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Intel Life beyond the Cube: Music

VB4
Employee
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A bit more than nine years of my Intel career, I spent working in Russian offices: in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. When I joined the company more than 11 years ago now, I remember that my cube was near the Staffing area, where young guys and girls, the students of Nizhny Novgorod Linguistic University and Intel interns, were acquiring their first experiences working in a large multinational company. As I was a bit younger at that time too, no wonder we made friends with many of them. And it was before I celebrated the end of my first month at Intel, I found that one of my co-workers was a frontman (and the author) of a popular local music group. We’re still friends (although he doesn’t work for Intel anymore), but I still remember how surprised and astonished I was by the talents of some Intel employees.

Several years later, when I was reviewing the office re-fit project plans as the site manager, we had a hot discussion as to whether we need a set of musical instruments for our “recreation room” – a room where the employees can spend their breaks doing different things – reading, playing videos, enjoying board games, etc. Some said that a drum set, a pair of guitars, a bass and a synthesizer would equate to being awfully  loud “neighbours” for the office cubes. Then we decided that we’ll add a set of good quality studio headphones, to let our programmers, finance analysts, IT system admins and managers – our musicians – practice without interfering with the daily work of their co-workers. We helped employees feel that at Intel we value their personal interests and would support their development, even if it wasn’t directly related to their primary jobs. And successful people are great employees – so this is absolutely an appropriate investment, too.

This is just one example of many “non-core” activities, where Intel actively supports our employees. If you’re interested in knowing more, please indicate it in the comments, and I’ll try to find you examples of other talents.
About the Author
Vladimir was born in 1977 in Zhukovsky, near Moscow, graduated from Moscow Aviation Institute receiving Master’s degree in Computers in 2000. He started his career in IT in 1991 as a assistant in the compute lab of Tupolev Aircraft Design Bureau. Before joining Intel in 2003 Vladimir held several IT jobs in different companies (ranging from Education to Investment Banking verticals), beginning as a programmer and reaching Deputy Head of IT and Project Manager positions. At Intel he started as IT Construction Project Manager, supporting Intel R&D growth in Russia then transitioned to Site IT Manager for 3 biggest Russian sites in Nizhny Novgorod, Sarov and Moscow, then he joined IT@Intel Program, supporting European Enterprise sales team & Marketing . For over 4 years, from 2007 till 2012, Vladimir was working as General Manager for Intel branch in Nizhny Novgorod. He was responsible for running the operations of the oldest and biggest Intel site in Russia, supporting its continued growth. Since 2012 Vladimir is working as the Risk & Controls Program Manager for Greater Europe Region. Vladimir’s hobbies include teaching (he delivers over 150 hours of trainings at Intel annually), motor sports (rally racing), rollerblading and reading modern literature & classics.