From Sahara to Siberia

….come experience it all in the eight hours within the four walls of the workplace. For free! Ofcourse it would be sans the reindeers and ice of Siberia and sandstorms / antelopes of Sahara. But I assure you will feel the heat and the cold. A’right I’m exaggerating but you get it..It is funny to see people wearing sweaters and jackets on a bright n sunny day to work. And sweating profusely after a couple of hours ….that gets me worried if we might witness a show…. And its not just at one place..I have heard many of my friends complaining too about their offices. Why can’t they get the a/c temperature just right?

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Cubicles/Corner Offices - a distant dream. My new job at a "cyber cafe"

My new job is very exciting. Tabbed browsing for 8 hours is harder than real work. Or is it? The temporary “Office Space” has no cubicles and thank god no corner offices either. I was fishing for an appropriate term for this open space when a coworker commented it resembles a cyber cafe. Cyber cafes in India are Internet Browsing centers where people with no internet access pay money and browse for a fixed time. Typically, it is a 10*10 space cramped with 10-15 desktops. Privacy, huh?

I’m not complaining. I’m having a great time doing what I enjoy the most. Reading and loads of it and all kinds.

When to leave that first tech job has evinced keen interest on Slashdot. It is an overwhelming account of a fresh grad joining a startup firm getting fired within a year offering advice on when to quit. Too inexperienced to offer one citing all the wrong reasons! The comments are more interesting than the article itself.

Was it my "Imagination at Work"?

July 29th was my last day at work. Exactly 75 days at this wonderful place. It is always difficult to leave your first job. But this was my second, so I didn’t have the emotional bondage. It was too short a period to have one either.

I admit the transition was difficult and the early days don’t bring back very happy memories. But that would have been true at any organization I would have joined. Technology was not their forte and they admitted it.
Too infatuated by technology, it took a while to come to senses and to learn how to balance both. To realize the fact that if one had the potential and the drive to change things for better, it was only a matter of time to be empowered to see those changes. I was beginning to feel that when I had to leave.

When you haven’t seen what can go wrong in how an organization functions, you start whining about trivial shortcomings and don’t appreciate how good the place is. So I want to take a moment and jot down all the good things that I observed in my short stint here:

1. Recruitment - Just as you can judge a person by the company he keeps, you can judge a company (read: organization) by its HR. If there was single biggest factor that persuaded me internally to join this place, it was the recruitment process. Amazing HR team. 3 round of interviews within 2 days and on the dot. Never did I have to wait for more than 2 mins. When I arrived for the interview once, I was escorted to and fro from the gate. Sure, for security reasons or courtesy. You are free to perceive as you want to, but I was impressed.

2. Between Recruitment and Day 1- Calls from immediate manager and HR to ensure that everything was going per plan and there were 2-3 hiccups my way and all were resolved with NO fuss.

3. Day 1 - I was floored. Same level of hospitality as I had witnessed before. The winning score however was a feedback form that I had to fill in at the end of the day. It had questions like –

Who did you have your lunch with? - Team, Friends, Alone
Did the joining procedure take long ?

Very comforting questions. The thought that someone had actually thought of putting such questions and not mediocre ones copied from somewhere was appreciable. Day 1 can be nightmare with hundreds of forms to be filled up, an intimidating feeling of a new place, judging eyes, the nervousness to be at your best to give a very good first impression and so on…But at end of Day 1, I felt GOOD. None less.
I did not have to grope for answers or lie for any of the above.

Can you believe I had a machine and place to sit within 3 hours? It is a big deal in India.

4. First week - I had to go on a 2 day emergency leave to attend to my hospitalized mom. That was no problem either.

A few things that I loved about the place:

1. Professionalism - No where ever have I seen such an universal display of professionalism. Respect for other’s time was so high that no meetings were ever conducted without a request placed atleast 2 weeks in advance. Having said that, it did not mean that you could not have ad hoc meetings if the situation demanded.

2. Transparency - They proved all the rules wrong. I have learnt the hard way to read between the lines in an offer letter or in a financial dealing. Whereas in this case, my suspicious mind tried in vain to find a catch point. There were none. It was all there in BLACK and WHITE.

3. Integrity - Amazing. The rules were the same for everyone. “All animals are equal. Some animals are more equals than the others” principle did not apply. Integrity across departments from HR until Finance and your managers. All read the same rule books, it flowed in their blood, there was no question of mending them.

4. Passion - People drive a company, cattle don’t. And passionate people drive a company better. In India where you can easily replace anybody’s job, it was good to see a place where people are given due respect at all levels and vice versa. The passion is clearly evident in the tone and every action. It is not just a job. You do it because you love it.

You may say I’m dreaming. But this is for REAL. It is a no-brainer to guess the name of the place I worked at.
I don’t know how to put this. But if I ever come back to Bangalore, I wouldn’t think for a moment to consider joining this place again. (and this is a BIG DEAL for someone who believes not going back to a place you have quit from).

What makes a presentation great?

Today afternoon, I along with a 100 other people sat through a 2 hour long business update presentation. The presentation commenced at 2:30 p.m. and it was intended for all the employees. I got very fidgety after 15 minutes. Contrary to my expectations, the lead presenter, someone with very commendable credentials wasn’t a great speaker. I had cultivated this wrong notion that people up the ladder are great speakers! They might be great strategists, great visonaries, great businessmen but not necessarily great speakers.

Here are some do’s and dont’s of obvious flaws that I observed and compiled during the 2 hour presentation of about 6 speakers:

  1. Content:
    It is not mandatory for every presentation to use PowerPoint. Content of any presentation goes beyond PP. The amount of preparation and the research one does eventually shows in the confidence of the speaker. Content is the king.

    • Golden Rule: One point per slide. Do not clutter your slides with text. This distracts the audience to read all that’s up there.
    • Put only the gist in the slide. The rest is for the speakers to talk about.
    • Font size: Make it a 28-32 pt. Neither too small nor too big enough to read. This afternoon’s presentation required magnifying lenses.
    • When there are too many related facts to compare, make a graphical representation.
    • Display the entire slide at once. Do NOT use any fancy fly-in fly-out text. It is exciting at first but distracts the audience and gets too annoying.
    • Organize your content in a logical flow. If you have too much of information to share and too little time, then focus only on the salient points.
    • Do some ground work and get the facts right. You don’t want to get on the wrong foot by delivering incorrect information.
  2. Delivery :
    Even if the presentation is rich in content, if not delivered right, all the hard work goes down the drain. by delivery I mean the demeanour of the person speaking.

    • Golden rule: Do NOT read the slides. MSPP is just a tool to guide you. The presentation is in your head.
    • Talk slowly. Indians have a very habit of talking fast. Blah blah blah no periods at all. One has to be very attentive so as to not lose track.
    • Having said that, it does not mean you can be very slow. Space your words right and get the pace. Pause briefly between sentences and make it consistent.
    • Variations in pitch is very important. Talking in the same tone throughout makes it drab.
    • Humour is a key component. You instantly win the attention of the audience if you start your speech on a funny note.
    • No “umm’s mmmmm’s aaaaa’s”.
    • Enthusiasm is contagious. If you can show the energy and enthusiasm radiating in your face, great!
  3. Posture :
    Most people don’t pay attention to it, but positioning yourself physically right is a vital factor too!

    • Stand erect. Move your hands. Pace up and down if you feel uncomfortable. Don’t overdo it.
    • Glance across the hall at everyone. Just don’t look at only one side of the room.
    • A very trivial one but positioning your microphone correct is important too. Else you would be fiddling with it throughout.
    • Arriving a little early at the venue to hook your laptop and be prepared is always desirable.

GoodBye Chicago


This post is the last thing that I’m doing from work today. I’ve been making rounds of the office since morning bidding goodbye to everyone. The day started with reading a touching entry on Harper’s blog that moved me to tears. Had lunch with Rebekah and the ones I didn’t want to say goodbye because I feared they would make me cry were S (we just gave quick hug to avoid the emotions but it did not help at all and I cried on my way back) and Tim. So I kept them for the last. Infact when I went to see T, I carried tissue papers. I can’t believe this is over. I’ll miss you all and I have to stop saying this in every entry of my blog now and stop being a baby!

The wonderful Journey continues….

It is unusual for someone to continue in a project for more than 7-9 months in the IT industry. For me and a couple of others in my project, it was a 3.5+ years long association with this client. This long stint strengthened the bond making the distinction between our employer and the client seem insignificant. I’m moving out of the project in a few weeks and it was a tough decision - professionally and personally. This project has seen a lot of weddings (coinciding exactly with BIG launches) and cute kids being born. This past 1 year I’ve been at Chicago and I leave in another 10 days. People from work threw a going away party yesterday. I’ve been tight-lipped about this party but now that it is over, I can talk about it. Someone said yesterday, “This is As good as it gets” on the eve of my farewell and that is true..it was a fabulous farewell aboard the Mystic cruise. This weekend chicago is also hosting the 46th Annual Air and Water Show. We saw the blue Angels roaring past a few meters above our heads.

T got me a Strawberry Margarita - I can’t believe that I actually drunk (well not in the true sense). It didn’t taste all that weird but it did induce a good 10 hour sleep and I skipped dinner :) Thanks everyone for a great year! I’m going to miss all the nightouts, yelling across the cubicle, H’s swearing (ofcourse not :)), AIM conversations, lunches/dinners and everything about this place and y’all. I seem to be at a loss of words and it is overwhelming to think how much I’m going to miss everything.

Terrifying Thursdays

It was a beautiful start to the day yesterday. I woke upto a good news. I had this feeling that this Thursday was going to be an exception at work. It didn’t take me long to realise this was no exception - if only worse. When the mess cleared up or atleast it seemed that way then, I decided to meet a friend for lunch as planned. But SOS calls started coming even before I reached the place. The day finally ended hours later than usual and it was very disappointing. Every time a system crashes, I get the feeling of flunking my exams (which I never did but once when the entire class did). I wonder if we ever learn from our mistakes. Do we look at problems with a different perspective? Its not the first time something like this has happened….well I hope it doesn’t become a standing joke as “tell me something new” whenever I tll someone..”it is crashing..”

Anyways, the lunch with this friend was fabulous as always– I got lost mid conversation as the sub consicous mind was thinking of whats going on at work and I couldn’t resist temptation to call.

Looking back at my previous entries..there are many references to the nightmarish pattern of Thursdays which is not good.

Random Thoughts

Am I overworked?

I guess I’m overworked - at work and at home! I feel tired all the time and can’t concentrate on anything lately. The traveling has also got on to me. This weekend would be such a great relief.

This last weekend at Niagara Falls was good. V commented that it is like Haridwar ( a pilgrimage center for Hindus in Northern India) for Indians in U.S. We started counting the Indian/Other Nationality Ratio sitting on a porch by the American Falls facing the Goat Island. For every 1 other Nationality person, there were 7 Indians. The only reason I could think of was the promotion of the Falls in the earlier Indian Films. Most of the Hindi/Regional films made in the 60’s/70’s (when shooting outside India captivated audiences), featured the Niagara Falls. Probably the next generation would frequent it as much as this generation does. This was my first visit and V’s second. We took Dad there. He was satisfied to have seen it. Like every Indian, his image of America was the same too. If you’ve seen the Statue of Liberty,N.Y.C., Niagara Falls, White House, Lincoln Memorial, Disneyland - L.A, Mount Rushmore (it actually goes by “the mountain with the faces of the presidents”), you’ve seen it all.