software engineer

intern

senior software engineer

director

software engineer intern

CME Group

1. A typical day of work for me starts with me at work at 2:30pm, this is because I work second shift.

Once all the second shift engineers arrive, the first shift engineers go over the CR (Computer Room) / Data Center work for that day. We are not allowed to start CR work until 4:35pm which is a half hour after the markets close.

If its a Tuesday all infrastructure engineers on my time have a meeting to discuss any issues, how/when/what any projects coming down the pipeline. This meeting is new because my previous manager was let go recently, and the new manager is trying to stream line the work and provide everyone an opportunity to do everything. What this mean is he wants to help ambitious individuals shine, and try and get everyone experience with the different aspects of the job.

After we have going over CR work and meeting if applicable, we are assigned tickets by our operational lead. Once we know what he have to do we prep for our work that we can start at 4:35pm. This usually includes re-configuring server hardware, sometimes setting management ports (such as HP ILOs and Dells Idrac), labeling devices and/or patch cords that are to be installed that day.

Sometimes a hardware failure occurs before/after 4:35 and if the troubleshooting does not make it on the official approved CR work for the day. In this case the system administrators will put in an Emergency Change Control via Remedy ticket system which lists out what work needs to be done and what hosts that work affects. This then needs to be approved the the Technology Operations Command Center manager. If it affects many hosts or production environment drastically this ticket will be escalated to a director for approval. 

After work is assigned and prepped, we finish our designated task. This ranged from racking and connection servers/networking gear/etc, escorting vendors for warranty hardware repair, troubleshooting, running and certifying cabling, and removing hardware and connectivity no longer being used.

Once all work is complete, I would start planning my work for the next day. This includes patch adds, hardware install, hardware troubleshooting, and connectivity troubleshooting. 

Once the end of the shift is near (11pm) we close the tickets competed and type up a turnover document that lists everything that was completed that day. Any new hardware failures noticed and any vendors on site are also reported on this daily document. Once complete and the shift is over the turnover is sent to the whole team to aid in communication from 2nd shift to 1st shift.

Lastly I was part of an on-call schedule which meant every 4-6 weeks I was on-call for a week. If anything crashed or failed when the data center wasn't staffed, the on-call person would get that phone call and have to go to the data center if needed. The requested response time (time from phone call to arriving at data center) for this was 1.5 hours.


2. This job has taught me many things. For starters, I had never even seen a Data Center when I was brought in as an intern. Now I have pretty good knowledge of how a data center works. I have also gotten experience checking switch configs for troubleshooting. It has helped grow me into a better team member, and be able to manage my own projects. 

CME is also good at promoting hard workers. I started as an intern in April 2010 and was hired full time in November 2012. Since then I have received one promotion and am on track to be promoted at the end of this year

3. I have been managed by 5 different managers due organizational changes of my department. I was lucky enough that a couple of them were excellent. After working with them for a while, trust would form and they were willing to back me up when suggesting ideas to help projects or work be more efficient. They were also very straight forward and would tell you what they think of you. For me this was always conducive to learning, most feedback was good, but they were not afraid to tell me areas I needed to be stronger which in turn helped me to work on improving myself as I knew where to focus.

4. Some co-workers are great, others are great people but not always great workers. For a period of about a year and half, I was part a Data Center team in which every engineer worked as hard as they could. On top of this we had a great manager would listen to us about issues, and he was not afraid to confront other groups that would make our job harder due to poor planning. With all of these at the same time made the job fantastic. We all understood that if we worked hard and took the time to do things right, it would make all of our jobs easier. They also had a great attention to detail, so if they handed me work that they planned and partially implemented they would thoroughly explain what needed to be done. We all were able to take constructive criticism, so we were consistently improving each other. Also because of our similar work ethics we became good at helping each other with work and be able to work in the same area without bumping into each other. We each had our own strengths and we were always trying to improve each other with strengths.


5. The hardest parts of the job for me was people on my team not working hard. After I was transferred data centers (within the same company) I only worked with one of the hard workers of my previous team. Some individuals on my new team wouldn't do work unless they were specifically told to. So some times this would leave me running around trying to get my work done, and they wouldn't even offer to help. I struggled with this because we are all adults, I shouldn't have to watch over them to make sure they work. My newest manager is helping me overcome this, by teaching me to try motivating the lazier engineers. As he has told me, hopefully this will show them that if we all work hard and with attention to detail, we all make each others job easier. Also it is hard when other it groups within the company sometimes do poor planning, which can lead to us doing the same thing 3 times because changes keep getting made or realized.

6. The things I find most enjoyable is when I am assigned tasks that take a lot of thinking. For example, as a Data Center Engineer, I don't get to write programs usually because we aren't a development group. Once I came up with an idea for a small program that would automatically generate our cable labels, which depending on the amount could take up a half hour possibly even up to two hours. At this point I created a small java program, that would take a report our connection database could generate and strip out all unneeded information. Once that was complete it would created a file with all the information sorted, which you opened in our label printing software. The little program would complete all of this in a few seconds. Another instance I was able to create a small java graphical applet that is used to teach new engineers how fiber taps work. Lastly I like being given the responsibility of a project. I like that it makes me use to mind to try and find the most efficient method possible. I take pride in my work, so to see a project I was responsible go well makes me feel accomplished.

Every corporate environment is expected to have red tape and politics, but the focus was always in making sure I executed my role in supporting staff and management in the best way possible. Without the liberty of the management team enabling my ideas and innovation to be implemented in my role, my development and growth could had been stunted but, I was able to operate out of the box and help to standardize effective process improvement administratively in several areas of the technology division. I have learned many things from my colleagues that promoted this growth professionally and personally. I would definitely say that CME Group takes care of the employees investing in their development. As people grow professionally and personally, the company grows. Change is not always easy but doable if open and flexible.The most enjoyable times were interacting and collaborating with, not just a department, but a team working towards the same goal for the company. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, many were affected by the lay-off.

The morale was low in the group I was in because most people were doing the work of at least two people. Most people on the team had to always have their work phones on them, even during vacation and weekends, so work-life balance was highly skewed towards work. Management did not invest resources into making the existing employees' lives easier, instead adding new team members to work on new projects. Management also did not listen to the tech experts and instead pressured the team into meeting unreasonable deadlines, leading to unnecessary stress and technical debt. Deployment process was led by bigots and was an overcomplicated nightmare, creating a culture of change resistance. Talented individuals were often delegated to menial tasks because they were simply an 'available' resource. The interview was a typical coding interview but most team members were not up to par with the standards of the interview.

The first day I worked on the trading floor I cried. I was taught the basics and was thrown into the shark infested waters of the trading floor. It was sink or swim. I swam. It was such a surreal experience back then. To have to fight your way into the trading pit to get trading cards, fight your way back out, input trades into the system, make sure they where right and keep my brokers positions. All in a days work. I learned to not second guess myself and that I do have a sense of humor. My co-workers are great and nutty (in a good way). The hardest part of the job is not having a good trading day. When things are really slow in the trading pit, but moving in the electronic markets. The most enjoyable part of the job is when at the end of a really big trading day, my brokers come over to me and say "Thank you, job well done."

My typical day
Do a systems check, be it CISCO call manager, Unity voice mail,  or legacy Avaya/NOTREL, MCK, Polycom  video and Lync.
Check the work load for the day.
Installation/building VoIP phones/applications
Handling trouble calls/E-mails (North America, EU, ASIA)
Work on any ongoing projects and coordinate with other areas/vendors during this process if necessary.
Check system traffic CISCO RTMT/PRI.
Help tenants with installations/project management.
Check to see who the on-call person is for the week.

Management was good for the most part.

My Co-workers/team were great,  we always support each other. 

Hardest part of the job: 2:00 AM calls and then having to go to work at 6:00 AM and lack of project priorities.

Most Enjoyable: Problem solving/ providing good customer service

The management service is good. I learned how to deliver inter-office mail, sign & handle packages besides my coatroom duties. Health benefits aren't so good. Because we worked thru a temp agency our days off were pretty limited. Personal & sick days off were not paid for. Only the five vacation days. A typical day at work would normally be busy and the hardest would be slow days or holidays. My most enjoyable part was my co-worker, supervisors and the friends I met over the years.

The call center I work in is a non stop stress environment.  I enjoy being in the mix of the growth and development of the company.  The one thing I learned from CME the most crucial is time management.  I deal with the markets and the traders daily and their time is money.  
My co-workers are more family than co workers.  I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them develop and grow within the CME walls.
The hardest part of the job is the constant state of flux.  You have to be ready to change quickly to grow with the company.  I happen to enjoy that it does not allow for any downtime.  I am a person who prefers to be busy and learning new things.

Technical lead for the Windows XP to Windows 7 upgrades project to Include 4000 desktop and laptop computers. In addition to the upgrade project I am performing day to day desktop support requirements.

• Install, troubleshoot and maintain support of Windows XP and Windows 7 computers including Microsoft Office 2010.
• Use of Altiris software in building of computers and software installations.
• Update and manage daily workflow of customer problems with electronic ticket database program.
• Performs hardware diagnostics and coordinates repairs.
• Blackberry and IPhone activation and support.

Posted all cash to Accounts receivable invoices.  Reconciled Accounts receivable aging reports. Managed an Accounts receivable project that interfaced revenue billing software with bank auto debit software, creating a zero variance factor between the software that in turn reduced auditing hours and increased efficiency.  I learned how to manage a full cycle Accounts receivable department.  Worked extremely well with middle and upper mangement personnel.  Worked well with co-workers.  Spreadsheet development was the hardest part of the job.  The most enjoyable part of the job was producing error free reports on a monthly basis.

The Merc was a great company in terms of gaining work and financial industry experience. However, they treat their employees like terribly! They do not promote internal job advancement. They aren't fair to their AA employees. The only advantage I can say I received at some point was the 100% tuition reimbursement! Other than that they need to fire their entire HR staff! They need to stop allowing nepotism to flow throughout the departments! They need a complete revamp and the merge with CBOT made matters no better! Terrible company to work for! Especially if you're AA. If anyone disagrees it's because they aren't AA and therefore have not had the same experiences.

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