Thursday, March 30, 2006

Software engineer and Indian Politics

As TN election is nearing, situation is becoming HOT in TN. I was chatting with my friend who is doing his MS in germany. He is bit curious to know about the happenings in TN. I told him about the "balti"(/somersault? ;-)) of vaiko. We were discussing how shitty the politics is.

Actually, I did not find much difference between politics and our corporate life.

I can tell many of the incidents that happens in day-to-day life of a soft engineer, (which can be easily correlated to politics).

00) during interviews: HR asks, "why do you want to join our company?" (this is mostly posted to freshers). then the candidate will start saying that "i have gone through your company website, and i found my frequency of thoughts are inline with the goals of the company"... or some crap like this. everyone knows what that guy will do after a year. put his papers....

01) the most funny part is: guys coming back to the same company. in exit interviews, the same HR will ask, "why do you want to leave our company?".. and the candidate says , "the pay is not good, i do not foresee, much growth in this org." etc.. I know many guys returned back to the same organization working in some other company for 6 or more months.. the corporates accept those candidates, also. the worst part is, the package will be more than what he would have got if he has continued his career...

10) Non-co-operative movement (as what Gandhi Ji did). happens particularly between the US team and the indian counterparts.

10) heights of politics in giving promotions, salary hikes, US trips, etc..

I do not see differences between a software engineer life and politics.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Joy of working in a small company!

It has been 15 months since I joined this networking company, a Santa clara based. The company as such is a small one, and we were claiming ourselves to be pioneer in metro-ethernet.

Now, it has got acquired by a Telecom giant and a fortune 500. Going back to a huge organization, again. I felt really great and happy working in the small company. Besides some minor disadvantages, I have seen lots of advantages. a few are:

a) clear visibility to the top management.
b) great responsibilities on my shoulders! believe me, I was responsible for three components, and I did significant contribution on all.
c) flat hierarchy and more transparency than bigger companies. (I assume, this would be the case in all the companies).
d) and good work pressue.

and more flexibilities like not wearing badges, going in short pants etc ;-).

the only sad part is no one knows about the company. particularly, it becomes difficult to face relatives. once in my native place, i met one of my relatives.
my mom introduced me to him and she said I work in bangalore. and my relative immediately asked, "oh, are you working in wipro?"... (I dont know how people conclude that Wipro is the only company in bangalore, or is it that his sone is working in wipro?). I said "no, but in Company X". he asked, (just like that), how much you would be drawing, around 50K? First I was shocked to hear the way he asked and also about the figures.. later, I told I am drawing some decent salary, which is more than sufficient for my daily needs... his face became red...

anyways, I love working in small companies, not sure whether I will get a chance in future! Happy working.