“Apply Yourself”

If some of you are wondering why I haven’t been posting very frequently, it is because we have moved largely into examining applications.  Some TCs have special lectures dealing with specific technologies or topics, but we aren’t doing any large lecture work.

We are not technically “on production,” yet.  At least for this next two weeks, we’re just working on applications and learning the mechanics of the job.   Sitting down and working on an application is, obviously, a lot different from just hearing about the process in lecture.  It is easy to keep little details in mind the day of the lecture and quiz, but much more difficult to recall all of that while working through an application and trying not to waste time.

Now, different labs have different levels of experience, at this point.  Some labs have placed little emphasis on progressing beyond reading and understanding one’s first application.  Others have been working on them for weeks, and have already produced office actions.  Since there is some schedule flexibility for the trainers to play with, variability is to be expected.

After two weeks, we go on something akin to production.  That is, we’ll still be spending the majority of our time working on applications, and we will be expected to show improvement as we go forward for the next six months or so.

I’ll try to update with details more frequently.  As always, thank you for reading.

~Relativity