Saturday, June 7th, 2008 |
Well, It’s difficult. The only other thing I found more difficult was to find a good (please note - it is bold, underlined, font 30) Flash programmer. (the only thing left for me to try is probably driving down to Bangalore and kidnapping one. Yeah, I am serious. If you are a good (again - bold, underlined, font 30) Flash programmer based in Mangalore, you know who to contact. ( I wont have a gun at your head, I promise).
Well, anyways, I thought it would be more worthwhile and a swell idea to put up a job board that is free, simple and targeted for Mangalore. Adding a free, simple classifieds for Mangalore would be double swell. Right? Well, I did it. You can find more details here.
Mangaloreans, Please use this. Remember the gun 
Technorati Tags: job board, classifieds, Mangalore
Posted in Management, Mangalore, Technology | 2 Comments »
Sunday, May 11th, 2008 |
Well, it feels like it’s been a while since I left Infosys (although it’s just been a month and half now). But I feel happy that I don’t miss Infosys anymore. Happy because it reassures me that my decision to leave was the right one, Happy because it tells me that I am confident about my future even without the safety and security of a high paying job and Happy because I have the freedom to do what I need to do. But maybe the single biggest factor for not missing Infy could be that I don’t feel like I have moved away (more…)
Technorati Tags: Infosys, high paying job
Posted in IT, Life, Management, Technology | 13 Comments »
Monday, September 3rd, 2007 |
My friend Brijesh referred me to this report on Dataquest 2007 Salary Survey report (related to IT). It had an interesting line that goes like this: “high salary didn’t always mean high satisfaction, but the sheer extent of disconnect is amazing. There was less than 8% correlation between salary and satisfaction with salary!” . The report goes on to say that while some of the companies were rated higher on the salary pay out, they fared lower on the ‘employee satisfaction with salary’ parameter. (Eg: TCS was ranked higher than HCL Infosystems in terms of salary, but HCL Infosystems came higher on employee satisfaction with salary). Now, how can that be possible, considering these companies are in the same industry providing similar services? What are the influencing factors for such a scenario? Was trying to figure this out, and could think of the following:
- The quality of people in the organization and their mindset (their education background, level of ambition, expectations on work etc). The higher this is, greater are their expectations
- Image of the company (A company’s market image creates certain salary expectations. And a -ve gap in what the employee expects the company to provide versus actuals could lead to dissatisfaction)
- The extent of disparity in salaries of employees with similar profile and experience (in the same org)
- Complexity of Salary structure: how much is tied to performance, how easy it is to decipher the payout components, and what is the final take home.
Maybe I am totally off-track on this one, but this is what my (walnut sized) brain could come up with.
IT, TCS, Salary, HCL
Posted in IT, Management | 1 Comment »
Saturday, July 7th, 2007 |
Let me put down an excerpt of the memo I received the other day: ‘…As you know, the ETA for the product launch is TBD. Meanwhile, Pls send me your PoV on the new trends asap. I need to respond to Bob’s query by EOD. BTW, the other note I sent was FYI….’
Now, look in the mirror. If you are staring at a dumbstruck face with a ‘duh’ bubble hanging above the head, chances are that you are not an IT professional, or that you have not yet ‘arrived’ as an IT professional. IT is a great industry to be in, and thankfully, I belong there. I love these acronyms, they speed up my typing, make the reader feel I am super busy, and most importantly, projects my seniority and authority (usually one gets a chance to use these only after putting in the proverbial donkey’s years in the industry). Keep that mirror right there, ‘cos what I am going to write further can produce expressions you have never seen appear on your face.
Before going any further, let me clear one misconception that a layman has – See, people think the IT industry is driven by ‘Techies’. I don’t agree. The IT industry has 2 sets of people – the ‘Techies’ (the minority - guys who do all the work), and ‘Talkies’ (Majority - Guys who people think does all the work). The IT industry is driven by ‘Talkies’. You don’t agree? Why do you think people call IT growth as ‘Tech bubble’? Because the bubble is formed by the gas in the industry.
Still don’t agree? Let me give you data to prove this theory. Have you heard of any technology that has become caught on in the market without an associated buzz word like ‘Next generation’, ‘revolutionary’, ‘Brekthru’ et al? Let me introduce to some of the IT best practices – feel free to use these tips without any royalty. If you would like to pass on some of your boring, mundane work to one of your less privileged colleagues, give him the title ‘Champion’ – as in ‘Operations Champion’, ‘Quality Champion’. The poor guy will work his a** out, and get the work done for you before he realizes the trap and attains wisdom in this topic. See, you get the credit for getting the work done, as well as for coaching this person for the next role.
Next, if you need to form a group that does some specific task, never call it a team. Call it ‘Task force’, ‘committeee’ or a ‘cell’. Make sure you follow it up with a beautiful logo, a website with lotsa content on what the logo is supposed to mean etc. If you want to call a team meeting, call it an ‘All hands meet’. If you want to pass on some bad feedback to your subordinate, use the word ‘perception’ as many times as you can. If one of the ‘Techies’ in your group opposes to your idea in a meeting, you say that you will take the item ‘offline’- This is an important lesson in conflict resolution.
Always hype the work you do – Always use ‘Program’ instead of ‘Project’. Don’t forget to highlight wherever possible that this program is of ‘strategic’ importance to your client. If you need to talk about an issue, always call it a ‘challenge’ – not an issue. When you come up with a solution for this challenge, ensure that you term it as a ‘Framework’ or a ‘Platform’. And if you are not able to think of a solution, you could fall back on a universal solution for all problems – creation of a ‘Dashboard’.
Try to get into as many mail distribution lists as possible. This is a measure of how important you are in the organization, and it also will keep you busy (through a steady stream of email chains on, often times, unimportant things). Always use the term ‘revamp’ even if you have done only some small incremental work (Particularly useful for website development work – Eg: I revamped the website). Last but not the least; ensure you get to be out of office at least 2-3 times a month (travel to different locations of your office in the pretext of attending strategic meetings) so that you can set your ‘out of office assistant’ mails. This will seal your position as a high flier.
So much for now…Got tips? share ‘em.
humor, tech bubble, project management, IT
Technorati Tags: IT professional
Posted in HUmor, Management | 2 Comments »
