Category: Mind Clutter

Why big IT companies are wrong for you?

Its 2012, startups are making big bucks. You are studying engineering and have dreams of someday coding the next Big thing and when placements happen you happily jump towards the big IT companies who usually come first. Well if being a “rockstar” or a “ninja” is what you crave, then you are going down the wrong path, my friend.

What happens when you join a big company is that they see you as a raw material, ready to be moulded as they desire but you obviously have other plans. Before you know it, you will be branched into streams and your “rockstar” career may just go up in smoke. There is no measurement of aptitude for the job just seemingly random distribution into the various streams. This is the easiest way of tackling with the ‘how to split these people’ problem. Academics play an important role in this filtering. So there you are , getting trained in a technology that is either boring or getting obsolete by the year and your passion for the profession is slowly being sucked out of you. Once you are done with the “training”, you get allotted to sections of the company and your IT career begins.  You normally start being a team member, answering to seniors and initiated into the project. Appraisals happen and your pay increases by a measly amount every year and you dream of going “onsite”. You are no longer a “ninja” and most probably are cozy in this simple life. If thats how you want to end, well my friend, all the best. But if you really want to be somebody step outside the mould, live life, take risks, code a side project, learn what you want, get enlightened, dream big, execute ideas and be honest to yourself. We are all unique, we are not assembled. Today’s freshers are more likely to revolt atleast that’s what i see around me. Attrition rates are quite growing. Consider this, for every 100 new freshers joining , approximately 60-70 experienced people are leaving IT companies. This results in a vacuum of middle leadership and thats why companies recruit all year long. Most people leave because they are unhappy at their current job. In a recent survey conducted by Karthik, the results seem to confirm what we already deduced. 25% every morning, don’t look forward to go to work. 34% feel their work is mundane, and not challenging. 20% feel that there is no clarity in the work and process. 45% are currently planning to change jobs and 75% are in their first jobs! Alarming statistics actually.

If you fall in the unhappy lot, then well i suggest its time you sat back and reflected on where you are headed and decide if thats the road that you want to take.

P.S. This was meant to be part of a bigger post which i abandoned because i got busy with work and the transition from work to college life again. I currently am studying ‘Information and Interface Design’ at the National Institute of Design, Bangalore. I wrote this post out of frustration and it was based on the real life situation around me at that time.

Re: Talking Fossils

A  friend of mine shared this article from the Telegraph on Facebook and he asked me my views so i ended up typing a hastily written paragraph on my thoughts.

Time and again someone writes such an article which makes people think about the current state of affairs in the most populous country of the world. People share it around and then after some days its consigned to the corner of their minds. People talking about change but there are hardly anyone who is doing anything that will change the way things are. The common man has been too alienated from the bureacracy that they dont want to get involved or cant if they want to. Take for examples our political parties, they are a prime example of how our democracy is actually an oligarchy. There are few young people in government service and no way for them to climb up the ladder to actually bring a change, add to this the fact that they would rather live a relaxed life than create a new world order implies that India wont change, not now and not by 2020. You would know what happened in our college itself, the administration was unwiling to listen to the ideas of the students and always tend to do what they think is right eventhough it would not make  sense. There also comes another problem when you try to change something for the good, there are people who make a living because of the way things are. Your actions would inconvenience them and that would add to resistance thus impeding the change you desire.

Read this also.

What are your thoughts on this article?

My Life, a Zynga Game?

My Mind is often on its own jaunts and suddenly it strikes me that my Life is suddenly very similar to a Zynga Game. Yes, Farmville and its ilk. Lets generalise that to pretty much most online games. How you ask?

I got my First Salary the last week and all seemed well and good. Until you start to spend it. You come to realise its finiteness and then its hits you that essentially your salary is like those Coins you earn on Zynga games for during pre-determined tasks. Yes , we did the same this month. Complete pre-determined tasks for which we were rewarded at the end of the month with currency. Now that amount is not a big one and as soon as you start spending suddenly it looks like its almost gone. That reminded me about how not having certain amount of coins in these games prevents you from buying certain highly priced items that you crave for. Right now am at that stage 😛

Maybe a call to my parents is in order.