Graduating

D O N E. That was the full text of one of many of my recent gchat statuses. What it means is moving forward. Assuming I pass all my classes this semester (failing doesnt seem even remotely possible) I am now a University of Illinois Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate and alumni I guess. Thanks to some good guidance by my father to take a few college classes during my Senior year of high school I was able to graduate college in 3.5 years which is no small feat for being in the third best ECE college in the nation. I don't think I'll be receiving any awards or have my name in bronze in the main library on campus like my mom but it matters not. I believe I was on the deans list for engineering every semester by my first and think the same will be true for this my last semester. Regardless, I feel I performed respectably.

Overall I had a decently good time. I have a pretty good work ethic and because of such I may have spent a little more time studying than I should have and my fun time was decreased as such. That would be the largest part of the reason I'm so glad it's over. This semester was much better only having 13 hours and having all my lectures done by noon but throughout my college career I've been wanting my evenings back. That's why I'm so glad to be moving on to my enjoyable Qualcomm position.

Qualcomm has a great benefits package and great work environment. I had a great time over the summer at my internship with them mostly thanks to the team with whom I was working. In addition to a great working environment Qualcomm support active social lives too. They have Qgroups which are part of their Qlife program, promoting social interactivity, that are groups of employees that share common interests. Qualcomm provides these groups a bit of money to pursue their interest together as long as they show the company the relevance to their interest. I'm sure QCOM isn't the only company that does this but it definitely is a perk of working for them. After all of that the best thing is that I pick my own hours and have plenty of vacation time. I'll finally get my evenings free and once my wife and I find a house to be our own I can start working on projects again like I loved to do when at my parents.

I'm happy to have it done. It feels good to have the weight of working to position myself in a good career removed. I'm happy about where I've been but even happier about where I'm going.