Yep...thats exactly how it was mentioned in the news. "BITS Pilani Hyderabad" now thats a major syntax error. Wasn't it supposed to be called BITS Hyderabad? Oh well, mere mortals like our politicians would not understand that notion, I guess.
Anyways, there was an interesting statistic that was revealed in that Press Conference attended by our CM, YSR and BITS chairman. Apparently, 42% of students that attend BITS every year come from AP...now thats a mammoth number. Thanks to our Intermediate/12th class totals, getting a 900+ score out of 1000 is a pretty normal task to the students coming from various Residential colleges from AP. They are treated as if they were a cow heard. They wake up at 4:00 AM, to a whistle blown through the corridors of the resident halls, and are subject to the grind, that students from US or Europe cannot even think about. Approximately 13 hours of brutal imposing of knowledge in Science/Math. They are made ready for the outside world ! If the students flunk in EAMCET or IIT...their option is to go to...tada ! BITS Pilani !
And now, they dont need to go that far off traveling for 1.5 days to Pilani. Board the AP Express to reach Delhi, and then take a Bus to go Pilani...en route...the picturesque Rajasthan beckons! Barren desert lands, with bright red dust... the route takes you through, Rothak, Singhani, Biwani and finally Pilani !
Students now get a chance to deprive themselves of the glorious experiences @Pilani...they can now be at home and be a BITS grad. The new complex is proposed to built at some gifted site near Shameerpet. Yes, probably close to the lake...to make it green and cozy just like the tree-lined beautiful complex in Pilani. With peacocks running across the road, a fabulous Library and Saraswati Temple... those resident hostels named after the leaders of our nation....Pilani is hard to replicate anywhere, including the glorious Hyderabad, but am sure they will get there to a little extent atleast.
Thanks to Pavan (my cousin), I had the oppurtunity to see and experience Pilani for the most part, when we made a family visit to the campus. The stricking thing I remember was Rajasthani Biriyani served once a week, which was garnished with Cherries. Ofcourse, I could not make it to their signature fete...aptly named OASIS !
Nevertheless, BITS Hyderabad is truely a welcome message to the AP students. There is hardly anyone, who did not interface with a BITS alum, in their professional life. Thanks to the regiment and rigor of their curriculum, they definitely get the kids ready to attack their career paths with vigor and zeal.
Welcome to Hyderabad BITS !
Monday, April 30, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Staying Alive in a Software Job
BPO and Outsourcing Effects
Bumped into this letter by someone depicting the real experiences that some software professionals face in India. Read along, but dont quote me. Quite an interesting article.
"Quote"
Written by Harshad Oak:
Before I started working for myself, I spent some years in some of the top IT companies in India and still have many friends working in various software companies.
I wrote a blow recruiting like crazy, about the same time last year about how Indian companies are recruiting like there's no tomorrow and the possible consequences. However I was avoiding writing this particular piece as it seems like an unpatriotic thing to do, to tell the world how bad the working conditions in software companies in India have become. And there's always the risk of excerpts being used out of context to bash up IT in India .
I am now writing this because I just keep hearing horror tales from the industry and it doesn't seem like anything is being done in the matter, so I thought I will do my bit and write.
First and foremost, before stereotypes about India kick in, I would like to clarify that I am not saying that Indian software companies are sweat shops where employees aren't being paid and made to work in cramped uncomfortable places. The pay in software companies is very good as compared to other industries in India and the work places are generally well furnished and plush offices India being a strong democracy, freedom of expression is alive and well and Indians are free to express their opinions and voice their concerns. Yet, I say that the software industry is exploiting its employees.
IT work culture in India is totally messed up and has now started harming the work culture of the nation as a whole. Working 12+ hours a day and 6 or even 7 days a week is more the rule than the exception.
Consequences:
*A majority of IT people suffer from health problems. As most of the IT workforce is still very young, the problem isn't very obvious today but it will hit with unbearable ferocity when these youngsters get to their
40s.
* Stress levels are unbelievable high. Stress management is a cover topic in magazines and newspapers and workshops on the subject are regularly overbooked.
* Most IT people have hardly any social / family life to talk of.
* As IT folk are rich by Indian standards, they try to buy their way out of their troubles and have incurred huge debts by buying expensive houses, gizmos and fancy cars.
Plush offices, fat salaries and latest gizmos can give you happiness only if you have a life in the first place.
The reason I feel this culture has emerged, is the servile attitude of the companies. Here's a tip for any company in the west planning to outsource to India. If you feel that a project can be completed in 6 weeks by 4 people, always demand that it be completed in 2 weeks by 3 people.
Guess what, most Indian companies will agree. The project will then be hyped up as an "extremely critical" one and the 3 unfortunate souls allocated to it will get very close to meeting the almighty by the time
they deliver the project in 2 weeks. Surprisingly, they will deliver in 2-3 weeks, get bashed up for any delays and the company will soon boast about how they deliver good quality in reasonable time and cost. Has anyone in India ever worked on a project that wasn't "extremely critical"?
I was once at a session where a top boss of one of India's biggest IT firms was asked a question about what was so special about their company and his answer was that we are the "Yes" people with the "We Can Do It" attitude. It is all very well for the top boss to say "We Can Do It "... What about the project teams who wish to say "Please....We Can't Do It" to the unreasonable timelines... I was tempted to ask "What death benefits does your company offer to the teams that get killed in the process?". I sure was ashamed to see that a fellow Indian was openly boasting about the fact that he and his company had no backbone. The art of saying No or negotiating reasonable time frames for the team is very conspicuous by its absence. Outsourcing customers more often than not simply walk all over Indian software companies. The outsourcer surely cannot be blamed as it is right for him to demand good quality in the least cost and time.
Exhaustion = Zero Innovation
* How many Indians in India are thought leaders in their software segment? - Very few
* How much software innovation happens in India? - Minimal
* Considering that thousands of Indians in India use Open Source software, how many actually contribute?-- Very few
Surprisingly, put the same Indian in a company "in" the US and he suddenly becomes innovative and a thought leader in his field. The reason is simple, the only thing an exhausted body and mind can do well,
is sleep.
I can pretty much bet on it that we will never see innovation from any of 10000+ person code factories in India.
If you are someone sitting in the US, UK ... and wondering why the employees can't stand up, that's the most interesting part of the story.
Read on...
The Problem
The software professional Indian is today making more money in a month than what his parents might have made in an year. Very often a 21 year old newbie software developer makes more money than his/her 55 year old father working in an old world business Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work.
Another important factor is this whole bubble that an IT person lives in.. An IT professional walks with a halo around his or her head. They are the Cool, Rich Gen Next .. the Intelligentsia of the New World...
they travel all over the world, vacation at exotic locations abroad, talk "American", are more familiar of the geography of the USA than that of India and yes of course, they are the hottest things in the Wedding
Market!!!
This I feel is the core problem because if employees felt they were being exploited, things would change.
I speak about this to some of my friends and the answer is generally "Hey Harshad, what you say is correct and we sure are suffering, but why do you think we are being paid this much money? It's not for 40 hours
but for 80 hours a week. And anyway what choice do we have? It's the same everywhere."
So can we make things change? Is there a way to try and stop an entire generation of educated Indians from ending up with "no life".
Solutions
1) Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the "employee of the month" award said something like "It's unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working".. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.
Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing that should work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
2) Estimates:
If time estimates go wrong, the company should be willing to take a hit and not force the employee to work crazy hours to bail projects out of trouble. This will ensure that the estimates made for the next project
are more real and not just what the customer has asked for.
3) Employee organizations / forums
NASSCOM (National Association for Software and Services Companies) and CSI (Computer Society Of India) are perhaps the only two well known software associations in India and both I feel have failed the software employee. I do not recall any action from these organizations to try and improve the working conditions of
software employees. This has to change.
I am not in favor of forming trade unions for software people, as trade unions in India have traditionally been more effective at ruining businesses and making employees inefficient than getting employees their
rights and helping business do well. So existing bodies like NASSCOM should create and popularize employee welfare cells at a state/regional level and these cells should work only for employee welfare and
not be puppets in the hands of the companies.
If the industry does not itself create proper forums for employee welfare, it's likely that the government / trade unions will interfere and mess up India 's sunshine industry.
4) Narayan Murthy, please stand up
Top bosses of companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. need to send the message loud and clear to their company and to other companies listening at national IT events that employee welfare is really their top concern and having good working culture and conditions is a priority. Employee welfare here does not mean giving the employee the salary he/she dreams of.
Last word
I am sure some of my thoughts come from the fact that I too worked in such an environment for a few years and perhaps I haven't got over the frustrations I experienced back then. So think about my views with a
pinch of salt but do think about it.
--Harshad Oak
"Unquote"
Bumped into this letter by someone depicting the real experiences that some software professionals face in India. Read along, but dont quote me. Quite an interesting article.
"Quote"
Written by Harshad Oak:
Before I started working for myself, I spent some years in some of the top IT companies in India and still have many friends working in various software companies.
I wrote a blow recruiting like crazy, about the same time last year about how Indian companies are recruiting like there's no tomorrow and the possible consequences. However I was avoiding writing this particular piece as it seems like an unpatriotic thing to do, to tell the world how bad the working conditions in software companies in India have become. And there's always the risk of excerpts being used out of context to bash up IT in India .
I am now writing this because I just keep hearing horror tales from the industry and it doesn't seem like anything is being done in the matter, so I thought I will do my bit and write.
First and foremost, before stereotypes about India kick in, I would like to clarify that I am not saying that Indian software companies are sweat shops where employees aren't being paid and made to work in cramped uncomfortable places. The pay in software companies is very good as compared to other industries in India and the work places are generally well furnished and plush offices India being a strong democracy, freedom of expression is alive and well and Indians are free to express their opinions and voice their concerns. Yet, I say that the software industry is exploiting its employees.
IT work culture in India is totally messed up and has now started harming the work culture of the nation as a whole. Working 12+ hours a day and 6 or even 7 days a week is more the rule than the exception.
Consequences:
*A majority of IT people suffer from health problems. As most of the IT workforce is still very young, the problem isn't very obvious today but it will hit with unbearable ferocity when these youngsters get to their
40s.
* Stress levels are unbelievable high. Stress management is a cover topic in magazines and newspapers and workshops on the subject are regularly overbooked.
* Most IT people have hardly any social / family life to talk of.
* As IT folk are rich by Indian standards, they try to buy their way out of their troubles and have incurred huge debts by buying expensive houses, gizmos and fancy cars.
Plush offices, fat salaries and latest gizmos can give you happiness only if you have a life in the first place.
The reason I feel this culture has emerged, is the servile attitude of the companies. Here's a tip for any company in the west planning to outsource to India. If you feel that a project can be completed in 6 weeks by 4 people, always demand that it be completed in 2 weeks by 3 people.
Guess what, most Indian companies will agree. The project will then be hyped up as an "extremely critical" one and the 3 unfortunate souls allocated to it will get very close to meeting the almighty by the time
they deliver the project in 2 weeks. Surprisingly, they will deliver in 2-3 weeks, get bashed up for any delays and the company will soon boast about how they deliver good quality in reasonable time and cost. Has anyone in India ever worked on a project that wasn't "extremely critical"?
I was once at a session where a top boss of one of India's biggest IT firms was asked a question about what was so special about their company and his answer was that we are the "Yes" people with the "We Can Do It" attitude. It is all very well for the top boss to say "We Can Do It "... What about the project teams who wish to say "Please....We Can't Do It" to the unreasonable timelines... I was tempted to ask "What death benefits does your company offer to the teams that get killed in the process?". I sure was ashamed to see that a fellow Indian was openly boasting about the fact that he and his company had no backbone. The art of saying No or negotiating reasonable time frames for the team is very conspicuous by its absence. Outsourcing customers more often than not simply walk all over Indian software companies. The outsourcer surely cannot be blamed as it is right for him to demand good quality in the least cost and time.
Exhaustion = Zero Innovation
* How many Indians in India are thought leaders in their software segment? - Very few
* How much software innovation happens in India? - Minimal
* Considering that thousands of Indians in India use Open Source software, how many actually contribute?-- Very few
Surprisingly, put the same Indian in a company "in" the US and he suddenly becomes innovative and a thought leader in his field. The reason is simple, the only thing an exhausted body and mind can do well,
is sleep.
I can pretty much bet on it that we will never see innovation from any of 10000+ person code factories in India.
If you are someone sitting in the US, UK ... and wondering why the employees can't stand up, that's the most interesting part of the story.
Read on...
The Problem
The software professional Indian is today making more money in a month than what his parents might have made in an year. Very often a 21 year old newbie software developer makes more money than his/her 55 year old father working in an old world business Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work.
Another important factor is this whole bubble that an IT person lives in.. An IT professional walks with a halo around his or her head. They are the Cool, Rich Gen Next .. the Intelligentsia of the New World...
they travel all over the world, vacation at exotic locations abroad, talk "American", are more familiar of the geography of the USA than that of India and yes of course, they are the hottest things in the Wedding
Market!!!
This I feel is the core problem because if employees felt they were being exploited, things would change.
I speak about this to some of my friends and the answer is generally "Hey Harshad, what you say is correct and we sure are suffering, but why do you think we are being paid this much money? It's not for 40 hours
but for 80 hours a week. And anyway what choice do we have? It's the same everywhere."
So can we make things change? Is there a way to try and stop an entire generation of educated Indians from ending up with "no life".
Solutions
1) Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the "employee of the month" award said something like "It's unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working".. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.
Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing that should work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
2) Estimates:
If time estimates go wrong, the company should be willing to take a hit and not force the employee to work crazy hours to bail projects out of trouble. This will ensure that the estimates made for the next project
are more real and not just what the customer has asked for.
3) Employee organizations / forums
NASSCOM (National Association for Software and Services Companies) and CSI (Computer Society Of India) are perhaps the only two well known software associations in India and both I feel have failed the software employee. I do not recall any action from these organizations to try and improve the working conditions of
software employees. This has to change.
I am not in favor of forming trade unions for software people, as trade unions in India have traditionally been more effective at ruining businesses and making employees inefficient than getting employees their
rights and helping business do well. So existing bodies like NASSCOM should create and popularize employee welfare cells at a state/regional level and these cells should work only for employee welfare and
not be puppets in the hands of the companies.
If the industry does not itself create proper forums for employee welfare, it's likely that the government / trade unions will interfere and mess up India 's sunshine industry.
4) Narayan Murthy, please stand up
Top bosses of companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. need to send the message loud and clear to their company and to other companies listening at national IT events that employee welfare is really their top concern and having good working culture and conditions is a priority. Employee welfare here does not mean giving the employee the salary he/she dreams of.
Last word
I am sure some of my thoughts come from the fact that I too worked in such an environment for a few years and perhaps I haven't got over the frustrations I experienced back then. So think about my views with a
pinch of salt but do think about it.
--Harshad Oak
"Unquote"
Monday, April 9, 2007
Staggering spirits of International Cricket
Everyone who has been involved in tracking the debacle of Indian Cricket team and their recent ousting from the world cup, would surely attest to what a disappointment it was, for the world of Cricket.
While millions blame Greg Chappel our esteemed coach, with a reason list that will surely surpass an average list of registered number of voters in, say, New York... One can hardly find where is Rahul Dravid, and what explanation he could give on what transpired.
I mean we can lament relentlessly about our now famously infamous defeat to Bangladesh, who can truely pinpoint what went wrong?
What really went wrong, was actually something that was revolutionary to Indian Cricket. For the first time in decades, Indian Cricket had a coach, who was willing to bring some change, Do some experiments, change players and viewers' attitude. Yes, Greg Chappel took matter into his own hands, ever since he came in as a coach. From trying to make Irfan Pathan a all-rounder, to making the master-blaster Sachin come in middle order. And in return, what he gets is a lot of boo from cricket lovers around the world, and more importantly from the angry Blue-Billion !
While everyone is disappointed with India not even getting into the Big 8, au contraire, some were happy that Pakistan got knocked out too...! And before anyone could realize how Pakistan found their exit, Bob Woolmer met his fatal destiny. Inzy the "Sultan of Multan" retired from ODI cricket....what a terrible loss to the world of cricket.
While many cribbed and cried that India lost to Bangladesh, some resorted to solace when Bangladesh defeated South Africa by 67 runs. Thanks to Ashrafful for his contribution and a great job by Bangla bowlers. Maybe Bangladesh is not that bad a team to be defeated by...hey look they defeated South Africa, so they must be good ! They might have been in shadows, but they surely have emerged as a powerful bunch...this worldcup around.
Between Match Fixings, Death and Retirements offshore, Heart-attacks, and even Sachin coming out and giving explanations...the Spirits of Cricket fans across the world surely need a face-lift...this time around.
Again, just my thoughts and ramblings :)
Critiques and Comments surely welcomed.
While millions blame Greg Chappel our esteemed coach, with a reason list that will surely surpass an average list of registered number of voters in, say, New York... One can hardly find where is Rahul Dravid, and what explanation he could give on what transpired.
I mean we can lament relentlessly about our now famously infamous defeat to Bangladesh, who can truely pinpoint what went wrong?
What really went wrong, was actually something that was revolutionary to Indian Cricket. For the first time in decades, Indian Cricket had a coach, who was willing to bring some change, Do some experiments, change players and viewers' attitude. Yes, Greg Chappel took matter into his own hands, ever since he came in as a coach. From trying to make Irfan Pathan a all-rounder, to making the master-blaster Sachin come in middle order. And in return, what he gets is a lot of boo from cricket lovers around the world, and more importantly from the angry Blue-Billion !
While everyone is disappointed with India not even getting into the Big 8, au contraire, some were happy that Pakistan got knocked out too...! And before anyone could realize how Pakistan found their exit, Bob Woolmer met his fatal destiny. Inzy the "Sultan of Multan" retired from ODI cricket....what a terrible loss to the world of cricket.
While many cribbed and cried that India lost to Bangladesh, some resorted to solace when Bangladesh defeated South Africa by 67 runs. Thanks to Ashrafful for his contribution and a great job by Bangla bowlers. Maybe Bangladesh is not that bad a team to be defeated by...hey look they defeated South Africa, so they must be good ! They might have been in shadows, but they surely have emerged as a powerful bunch...this worldcup around.
Between Match Fixings, Death and Retirements offshore, Heart-attacks, and even Sachin coming out and giving explanations...the Spirits of Cricket fans across the world surely need a face-lift...this time around.
Again, just my thoughts and ramblings :)
Critiques and Comments surely welcomed.
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