Innovation + Technology = AT&T

Hi, its me again. This time I am going to write about my work in AT&T.

I work as a SharePoint developer, and my task assignment is to troubleshoot the current
SharePoint server and develop new features to enhance the service. I am very happy to join my
department in AT&T, these guys are smart, well oriented, and creative.

Our AT&T center is a branch office of San Ramon,
which fulfills a huge area in the city. The building itself is amazingly big (About 2700 employees working in it), and it is consisted of 4 intersected buildings (they call them "wings"), with a very large circular cafeteria. The overall area is surrounded with water and trees except the areas of 4 car parks, this place provides a shelter for many goose birds, giving it a unique combination
between nature and civilization.

Sillicon Valley

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have just landed at San Francisco International airport” that was like a dream came true, being for the first time in the united states and heading directly to the Silicon Valley where all giant companies, business expertise and technology leaders are, meeting all the IT experts, professionals and businessmen who saved no effort to transfer knowledge which hopefully will be transferred to Iraq afterwords.

Professional development day takes place on Wednesdays, where professors from UC Berkley demonstrate the different aspects of business models as well as how to understand market needs and venture goals of the finest technology companies in the Silicon Valley.

It's my point of view, that the most interesting part so far was how to deal with a startup company in terms of funds, office space, venture capital, time, staff .. etc. Entrepreneurship terminology was absolutely rich as well.

ME & US

Hello every one, I am Aram from Erbil-Kurdistan-Iraq, I am the only Kurdish guy in this IT Intern program, I am Software Engineer, I graduated in 2009, and now I am teaching in the same college as Assistant Teacher, if you want to know about me more, please just click at my name in the right side menu, then you can find more info about me. and if you want to know even more, please feel free and just say: Hello!

International House, is the place where me and two other interns sleep at, it is a place which people from all around the world come to there, so I met many different kind of people, for example ( India, China, Japan, France, Germany, Finland, …etc ) so you discover many kind of new cultural, it is amazing, thats why it called: International House!

Now I am working for American company called Engine Yard, they are software developer, they work with Programs, Databases, Websites, Hosting, …etc, the people here in the company are very friendly, in the first weekend i went out with them, we went to see the iMAX movie about HUBBLE telescope, and also we went to the telescope store, and I bought one, " which was my dream " also I planed for that before I came, that day was the most amazing day since I am in US until Now!

Engine Yard, gave me a project, and I should complete it before I came back to Iraq, the project is about " Ad Server ", it is a website, which I will owen it, after I finish it, the language that I am working on it, it is Ruby on Rails, I really loved the project and the new language as well, it is all interesting. and after all when I finish here I just want to say: thanks Engine Yard!

Golden gate park trip

Hi all, at first for those who don't know me I am Mustafa Jasim Tuama computer engineer from Nassiriyah city one of the Iraqi interns working for square company in San Francisco. I want to speak today about our trip to the golden gate park. It was amazing place its just like a part from the heaven. I went to the golden gate park with my friends Ibrahim, Mahmood and Wael and Wael in the last because he used to say I am the youngest between them. And we met a lot of girls who fall in love with us , No I am just kidding it will be more fun if that happened but at all it was so amazing and we had fun over there.

Mahmood greets you

My greeting to all, my name Mahmood Algburi one of the Iraqi IT interns , i'm very happy to be here with the second group. I always looked forward for an opportunity to develop my skills in the IT field , now with the help of AED and US embassy in Baghdad my dream came true.

During my first three weeks in America I learned a lot. The first week involved an orientation program and was a nice opportunity as a cultural exchange and we had a tour in San Francisco and some tourist places.

Me and Ibraheem are working with AT&T company. It's big family there, where everybody in it is friendly. We really liked to work with them as a team and everyday we get new experiences.

Each one of us has different dreams and aspirations but we all look forward to gain experience and considerable skills especially in the field of Information Technology.

At the end of my words, I want to thank AED and the US embassy in baghdad and everyone who helped me .

A very big thank you!

Greeting to the dear readers,

I am Ibraheem AlSheikh Ahmed and I would like express a bit about my feelings here as one of the 7 Iraqi IT interns. This is my first trip to the United States and I enjoyed the experience of living and working with nice people. Starting from the minute I landed in Detroit airport, I witnessed how people are kind in this country. Later When I and my friend Mahmood joined AT&T (the giant telecommunication company) I enjoyed being a part of a very big family. The high morality and the hard work are the two important aspects of life here, and I think I am going to learn from people here, and increase my skills and experince whether in the IT field or in the life field. All of the above could not become true without the strong efforts from the AED and the US embassy in Baghdad. So, a very big thank you for the AED, the embassy, and for AT&T for this opportunity.

Kindly keep up with this blog as my next post will be about my internship in the amazing empire of AT&T.

Hello World!

Authors often prefer a step-by-step style to write about programming languages, and they usually start by a "Hello World!" example, so I decided to make it the title of my first blog post in America, because I indeed am experiencing this world for the first time!.

I should start by introducing myself, I am Wael Wajeeh Al-Sallami, a 22 years old guy with a BS in Computer Science, I'm the youngest intern in the Iraq IT interns program and I work with Square, a young company that was started last year by Jack Dorsey, a brilliant entrepreneur who has also started the well known "twitter" four years ago.

Since my arrival here to the US, I've experienced a lot of things, many of which I liked very much and felt lucky to be a part of, the orientation week was wonderful and our supervisor Ms. Meredith Gavilan was nothing but kind and helpful to us, providing guidance to me and the other interns so we can get the best out of the experience, and Ms. Julia De Souza was of great value as well.

After the orientation week, four of us had to leave UC Berkeley's International House where we all used to live together, and there were only three of us left living in the i-House, however I felt lucky to be one of those three due to the wonderful cultural experience one could get from living with people from all around the world.

We - me and Mustafa - started working for Square and it turned out to be one of the best things I have experienced here, it is a small company with a limited number of employees, many of which are now good friends of mine.
Everyone in Square is friendly, in fact so friendly that they invited us to a party before we even started working for them.
I feel so privileged to be a part of this company, to be working with such brilliant minds and great characters, and to be in a "start up" company, which gives me the opportunity to closely observe how new companies evolve, what difficulties they face, and how amazing solutions are constructed, both on the technical and the business scales, which is pretty much what this program is about.

Now After roughly two weeks of working for Square, I feel more confident that this experience is going to be one of the most joyful yet educational ones in my life, and I owe the credit to AED and the US Embassy in Baghdad.

I feel I have said enough for today, but I will be updating this blog on regular bases, so please keep visiting this blog to get the latest updates from me and all the other six interns.

Wael