After this, the HR exec comes in, hands me a google t-shirt, tells me there is a taxi waiting to take me to my hotel. I go out, find the taxi, ask him if he could take me to the airport instead, he says he can't as he is only allowed to take me to the hotel. I tell him to not bother, flag down an auto, rush to the airport, negotiate with the airline to let me fly the 8:00pm instead of the 10:00AM the next day, pay the are difference, and just return home.
I am thinking finally that the ordeal is over, but theres a twist. I summarize the whole thing for my friend @ Google MV, who says he will try and find out what happened, but turns out theres not much in file in their referral system.
Two weeks after this, the same HR lady send me a mail, yet again no preamble, nothing. "We want you to come in for a second day, I am booking tickets" and then the exact same content from her first email - same day return, 4:30AM flights etc, follow. I reply to her, telling her that I'd prefer to make my own bookings and inquiring if google would reimburse me for them (and any policy about such reimbursements, limits, etc). She doesn't reply. Ten days later, when she has still not responded, I request my friend @ Mountain VIew to see if he can find me another contact (and berating myself that I did not do this a lot earlier). He says he doesn't have another contact for me, but that he has conveyed my concerns to "some people". A day after his email telling me this, I get an email from the same HR person - this time responding to my last email about booking my own flight tickets, tersely telling me - "that email was for someone else. sorry. thanks for applying to google".
/end_rant.
What I have come to accept is, dealing with engineers is fine (as long as language doesn't become an issue), but others, in government, or even in most private organizations in India, are just not up to doing their jobs 99% of the time. Its not merely an issue of corruption, its just the culture does not provide for shaming people who are bad at their jobs, firing incompetents is considered evil, and its not even a solution as incompetence is everywhere. One recent report suggested that a full 80% of Indian graduates with a 4-year degree were so bad they were not employable at all in their chosen fields - not even with additional training.
"One recent report suggested that a full 80% of Indian graduates with a 4-year degree were so bad they were not employable at all in their chosen fields - not even with additional training."
That helps shed some light on why the developers from India who are good are so good, and the rest leave you wondering.
The actual problem is the rapid promotions and fast multiples of 10% hike which people undeservingly got in the 90's and early 2000's. That has led to a generation of people and managers who think., they deserve a promotion and a 100% hike every alternate year even if they didn't move a finger to deserve it. During those times Tech was considered a bad career option and being anything apart from a manager meant you are fit for nothing.
Coupled with the mad rush for real estate here has led to spoiling a whole generation of people in convincing, regardless of whatever, no matter how inefficient, under performing they are. Or even if they never work. Merely joining the Software Industry will make them millionaires in no time.
During discussions with people I find people constantly cribbing, whining and complaining. How badly their expectations(misplaced expectations) have gone down the drain, How they haven't gotten lucky, and no special shine of destiny has made them millionaires. And most of them(who come from other branches of engineering like mechanical, Civil) would have actually been better off in their original disciplines. The constant comparisons are between themselves and other people who got lucky by traveling abroad and saved money through foreign exchange factors.
The society has a unbelievable perspective. They think if you are not a manager in 5 years of joining software industry you are useless. Programming and tech jobs are considered low profile jobs meant for ordinary people who don't want to do much in life. And managerial jobs are considered for the 'masters of the universe'. The big IT bellwethers are full of useless layers and layers of management out which nearly 80% is useless.
In fact college kids when they first come in to the industry and find that 'Manager within 5 years' no longer a feasible option get pretty disgusted and loose hope. Most of them run away to do their MBA. In hope of becoming a manager quickly.
Its like the human evolution path baby, teenager, adult, programmer, manager. Managers are considered ultimate stage in your career evolution. So it follows that most people don't want to do tech jobs, because they want to be managers. Another disease here is rapid ultra fast job hopping candidates.
Well I interviewed at a well known Global firm. Although am an Indian and live in Bangalore, let me tell you what I faced.
The first day the HR lady gave me the address, actually there are two buildings separated by 15 minutes of walk, across the roads. She asked me to be there by 9:45 AM and so I did. The road was so dusty due to some construction work going, I don't if I had eaten some grams of dust while I was driving my bike. Nevertheless battling traffic for two hours I managed to reach their office. The moment I reached there I had no contact but her's and the security refused to let me in. She called me, after I trying to call her for 30 mins waiting in the sun and dust and now she tells me know that the office is a goddamn 15 mins walk across the road. I didn't want to fight the traffic again so I walked. But two hours of bike ride, the dust and the 15 mins of walk in summer had sapped the energy out of me.
I reached there and then a guy escorted me in. He was an engineer and he was good enough to ask me if I needed water and needed to use the restroom. I took the water. Then the first interview lasted for two hours straight, where he bought me in a laptop and asked me to code. And I wrote all the programs. Then for the next hour, there was no communication I didn't know if I had to stay or leave. I tried calling the HR lady and she didn't pick up the call. Then another engineer came in, so the interview went on for the whole day. And they were all fine people and the interviews went great. Looks like this was some special department with a different culture.
All engineers were pretty good and they even took me to the cafeteria and even paid for my lunch and snacks. After that there was dead air, no communication from them ever again. I tried emailing, calling her but no avail. Suddenly after two weeks she wrote me an email. Asking me to 'be there' at the office. Again no proper address. This time I went to the office where I was interviewed previously, only to be told that this time(again after trying to reach her for 30 minutes) it was other office. Again I walked to the other office for 15 minutes in the scorching sun taking in all the dust.
This time its probably the worst kind of people I ever faced. It rounds and rounds of interviews with people who had completely decided to humiliate me and send me out no matter what. This time no idea where I had to take lunch, no idea about restrooms, no water. The whole day was miserable. I had to run to the nearest hotel to relieve myself and eat something at the end of the day. Again after this no communication and she refused to pick up the call for three days.
Then again they asked me to come in for a third day. This time I was clever enough to take a bus, carry my own water and lunch. And careful enough to avoid myself to having need a restroom. This time it was more pathetic, none of the interviewers looked serious. One guy was continuously chatting with some one, another guy was answering emails on his Blackberry, another guy continuously reading something on his mobile and laughing. None of them were serious to listen to answers to their own questions they asked.
They asked me to come in for the fourth time 'I just plainly turned it down'. And didn't want to work with such people
But my other experiences have been good. I think some times its just purely Murphy's law and some people with horrible work culture.
After this, the HR exec comes in, hands me a google t-shirt, tells me there is a taxi waiting to take me to my hotel. I go out, find the taxi, ask him if he could take me to the airport instead, he says he can't as he is only allowed to take me to the hotel. I tell him to not bother, flag down an auto, rush to the airport, negotiate with the airline to let me fly the 8:00pm instead of the 10:00AM the next day, pay the are difference, and just return home.
I am thinking finally that the ordeal is over, but theres a twist. I summarize the whole thing for my friend @ Google MV, who says he will try and find out what happened, but turns out theres not much in file in their referral system.
Two weeks after this, the same HR lady send me a mail, yet again no preamble, nothing. "We want you to come in for a second day, I am booking tickets" and then the exact same content from her first email - same day return, 4:30AM flights etc, follow. I reply to her, telling her that I'd prefer to make my own bookings and inquiring if google would reimburse me for them (and any policy about such reimbursements, limits, etc). She doesn't reply. Ten days later, when she has still not responded, I request my friend @ Mountain VIew to see if he can find me another contact (and berating myself that I did not do this a lot earlier). He says he doesn't have another contact for me, but that he has conveyed my concerns to "some people". A day after his email telling me this, I get an email from the same HR person - this time responding to my last email about booking my own flight tickets, tersely telling me - "that email was for someone else. sorry. thanks for applying to google".
/end_rant.
What I have come to accept is, dealing with engineers is fine (as long as language doesn't become an issue), but others, in government, or even in most private organizations in India, are just not up to doing their jobs 99% of the time. Its not merely an issue of corruption, its just the culture does not provide for shaming people who are bad at their jobs, firing incompetents is considered evil, and its not even a solution as incompetence is everywhere. One recent report suggested that a full 80% of Indian graduates with a 4-year degree were so bad they were not employable at all in their chosen fields - not even with additional training.