Training in a Sofware Giant

Jan 2003 - I joined my dream company in software industry. Very excited and a lot of plans to work on for future.
First attack came in form of another training in which you need to again study for few months. It was important, required and very useful but still..studying again.. Ok.. go over with it. It was quite fun as luckily it was not a whole day classroom sessions type and there was much hands on a real PC, so I actually get to do what I really wanted. Also it gave everyone a chance to look into different perspectives as you would be working as a group and so team work was also being mixed with our behaviour without any explicit effort. Getting some sessions from real programmers was very helpful in directly relating training to a practical scenario.

I learnt a very good lesson that the basics of programming is the only thing one need to know and picking up syntax can be done in a short span and you can become good in any programming language. Still for making an impact like an expert will take time as you then need to go into intricacies of that particular programming language and see how actually it works at memory label. For this again you need to be good and clear about how a computer machine works to produce output from your program. All part of our job..so it is just not 1 and 0, it has a hell lot of other things.
One should not just try to become expert in syntax using which he can understand already written program fast and code fast. But one should also try to see how actually it can be done in a different way and what are the differences in doing in each way. That is how a programmer will go into performance and non-functional part of programming which is many times missed by a typical programmer. It is just not the system which should take care of non-functional features, but also the way how program is written will decide and create an impression for a programmer. So future coders.. keep this in mind while coding next time :).
Also I learnt a very good lesson in my final test. Even if you know how to write a code, you are not as good as a programmer who knows from where to copy/paste. It sound funny and I know many of you will be against me, but in this industry what actually matters? Output, right? So if a person knows from where to copy/paste he already know what piece of code is required. And by knowing the location from where to pick it only speeds up his work. So producing a similar code and in faster time is always better. That's why Copy/Paste is a accepted mantra for software development. No shame about it and it is actually a progress as you can dramatically increase your productivity if you get expert in this capability. Keeping a good repository of generic code snippet also helps in this quality of yours while increasing your knowledge level. Try it, it is worth much more that you think :):).

Second Year in Gujarat

Year 2001 - After completion of one year training, which actually not only improved me in my knowledge about physics (which is related to work) but also made me handle some of real project to start on research, I was ready. I was ready to take a responsibility for making something work and putting my head and body till it works.
As I was interested in computers, i took every opportunity to do a hands on if it can be done on a PC. Then it is a analysis program in Fortran or simple graphical design in Auto-CAD everything was fun to me. I could spend hours trying many things to get output in different ways. But this was not the only life at work. I had to do some of field jobs and play with tools, electricity etc to make my living.. Though it sounds boring but it was actually not. if you combine that PC work and this field roaming together, you actually have a total fun of life infront of you. What else you want?
Things doesn't stay same as you want. Slowly a routine work get to you and you start looking for other fun in your life. I had a PC at home where I connected a TV tuner to watch cable. That was the time pass for me at home. Living in Ahmadabad it was going great till that horrible happened in 2002. It was Godhra tragedy of Gujarat which disturbed almost every person even though if he doesn't care a bit about any religion.
I too not feeling safe, shifted to nearby city Gandhinagar where things were better from safety point. Got a good home 1BHK at 1st floor. As time passed things got normal and again started in their daily life. Godhra was past and everybody wanted to forget it as a bad dream. With me getting more involved in R&D work, reality started getting to me that it was not actually the type of work which a software engg. will like to do. I wanted a full time thinking in terms of logic and application while R&D is a mixture of regular work with typical office paper processes. Na.. that's not for me.
Software industry had also started hiring as dot com bubble burst was over and IT industry has matured to keep its pace in a better, careful way. I also ran to catch on this again started train to get my seat and vola... I got one :). I got selected in one of top Indian software company. It was a very good start for another journey..
I quit my job in Jan 2003 to join my ultimate aim (or so you can say at that time). I joined my dream IT company in same month which you will see in my next post onward. See you there :)

My Time in Gujarat

Year 2000 - I have completed my BTech, quit MTech and now preparing myself for work (refer my prior posts for BTech and MTech journey).

It is an R&D centre with my post being an Scientist. Wow! I will become one of those nerds who looks like alien to normal public.. it was both exciting and a bit apprehensive. Anyway starting one year is going to be same where we (myself and other who joined with me) would be acquainted with facilities and groom on basic knowledge required to align our effort to final objective of this R&D.

I learned first lesson of my job that thereis not only a single objective but expections of producing byproducts which will come out of the main process. Though these will not be useful for main purpose, these can be utilized for sustainance. Heavy words? Huh! but that is the reality and actually it is quite interesting, isn't it.

Anyway, It was fun clubbed with hard work of study (which I hated and thats why I had left MTech,IIT) we did for one year. We were given hostel rooms for one year to ease our mind from accomodation and food problems. In that time period we saw ourselves maturing as a professional, understand politics in job place, seeing opportunity and making long plans to achieve it etc. We also enjoyed Ahmedabad's pani-puri, sandwich, Drive-in theater where we would go to see a movie and run for a quick Dosa or Dabeli in interval before the movie starts. Most of the time we would be coming back with Dabeli in hand watching movie while walking on the way back and search for a raised hand of one of friend for identifying our seat. What a life!

We saw ourselves changing, our will going strong and even earth shaking. Literally it was shaking as it was an earthquake responsible for it. It was a bitter truth of life where we realized that nothing is everlasting. Things can change over a night. People can fear their own house which they have taken and decorated with all their love. Also people comes together forgetting any differences to help each other when needed. That is humanity, that is life!

Completed one year of studywhich gave us a lot more than just a bookish knowledge. We learned how to live our life. Now it was time to again go out and establish on our own our daily life, bread and butter. I am not talkign about earning money, we have our job we are not kicked out or quite but managing after office or before office is also a challenge in life. You should have a good locality to live in, all utensils to cook food and most important of it - you should know how to cook. At least I was having some hand on for that, so here we go - getting more close to real life!

I would cover my life while actually working in a job as scientist in next post. Give me your comments on how did you like it till now.