest takes care and supports about 220 orphans. A big initiative, many hopes, lots of help needed and many many kids. A few of us drove there to see how it is, what they need, where do the kids live and meet Father Tanase. And then it all started.
You can read all about it and see some pics on the web page I created for them www.valeaplopului.com

There are contacts, maps in case you would like to visit the kids and play with them and even bank accounts if you would like to help them out with a small donation. There are also many foreigners coming by so don't be afraid to pay them a visit even if you don't speak the language, they are used to and like it.

Now that I am back in Romania will also restart visiting them and hopefully will have my first trip in November. In case you would like to participate let me know :-) Just comment here or on the FORUM or even on the Facebook page I created for them. See you around!

My Smarter Planet

2009-09-21T03:38:00.000-07:00

This year IBM launched what I personally consider the best campaign we ever made. Maybe because it's not just a campaign but a call to change the way we live, work, build, think, travel and more. We called it the Smarter Planet and you can read all about it here. You can learn about how we can make our cities smarter, how IBM helps local agencies to create a better infrastructure, or how we help patients by tracking their responses to new medication through smart pills that alert doctors via sms. And even more you can share your thoughts on better education, food, banking, energy, retail and discover the new intelligence and how analytics can change the way we understand information.

As I told you it's just HUGE! And because it's soooo huge IBM asked for all its business partners, local governments, companies and employees to participate in it, share ideas, tell people about it, make friends and family aware and finally take action! We have many tumbles, tweets, blogs and many resources dedicated to explaining what INTERCONNECTED, INSTRUMENTED and INTELLIGENT mean (the 3 aspects of smarter planet), so I'll let you discover them :-)

Meanwhile that's my Romanian tumblr: PlanetaDesteapta (RO for Smarter Planet), a place where I share my tips on things that are really smart and could help us have a better life.

The day my IQ got blue

2009-09-15T03:21:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest things about IBM are actually 3 :-) We encourage collaboration and networking, we promote and use social software and we allow people to do that at work also as it's a MUST for being productive, building our skills and reaching out to people as fast as we can ;-) And yes, we tell the same to our clients and help them with creating and providing them platforms like Lotus Connections.

Now while many companies still wonder if they should allow employees to use Facebook at work or if Twitter helps or not, IBM not only allows employees to experiment around social software but also encourages employees and teaches them how to make the best of it.

If you start being active in the virtual environment you will notice there are many IBMers doing the same as you: some promoting a product, a service, some evangelizing about virtual worlds, some building communities or collecting funds for women in need, some keeping us updated with cool news, some telling us about their blooming ideas and so on. There is no other feeling like contributing to something asbig as changing the way you work and your world!
And through this cool network, you'll often see a #blueiq. It's not because we are in a strange cult :-) but because we are part of a community aiming to help everyone connect, understand social software,use it and share our new skills with our teams. There is no better way of "teaching" social software as using it and showing people what it can do. We support HR, Communications, Sales, Marketing , Delivery teams, new hires or Managers with making themselves heard,building their own team of experts....and more.

And we are proud of it :-) I remember the day I met @elsua, @ragtag, @andypiper, @kafkaspice, @rawn, @laurisa and more in Berlin. Was one of my best IBM experiences so far. Meeting the knights who were fighting for the same goal: making the blue giant more social ;-)

I am sure you want to belong to a community just like mine :-) If there is one in your company then join it! If not, starting building it! And if you are in IBM, say HI!

@silviaemilia

SAPIR is blue

2009-09-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

So no, I didn't mean sapphire :-) but SAPIR one of the coolest applications invented lately. Thought I should add it to the blog as IBM Research contributed to developing it also.

Now imagine you are on that show...The Amazing Race, and you are given a picture of an artifact and are asked to locate it in the unknown city. Of course teams will start asking people around (who may not speak your language) get detoured and start yelling at each other because they forgot to rotate the picture before trying to find the object :-) What if they would scan the picture and have a cool search engine on their phone recognizing it and telling them exactly where that is? And that the engine could do that without ever seeing the picture....I know I would love to use it as a tourist :-)

Building your career remotely

2009-09-11T04:37:00.000-07:00

Gosh I am productive today :-) Somehow there are lots of things that don't fit on the happymaking blog but are a great match for this one.

I am sure many of you work for a big company and not at their regional headquarters. Now what can you possibly do to end up working where you wish?

1. Ask to relocate - but WHOM? and why would they pick you? After all there are good and skilled people in all departments. So you'll need to identify some special skills you have and try to sell them.
2. Contact people, build your network both in your business unit, in your area of expertise, country but also outside.
3. Get a mentor! or mentors. I say that having a good mentor makes more than 100 well written books about resumes, career and work. Your mentor can be from inside or outside the company, work in the same area or another one and most important don't see your collaboration as a everlasting relationship. And don't get me wrong, this is the ideal case but imagine that you can have a mentor to guide you through a project, one to help you when you need to make THE CHOICE, one to help you build a certain skill. A mentor is not like your life partner, so don't be shy and if you feel like having more ask them ;-) Luckily I have the perfect one but I won't share him :-)
4. Talk to your manager about your career or at least keep him informed about your plans.Who knows, they may really know about openings.
5. Build your brand! the "I" brand is the most important brand in the world and when you work remotely, your reputation is your one and only asset. You may not even have the chance to have a face to face interview and you do want to make it through the screening. It's always good when people know your name before you apply for their opening :-) But how can they hear about you?
6. First the projects: there is always something to do and not enough people to actually do it. So be a volunteer, give ideas, execute, involve others, do your best and add the results and references to your resume ;-)

7. Second the social software: blog, comment on blogs, twitter, have good profiles on facebook, linked.in, your company's intranet, participate at wikis, post in forums, create communities, join communities, etc. After all, if you are here and they are there you need an environment to "meet" your future manager. This will also help develop a very natural conversation during your first interview. "Your blog is hilarious", "great pictures", "love your opinions" are just some phrases you may hear ;-)
8. Ask people to recommend you. If you did a good job they will be more than happy to give something back as sending an email is the easiest thing to do.
9. So you did the work, made yourself heard, got out there, have 10 people referencing for you and will have the interview. Was that it? NO
10. Internal interviews are INTERVIEWS. Of course there may be exceptions but not all of us drank "lucky milk" when we were little. Don't take the call if you are not ready. Don't enter that door if you know you have no idea about that job. Although it's an internal position that doesn't mean that your future manager can afford to have a very poor performance from you. Learn about the position, about what's required from you, discuss with the person who was in that position before you, talk to other people who worked with your future manager and find out what is requested from the reportees, learn about the business in case it will be a new one, etc. Don't be passive and don't behave like you already have the job.

Guess that was it...and make a nice resume, after all even if you work for the same company that doesn't mean your future manager can know everything about you. And even so you would like to have it said your way ;-) Have a nice weekend!

IBM Deutschland

2009-09-11T00:22:00.001-07:00

I only left IBM Germany about 40 days ago and somehow I really miss it. After spending the last 18 months there I somehow feel strongly connected to those places and the country. There are about 40 IBM locations in Germany and about 20k IBMers so pretty huge. I was located in Hanover which one of the oldest locations in Germany. Imagine they were having a factory here and some of the first computers in Europe left this building. Now I won't talk about the food, the people and my life there but about a day that really left a living memory in my heart.
It happened during my last day when I discovered that the piece of stone outside the building was part of the Berlin Wall. Felt like a loop in time. Pretty impressive :-) It seems that IBM bought and placed pieces of the Berlin Wall in front of all the location it owns in Germany as an essential mark in their history: the moment of freedom. Guess you didn't know that ;-) ?
Bis bald!

Cool IBMers :-)

2009-09-10T23:15:00.000-07:00

There are sooo many cool IBMers out there that you really can't imagine. So many of them play in a band, won Nobel prizes, have unbelievable hobbies or are social media savvy :-) Of course I don't know all of them but I like to think that I know a few. In case you want to check some of their blogs and connect with them, here they are:

Andy Piper - my recent sibling, also has the lovely habit of podcasting your tags so watch out
Karl Roche - the disruptive communicator
Adam Christensen- besides leading our social media initiatives he also loves hotdogs...a lot :-)
Jasmin Tragas - aka Wonderwebby. Besides social media she is a great supporter of CSR activities. Make sure you connect with her especially if you are in Australia.
Jean-Francois Arseneault writes about his life in technical sales. He's in Canada
Luis Suarez- this guy is like super famous :-) so in case you already know about his plans to kill the email, you can learn about how he leads the BlueIQ Ambassadors and plans to change the future of collaboration ;-)
Rebeca Reyes- one of our coolest intranet editors, among others ;-)
Jack Mason - the guy behind some nice social media strategic initiatives like the cool smarter planet tumblr
Sandy Carter - saved the VP for the last :-) Sandy is the perfect example that social media is not just a hobby for young employees but the future of work, communication and business itself. One of the first vice presidents who embraced it, support it and actively promote it ;-)

Ok there would be some 30 more I would like to mention here but somehow I think it would make your homework of checking their blogs last too long. And one last guy, cause I really love this :-) - here is the house that tweets , of course made by an IBMer @andysc. Enjoy!

Ponder This

2009-09-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

There is so much I am planning to write on this blog but somehow I need to work on the structure.

Meanwhile I have chosen the PonderThis challenge because there are some Romanians involved :-) So here we go: each month our great mathematicians from Research post a problem which can be solved by anyone in this world (yeyyyy) You only have to go here and submit your solution :-)
I shared this link a couple of months ago with some friends in Bucharest and they liked it so much that plan to become the next puzzlemasters ;-)

My congratulations to Razvan Gheorghita, Andrei Laza and the other Romanians on the list! How about you? Be the next math super star ;-)

The first IBMer

2009-09-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

How many of you still remember the first IBMer you have seen? Or the first person you met when you joined your current employer? Do you? I know I do. As a matter of fact here she is: Alina Popescu. The first IBMer I've ever seen and one of the prettiest, smartest, kindest and helpful ones. She is everything I thought IBM will be: an adventure, a place where if you are perseverent and ambitious enough you can really make a difference, a risk worth taking. And I don't mean risk in a bad way, but you must admit it takes lot of courage to join a huge company and to challenge yourself to make it to the top.

But back to Alina, we had a perfect first interview, she asking me her HR questions (my weaknesses, my strengths, why IBM, etc) and me answering like a brave student that I was. There were so many things I wanted to ask her, so many answers I couldn't find with google, but somehow time was up. And then I left and almost cried on my way to the subway station as I was wearing such evil shoes. Another interview followed (with my first IBM Manager) and in time many others and I always see her face during the interviews, telling me about career, about a fast growing company, about chances and about the IBMer.

Today we are friends and collaborate on various projects and hope I'll also manage to see her again someday. She is still the same IBMer I met, the same passionate, intelligent and cooperating person. I wish you would all be that fortunate when having your first interview or register the same positive result when sending your recruiter in action. And yes, in case you don't remember your recruiter you should ask your employer to pay HR a visit ;-) Welcome to IBM!

PS: @Alina, you didn't see this coming, did u? At least I didn't add a biiiig picture of you:-)

Konnichiwa

2009-09-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

Another blog in my life :-) So after sending out a poll yesterday asking friends if I should start another blog where I could write about my life at IBM, the people, the passion, the wonderful journey and its challenges, we finally have our output today. It's not in Romanian as I just couldn't be that egoistic and keep it in a language that is understood only by few of us. And I must confess, I've been writing and speaking in German and English for the past 7 years, so it somehow felt more natural, not to mention that the best way to talk IBM is English :-) The last argument would be that I do have many friends abroad and after getting this job my audience started to spawn across a few more countries.

So what would I post here? As you may know I do talk a lot on twitter (@silviaemilia), post many stuff on Facebook and the happymaking blog, and some other places. But will try to aggregate my ideas and feed this place with valuable information for IT savvy people, graduates trying to step in the spotlight, marcom professionals looking for inspiration, creative people, fans of virtual worlds, ex and present IBMers and of course IBM fans ;-)

To keep it short. If you're after a job @IBM Romania go here ibm.com/start/ro . Also if you have questions regarding your application don't bring them here, just send HR an email at recruitment.gd@ro.ibm They will be more than thrilled to hear from you :-) Then, we won't focus on making people happy here...cause we have the happymaking blog for that :-) Also I hoping to connect to some more Romanian bloggers and organize some cool events around Bucharest...and we'll see :-) one step at a time.

To close up this introduction here is the first blue image, yeah the happymaker went blue ;-)
PS: and in case you missed the disclaimer, these opinions belong to me only, and not to IBM.