The infrequency of updates in this blog has crept up to the standards of Aamir Khan movies. There is a lot to write about, but the busy routine of idling around and sleeping takes away all the time. There is a blogging spree around the corner, but before that, let me just write one about the recent turnarounds.
So, after the highly enlightening engineering course, (ie, B tech in er.. what was it? Fashion designing? Whatever. Oh, electronics, it was. Anyways, both are highly inter related no?) I prepared and wrote CAT. Quite unfortunately, I couldn't attend my IIM L and IIM K interviews, only because I didn't get an interview call from both of those institutes, very much like the rest of the IIMs also. Almost joined Mudra Institute of communications Ahmedabad, but it didn't work out in the end. I would say, the whole MBA thing got a little too much 'the greatest football player in the world' in the end. Now when I say that all I meant was it got a liitle messy, you would probably want to strangle me, or smack your own head on the wall. I strongly suggest the second option. The unexpected series of events forced me to join for a job. And yea, after my highly commendable efforts in engineering, my parents thought that it was no more a good idea to invest money in my education. Fair enough. So I landed up in the office where I am working now. But not as simple as that.
Getting employed as a software engineer is not easy. First, you have to clear an objective type exam which is, specially designed to check whether you can stare into a computer screen for a fair amount of time, and click on random options, without starting to play solitaire, or browsing the web. That is a little tough, but if you have attended atleast 50% of your engineering lectures, you probably are capable of even watching a race between tortoises, without getting bored. Once you clear that test, you get to attend technical and HR interviews. Now, that's a complicated process. But let me simplify it for you, with an example. Have you seen any of the mutual fund TV advertises? The interview process is very much similar to that. In the advertise, they try to convince you that the best possible way to invest money is their mutual funds. After the ad, they read a statement, as fast as a human being can possibly read. Nobody understands a single word. Not even Rajnikanth. But still, everybody knows what it was all about. If you invest in their mutual funds and lose money, they will not be responsible. Even though totally pointless, it's not possible to avoid that statement in the end of the ad. In the interview, the panel asks you programming questions. You are supposed to answer, or in some cases, write down, the programs that you have learned byheart, the previous night. They might also ask you questions like, 'Why you want to work for this particular company' etc. and you are supposed to praise the company as much as you can. If you are as over promising and under delivering as me, you might also have read the wikipedia page of your company, and might have plenty of facts and figures to state. The whole process is pointless, you know that, the panel knows that. But that's the way things are. It just can't be avoided.
Getting through the whole process was a wonderful experience. Employed with a software MNC. Looks good on my profile. Marriage profile, of course. I felt that I have also got into this elite group of Information Technology people. But soon enough, I started to realize that nine out of ten people I see in Chennai are working in IT companies. Take a stone and throw it in a random direction, it will surely hit a software engineer. There were even rumors that IT companies have started to recruit stray dogs and cattle, after running out of people. I heard this very, very scary story, last week. A software engineer threw a stone at a stray dog, and that dog, later turned out to be his project manager. Shudder.
After I got selected, I had to undergo an online training process. It's objectives were like, to prepare us for the highly competitive work environment and equip ourselves with the essential software technologies. In my case, it served the purpose. After the training, I found myself being well versed with java. I had this profound insight that 'Marjawa' and 'Mitjawa' have actually nothing to do with Java, and the song writer wasn't actually describing his software coding experience, unlike as I thought earlier. I used to be a gifted one, with a natural flair for writing bugs. But things got better, later on. My coding skills improved a whole lot, and I learned two languages. Java and Tamil. Tamil, I can understand while java I can read and speak. That's good enough, I guess.
The only complaint that I have about the office is that I am not allowed to use any browser other than internet explorer. I used to think that IE was only for downloading Firefox.
Jokes apart, office life is so far, so good. Not that I am contented. But still, I am happy with the numerous possibilies that life is offering, at the moment. I have made some good friends and have had a few fun moments. Financial independence feels really nice. Wanderlust is taking over, so some weekend travelling will happen, soon. Looking forward to that. ;-)
So, after the highly enlightening engineering course, (ie, B tech in er.. what was it? Fashion designing? Whatever. Oh, electronics, it was. Anyways, both are highly inter related no?) I prepared and wrote CAT. Quite unfortunately, I couldn't attend my IIM L and IIM K interviews, only because I didn't get an interview call from both of those institutes, very much like the rest of the IIMs also. Almost joined Mudra Institute of communications Ahmedabad, but it didn't work out in the end. I would say, the whole MBA thing got a little too much 'the greatest football player in the world' in the end. Now when I say that all I meant was it got a liitle messy, you would probably want to strangle me, or smack your own head on the wall. I strongly suggest the second option. The unexpected series of events forced me to join for a job. And yea, after my highly commendable efforts in engineering, my parents thought that it was no more a good idea to invest money in my education. Fair enough. So I landed up in the office where I am working now. But not as simple as that.
Getting employed as a software engineer is not easy. First, you have to clear an objective type exam which is, specially designed to check whether you can stare into a computer screen for a fair amount of time, and click on random options, without starting to play solitaire, or browsing the web. That is a little tough, but if you have attended atleast 50% of your engineering lectures, you probably are capable of even watching a race between tortoises, without getting bored. Once you clear that test, you get to attend technical and HR interviews. Now, that's a complicated process. But let me simplify it for you, with an example. Have you seen any of the mutual fund TV advertises? The interview process is very much similar to that. In the advertise, they try to convince you that the best possible way to invest money is their mutual funds. After the ad, they read a statement, as fast as a human being can possibly read. Nobody understands a single word. Not even Rajnikanth. But still, everybody knows what it was all about. If you invest in their mutual funds and lose money, they will not be responsible. Even though totally pointless, it's not possible to avoid that statement in the end of the ad. In the interview, the panel asks you programming questions. You are supposed to answer, or in some cases, write down, the programs that you have learned byheart, the previous night. They might also ask you questions like, 'Why you want to work for this particular company' etc. and you are supposed to praise the company as much as you can. If you are as over promising and under delivering as me, you might also have read the wikipedia page of your company, and might have plenty of facts and figures to state. The whole process is pointless, you know that, the panel knows that. But that's the way things are. It just can't be avoided.
Getting through the whole process was a wonderful experience. Employed with a software MNC. Looks good on my profile. Marriage profile, of course. I felt that I have also got into this elite group of Information Technology people. But soon enough, I started to realize that nine out of ten people I see in Chennai are working in IT companies. Take a stone and throw it in a random direction, it will surely hit a software engineer. There were even rumors that IT companies have started to recruit stray dogs and cattle, after running out of people. I heard this very, very scary story, last week. A software engineer threw a stone at a stray dog, and that dog, later turned out to be his project manager. Shudder.
After I got selected, I had to undergo an online training process. It's objectives were like, to prepare us for the highly competitive work environment and equip ourselves with the essential software technologies. In my case, it served the purpose. After the training, I found myself being well versed with java. I had this profound insight that 'Marjawa' and 'Mitjawa' have actually nothing to do with Java, and the song writer wasn't actually describing his software coding experience, unlike as I thought earlier. I used to be a gifted one, with a natural flair for writing bugs. But things got better, later on. My coding skills improved a whole lot, and I learned two languages. Java and Tamil. Tamil, I can understand while java I can read and speak. That's good enough, I guess.
The only complaint that I have about the office is that I am not allowed to use any browser other than internet explorer. I used to think that IE was only for downloading Firefox.
Jokes apart, office life is so far, so good. Not that I am contented. But still, I am happy with the numerous possibilies that life is offering, at the moment. I have made some good friends and have had a few fun moments. Financial independence feels really nice. Wanderlust is taking over, so some weekend travelling will happen, soon. Looking forward to that. ;-)
