Fortunately for coders, and unfortunately for managers, 80% of the code going into projects are from stackoverflow.com, or any other forum like iphonedevsdk.com and the rest 20% is auto-generated by the IDE. In the rush to get it out fast, majority of the time is spent on copying and pasting, and the left in putting up patches to fix up leaks. Damn, in service model, we are not paid royalties, why bother for quality of work. Stack holders can complain on the market research gone wrong. And in the resource constraint market, if the luck has striked to get hand on even two projects, the guys from NCR or B'lr have their nets out to catch fishes. Based on how many worms they have eaten.
First, the recruiters need to understand. The resume and the interview is a lie. The work experience is in advanced Google searching. The reference don't care about you or give a damn about the guy who has left and still discovering everything done wrong in the candidates' work. The interviewee have no clue what the company wants. And the result is based on comparing expected CTCs.
Second, the coder's hurry to make more money. How many 14 years guys and gals are found hand-in-hand in shopping malls, children parks, bunking schools? They have found their soul mates, and the plan to settle is made already. What if the age still suffixes 'teen', and the parents is busy taking loan for education.
The gold rush is here, the web app bubble has burst and the mobile app bubble is here. Something makes you think it will burst, so lets hurry up. The more you can earn during the period is all you can earn. Lets squeeze every opportunity and make lemonade out of every project plan. I don't have to give a demo to my prospective employer, do I?
Here is the sad realization: 3 years have passed. You have made your jumps from 1.2 to 4.2 Lac, switched 17 companies in between but now its all stuck. You are at one side of the chasm, and find no way to jump across it. There is not enough hydrogen in your balloon to make you fly across. Why? Because you spent all this time filling it with exhaled air.
Now with your beautiful resume, and an advanced diploma in Google search, and a drinking habit to satisfy - 4.2 is not enough! Mind has stopped working due to all the googling and the codes written looks strange. Did I write it? Well, actually I didn't but its their in my project. The only solution left is to fool another recruiter and stay low profile in new company till your truth is figured out and the HR gets enough gut to terminate. And the cycle goes on.
The point: see how you are filling your balloon, and not your pocket at least in the first five years of your job.
First, the recruiters need to understand. The resume and the interview is a lie. The work experience is in advanced Google searching. The reference don't care about you or give a damn about the guy who has left and still discovering everything done wrong in the candidates' work. The interviewee have no clue what the company wants. And the result is based on comparing expected CTCs.
Second, the coder's hurry to make more money. How many 14 years guys and gals are found hand-in-hand in shopping malls, children parks, bunking schools? They have found their soul mates, and the plan to settle is made already. What if the age still suffixes 'teen', and the parents is busy taking loan for education.
The gold rush is here, the web app bubble has burst and the mobile app bubble is here. Something makes you think it will burst, so lets hurry up. The more you can earn during the period is all you can earn. Lets squeeze every opportunity and make lemonade out of every project plan. I don't have to give a demo to my prospective employer, do I?
Here is the sad realization: 3 years have passed. You have made your jumps from 1.2 to 4.2 Lac, switched 17 companies in between but now its all stuck. You are at one side of the chasm, and find no way to jump across it. There is not enough hydrogen in your balloon to make you fly across. Why? Because you spent all this time filling it with exhaled air.
Now with your beautiful resume, and an advanced diploma in Google search, and a drinking habit to satisfy - 4.2 is not enough! Mind has stopped working due to all the googling and the codes written looks strange. Did I write it? Well, actually I didn't but its their in my project. The only solution left is to fool another recruiter and stay low profile in new company till your truth is figured out and the HR gets enough gut to terminate. And the cycle goes on.
The point: see how you are filling your balloon, and not your pocket at least in the first five years of your job.
3 comments:
Sir, This is really an eye opening article & a true story, which almost 90% of developers are doing !!
and Rest 10% are ready to enjoy the rest of their life :-)
Personally, I would try not to follow the same.
The problem with your analysis is, that a programmer's life in India is on a average 7-8 years. You cant be a programmer after 5years exp, you are a team lead now, suddenly you write more emails, attend more meetings than writing code. After 8 years or so you jump to manager post and that about it. Apart from email/meetings you have to prepare nice presentations to seal the deal. Just look at the number of post graduate management diploma/degree are offered by universities for people with 5+ years or more, even IIMs (yes you read it right) offer MBA specially for program managers. And believe me telling from my own experience, the art of programming comes when you have actively programmed in a single domain/language for 5+ years, before that you are a fool and after that you don't code! I m using C++ for 5 years but still i find something to learn each day. But to increase my salary i need to improve my email/presentation skills and become a team lead instead of using my 5+ years of exp to write some quality code. No wonder we don't find any *real* software (firefox,Nero,winamp etc you use everyday on your PC) made by indians alone.
@nishant
You are right about the career path seen by software programmers in India. They ought to be transferred to more managerial parts just when their coding skills are evolving.
Hence, its better to start coding at least as a hobby right from early college days and participate in opensource community or freelance if that's the idea.
It is also seen in smaller companies employees of the rush to reach higher "Senior" posts with just 2years of experience, while in bigger companies seldom a TL would be made with less than 6-8years exp.
We are trying to fly against the wind, and bring a change in mentality and work culture, but its going to be hard to change thinking.
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