Full of Shit

Folks, This is about the Devyani Khobragade incident and my views on this Diplomatic episode

Class

Folks in my obsevation the very lowest and the very highest classes behave in a completely similar fashion. They have scant respect for the law of the land, Other people's rights and a devil-may-care attitude. Take for example the case of the IFS officer who paid lower than min wage and purportedly exploited a poor (Catholic) "Maid in Manhattan" by making her work 19 hours/day and paying her INR 30,000/month and got an inappropriate visa for her. Apparently she also is very moneyed and influential (daughter of a Retd. IAS officer)  in India and owns land in 3 Indian States. Being rich is not a crime, however denying other people their rights certainly is.  Respect for the Law has become something you should expect from the Middle Classes (AAM Admi) only. Sangeeta Richard (maid) whose husband works in the US consulate in India also does not seem to be the "innocent and exploited" maid she claims to be. The facts are rarely ever black and white. While the entire Indian Govt. and masses erupted in a "How dare they"! The indian thinking middle class is merely watching the Tamasha that ensues. Meanwhile people from the absolutely lowest classes went about breaking things at Pizza Huts and McDonalds in Mumbai. They are ready to commit crimes for people who dont give a rats ass for their welfare.This is a battle between the lowest and the highest classes and has promise to be a well evened out fight. Meanwhile IMHO Devyani's career as a Diplomat is as good as finished. Its time to join Politics, or better still Bollywood!

  

Full of Shit

In terms of misuse of Authority the Indian Babus of the IAS/IFS  are probably unparalleled in the world. Devyani pulled all the strings she could to rein Sangeeta Richard in. However Sangeeta did exactly the same, pulling strings in the US consulate to screw the hand that fed her. In comes Preet Bharara, why should he be left out in the list of authority abusers? He and possibly Kerry knew about the whole incident from the start. A visa fraud is hardly a crime which requires a Cavity Search, but Preet Bharara thinks otherwise. I hope he found what he was looking for! The message from the USA is very clear: "How dare you break even the pettiest of US laws while on our soil?" Especially when concerned with a Catholic US embassy drivers wife? This has class war written all over it! If the US wants to get a hold of ALL visa fraudsters, they should consider cavity searching several Indian and American Software Moguls alike! Meanwhile the US which prides itself in controlling its borders with a strict visa regime and did not bat an eyelid while granting visas to Sangeeta Richard's family. Breaking their own law. Is this not a case of Visa Fraud as well? I hope they search their (Ass) "Souls" themselves. 

"Race" to the Bottom

Racism is a popular topic in Indian circles in the USA. In fact there is a complete denial that it exists amongst many NRIs (Not Really Indian) and a vitriolic protest that it does amongst many NRI's (Never Relinquished India). The Indian Classes and the Indian Masses treat the white Americans in peculiar ways. Worshipping and Hating them alternately. Foreign tourists are generally soft targets for fraudsters and rapists (Atithi Devo Bhava). However, note that Indias saving grace is its middle class which treats Tourists indifferently not wanting their dollars or enamoured by the colour of their skin. The incident also makes me wonder if the Americans would have dared to perform cavity searches on a Chinese Diplomat or a Russian! I leave you to think where our spineless Foreign Ministry has led the enitre Indian Nation as well as our Race.

While Diplomats and foreign officers of these truly "great" countries continue to play "Dabba Eye Spies" the middle Classes continue to watch this Saga with complete Disgust.

Thats all for now folks!

Regards

Milind Thombre

(A Concerned Friend of USA, and a concerned citizen of India)

Comments Welcome!

Tyranny of the Majority

Folks today i will express my views about socio-political  issues in India. I want to begin with an ancient prayer of India before we begin our search for knowledge and truth:

Om Asato Maa Sad-Gamaya |
Tamaso Maa Jyotir-Gamaya |
Mrtyor-Maa Amrtam Gamaya |
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

Meaning:
1: Om, Lead us from Unreality (of Transitory Existence) to the Reality (of Self),
2: Lead us from the Darkness (of Ignorance) to the Light (of Spiritual Knowledge),
3: Lead us from the Fear of Death to the Knowledge of Immortality.
4: Om Peace, Peace, Peace.

In my opinion Character is the single most important thing to pursue as a civilization. Capability without character is not worthy of appreciation, in fact this should be actively demoted. Otherwise you are likely to be led at a very fast pace in the wrong direction!

Politicians and business leaders today rely on metrics to decide what to say to a group of people. What will bring most applause, what will touch a raw nerve, what will infuriate. A politician who does this is not a leader but a mere prostitute. Someone who does what other people want of him/her. Someone with no Character.

A true leader expresses his/her own opinions and stands by them, and people begin to follow him/her. Or they can shape the opinion of the people in new ways for the better. We are yet to see such a leader emerge from the present political systems of India! What are the direct consequences of the current crop of leaders on the public? Many feel that this does not affect them much or there is nothing they can do about this. I urge you to think and ponder on some of these issues.

A flawed affirmative action policy can affect the educational outcomes of your children, nay this has already begun. (The curtailing of the Special School like Jyana Prabodhini School is a case in point)

A bad training program will leave you with half baked skills in the job market.

More importantly a bad education will leave you with a poor set of values and weak moral character.
Bad foreign policy will lead to unnecessary wars.
Bad governance/law and order will lead to anarchy. (india is fast becoming the rape capital of the world)
Flawed welfare schemes will make people want everything for free and make them behave like parasites.

Please stop and think! If the current crop of leaders is allowed to continue unabated it will lead to decay and eventual death of our once-great civilization.

It is rewarding to spread hatred amongst our diverse communities once the elections arrive. e.g. Brahmin-bashing is a popular sport in Indian politics. Brahmins form an extremely small but highly thought-progressive group in India. Historically Brahmins were one of the poorest communities and made a living in the knowledge industry by teaching, researching diverse issues and begging for food.(Om Bhawati Bhikshanna Deyi) The Brahmin bashing politicians will tell you that it was the Brahmins who oppressed other communities since they were at the top of the social order. It is indeed true that Indian civilization, for the longest time revered learning and knowledge, bastions of the Brahmins. But did the Brahmins indeed opress other people? Nothing can be farther from the truth!

Let us sit back and ask some logical questions... Would a person with no means of livelihood be in a position of power to "oppress" someone else? Or would someone who is an autocratic ruler do so? Would someone with wealth oppress someone who is poor or would it be the other way around ?

"But, I keep hearing these stories again and again" one might argue.  to them I say...A lie repeated 100 times does not become the truth. Only someone who is an enemy of our great civilization will spread such stories. In the past such stories were planted by Christian Missionaries to spread disillusion with Hinduism.

 To the lousy politicians of India I have this to say: Do not underestimate the intelligence of the people of India. Their intelligence is your true enemy!

You can fool some people some times
You can fool some people all the time
But you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Thats all for now folks! Have a thought provoked week ahead!

Regards
Milind Thombre
(Comments Welcome)

Another Programming Puzzle

There is a unisex bathroom with a capacity of 3 people. Either men or women can use it, but not both at the same time. Write a simple program that enforces these constraints.

Milind Thombre

Mutual Exclusion Problems in Programming

A Mutual Exclusion Problem (for Programmers) 

I am reading Allen B Downey's Excellent book (The Little Book of Semaphores) on Semaphores and found this seemingly simple yet intricately complicated problem!

For example, imagine that you and Bob operate a nuclear reactor that you monitor from remote stations. Most of the time, both of you are watching for warning lights, but you are both allowed to take a break for lunch. It doesn’t matter who eats lunch first, but it is very important that you don’t eat lunch at the same time, leaving the reactor unwatched!

Puzzle: Figure out a system of message passing (phone calls) that enforces these restraints. Assume there are no clocks, and you cannot predict when lunch will start or how long it will last. What is the minimum number of messages that is required?

Regards 

Milind Thombre

Solutions Welcome!

Executive Shamelessness

Executive Shamelessness

So you have a Masters degree or a PhD perhaps. Suddenly you have become God's gift to this world of cretins with Bachelors degree 'workers'. With your Superior intellect or perhaps even by virtue of your birth in a certain fold you have achieved the pinnacle of Education and success is bound to follow.... or be assigned to you. Better still, someone died and made you an Executive! And here you come: looking smart, smelling good and feeling like a number one! Its time to extract your pound of flesh (benefits) now! Woohoo! Lets make a check-list least you forget to ask for something from your Employer:

• Fat Pay check
• Stock Options
• Big Corner Office
• Club memberships
• Holiday Abroad
• Insurance for you and your extended family (dog included)
• Reimburse your personal bills
• Did I miss something? Do add to this list as you see fit!

Operations Versus Sales:

The Indian industry has long stopped rewarding 'mundane' ops folks and focuses on rewarding 'new business' (Sales) folks. These Executives are in charge of 'Growth'. Many a times Growth simply happens as a function of the lower price (Arbitrage between $ and Rupee) the engineers are offered at in India. So little is needed to be done. So these execs spend their time Window dressing sales figures, providing ops metrics to clueless customers or doing SWOT analysis of their customers. I am yet to see any concrete growth come out of these silly efforts. Yet the Executive survives and thrives, often the modus operandi is to "Partner" with  the customers and bully the offshore teams who do the actual work. The Myth that in general growth is a function of the Executive has long been propagated and sustained in order to justify higher Exec compensation.

Widening Disparity

Starting annual salary of a bright, out of college engineer is Rupees 300,000 or less in the Indian IT sector. Executive  Salaries are typically 10,000,000(35X)  as much plus stock options andf other benefits listed above. Perhaps nowhere else in the world is this gap so huge. (e.g. $60K vs $300K in USA works out to 5X).  This disparity is further widened by the fact that the Executive makes several paid trips abroad in order to 'ensure' growth or 'accelerate' it all at company expense. (needless to say this expense comes from the sweat of the poor s/w engineers. Stock options further rub salt into the wounds of the poor Engineers.

Advocates of Austerity

There was a COO i knew who would drive around in a SUV's with subsidized diesel which too was reimbursed by the company. He launched the "Green initiative" to save fuel and electricity costs for the company. How Noble! He would urge (in one instance a pregnant woman) to use the stairs instead of the elevators to save money and stay fit. Another austerity advocate drove a Mercedes convertible in India and would fire people at every possible turn in their careers.

Naturally a healthy level of hypocrisy is required to maintain a certain set of Rules of Executives and another (exclusive) set for the Cretins. This has a effect on the mental state of the human being. (Yes Execs are human too) Guilt begins to creep in. Deep down they know they are just as good as everyone else or maybe even worse. In comes CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility). Again it is the execs who lead this initiative and not the Cretins, who feel no guilt as they are the ones being cheated.

The Great Indian Rat Race

I have only one piece of advice for those who are Execs or about to become an Exec in the Indian Industry

"Even if you win you still will be a RAT!."

Do you have an executive Hypocrisy Story to share? Do comment.

Regards

Milind K Thombre

BIG Mistake

Dear Readers,

Today's blog is about Information Technology, namely about Big Data and what I think of several Big Data projects that are running out there.

Data the real Asset

In an earlier Blog you read about my views on why many software projects are a liability, if you want to jog your memory go to http://thombrem.blogspot.in/2012/11/software-asset-or-liability.html 

So if I think software is a liability you may ask, what is an asset on your project? Undoubtedly it is the DATA. Data is used to make decisions such as 

• Where to go next (new products and services) 
• What processes within your organization need automation or change
• Who's slacking
• What data is NOT being captured
• Why your business is sucking. etc.

These decisions are key to success of your enterprise or government or any other goal oriented outfit. Organizations who want to build assets should take technology with a gain of salt. They should ask tough questions like:

• What data will be generated by a project?
• Will it be analyzed?
• Will the information extracted from it be useful and actionable?
• OR Is a process going to be automated by this application?

In other words, will Life be easier and more fun after this project? ;) 

So your IT consultant may tell you that Scala or Ruby is better than Java or C++. DO NOT get carried away by these fallacies. Keep the focus on Data and Analysis of Data. Everything else is a fools paradise in IT. And as you will learn constantly: Anything that does not make sense goes away eventually! Good riddance!

Brains Vs Big Data

So now that you know you need to focus on Data. Perhaps you will start a Big Data project. Analyse all your customer buying patterns, Study their social media behaviour and unleash cloud computing to compute their changing behaviour and tastes. Will you become a successful enterprise? Maybe not! but you will surely end up spending many million dollars on your IT before you get this Epiphany. 

Data is useful but ALL data may not be useful. Big data aims at collecting ALL data available blindly unleashing Analytics on it and producing 'intelligence'. I am not doubting that a correctly implemented BIG data project will succeed. BUT, here again I must ask you to stop and think! 

Can the same or near-same results be produced by other means? 

YES! 

Can it be done at a fraction of the cost? 

YES!

How?

Sampling

Representative sampling is one method that immediately comes to mind. I am sure there are many more ways to find out the very same intelligence without Analysis of Absolutely ALL the Data. 

e.g. the Sampling Theorem (by Nyquist-Shannon) states that if the frequency of ANY waveform is B hertz, this waveform can be reconstructed by sampling at 2B hertz! Bloody brilliant! Now applying this to your data (time series) and figure out how many sample points you will need to construct a perfect model. This is the beauty of theory and brains Vs Brawn.

Pattern Novelty

Many times you find patterns that are repeating over time, over and over again. (No change). This is likely to happen in your BIG data projects as well. e.g. Everybody already knows Christmas season is big sales or that the next tropical storm will trigger panic buying. Unless there is likely to be Pattern Novelty in your Domain, I feel you should not be spending hard earned cash on Big data projects. In other words, The Big data project should have lasting value.

Conclusion

Smart organizations harness brains and new ideas not Brawn (Big Data). If you start a big data project with a long lasting goal in mind you will probably succeed. But if you jump into Big Data because "Everyone else is doing it" you will be going with the Flow. And as I like to say..."If you go with the flow you will end up down the drain"

+Milind K Thombre

(comments Welcome)

Fall of the Talibarbarians

Dear readers,

Today I have coined the term "Talibarbarians" to refer to people who believe in the use of force to achieve their ends. As you know these traits are not culture specific and such elements exist in each and every civilization throughout the world today.

Success of a culture

In my analysis, any culture eventually acquires attributes that it reveres most. This happens by Darwin's principle of natural selection. Each successive generation goes closer to the goal as they mate with partners with the 'desired' characteristics. Different cultures emerged due to isolation in ancient times. For example, the Chinese revered wisdom and industriousness, Jewish civilization revered Cleverness and Business Acumen, Hindus revered Intellect and Europeans revered Power.

Ancient Hindus realised that success as a civilization will only be guaranteed by honing ALL of the following attributes:

• Intellect
• Military Might
• Material Wealth
• Skill and operational excellence.

No attributes were less important than others. (e.g. a Civilization that is wise, intelligent, skilled and rich will fall to another if it is not defended) The Hindus created the caste system to differentiate, specialize and hone these distinct traits and became a largely successful civilization for a long time. Marriage was strictly allowed within a caste itself. (This endogamous practice continues in Modern day India, though looked down upon by the West) Though the caste system exists to this day there were several notable exceptions to it even in ancient India. (DhanaNanda the sweeper king or the Peshwas who were Brahmin rulers in India to name a couple)

The rise of Intelligence

With the passage of time intellect became more and more important and continues its march forward as perhaps the most important attribute towards human evolution. Hence people with intellect were and are still revered in modern society. Civilizations that promote military might (violence as a means to achieve ends) or rampant materialism without intellect or skills without any of the above are headed for failure in my opinion. Many attributes became obsolete in the industrial age due to the introduction of technology e.g. Physical strength which was an important attribute is now rendered obsolete by modern weapons. Materialism has stood the test of time so far, but excessive greed by a few will create social discord. The "Occupy wall street" movement is an excellent example in modern times. Skills with no application of intelligence will create a country of clerks. Afterall a large section of the software community in India are nothing but code coolies.

Mediocrity

Why should one man not pursue all of the above? You may but then you will be a "Jack of all trades". Someone who lacks greatness in anything, a truly mediocre person. This is the epidemic that plagues the West today. Most of the West has given up the caste system and embraced 'equality', become truly mediocre. America realised the fallacy later and began importing the best minds from every culture into its country. However many of those elected in power continue to remain representatives of a (largely) mediocre culture that promotes shameless materialism and use of military force to achieve ends. However, there is still hope there as more of those who are 'imported' (H1) become voting citizens and vote wisely in future elections. After all only a baboon would use a gun instead of a vote or a blog. (pen)

Joke

I will take your leave with this joke that I thought up today. Back when the world was created the good lord decided to divvy up the goodies amongst different peoples.

The Chinese went first and asked for wisdom and industriousness, Granted said the lord.
The Arabs asked for Oil and guns to guard the oil. Granted said the lord.
The Europeans asked for Technology and money. Granted said the lord
The Jews asked for cleverness and Gold, Granted said the lord
The Hindus came last and they said Lord give us your brain and we will store it in our DNA. Granted said the lord.

Ever since the Chinese are working hard for the Europeans. The Europeans and Arabs are busy killing each other for oil. The jews are collecting all the gold, God has gone silent and and the Hindus are showing the rest of the world just who God is!

That's all for now folks!

Regards
+Milind Thombre

(comments welcome)

Management Wisdom from the Hindu Scriptures

Excerpt fom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhrigu

Many great sages gathered at the bank of river Sarasvati to participate in Maha yagya organized at that time. Maharishi Bhrigu was also present there. All the great saints and sages could not decide that out of the Trinity Lord Vishnu, Brahma and Shiv who is pre-eminent and to whom should they offer Pradhanta (Master) of that yagya. With the consent of all the great saints present there, it was decided that Maharishi Bhrigu will test and decide who was pre-eminent.

Upon being entrusted with the task Maharishi Bhrigu decided to test Lord Brahma first. He went on to see Lord Brahma in Brahmalok. On reaching Brahmalok Maharishi displayed utter disrespect to Lord Brahma on purpose. Lord Brahma got angry and wanted to punish Maharishi but Maha Saraswati, wife of Lord Brahma saved Maharishi from his anger. Angry with disrespect, Maharishi Bhrigu cursed Lord Brahma that no one will worship Brahma in Kaliyug. To this day, there are very few temples devoted to Lord Brahma (the notable exception being the Brahma Temple at Pushkar).

Maharishi Bhrigu then decided to visit Lord Shiva at Kailash Parvat. On reaching Kailash Parvat, Nandi stopped him from going inside because at that time, Shiva and Parvati were sporting fun. Bhrigu curses Lord Shiva to be only worshipped in Linga form.

Then in order to test Lord Vishnu, Maharishi reached Vaikunth Dham. He entered the Dham without Lord Vishnu's permission and saw that the Lord was resting at that time. Maharishi asked him to wake up, but Lord was in deep sleep. On seeing no reaction from Lord, Maharishi hit Lord Vishnu on his chest (that strike by Maharishi Bhrigu left a foot print on Lord's chest and that foot print is known as "Shri Vatsa"). Lord Vishnu got up after the strike and realized what has happened. On realizing that Maharishi had hit him with his foot, Lord asked him, “Maharishi, are you hurt in your foot? My chest is strong but your foot is not so strong". Seeing the decorum of Lord Vishnu, Bhrigu was pleased and declared him superior amongst the Tridev.

My 2 cents

As People Managers all of us have a choice:

1. Be creative and worked up but cranky with your reportees, get called the "innovator", but never liked by anybody and quickly forgotten in this day and age (Kalayuga).
2. Be aggressive and destructive and be feared and respected by your reportees, be known as the dick head manager!
3.  Be relaxed and tolerant of your reportees tantrums, forgive their occasional transgressions and be understanding of their emotional turmoil, and you will be WORSHIPPED!

So What kind of Manager do you want to be?

Regards

+Milind Thombre

Felt like a Camel Ride!

This is a true incident that yours truly experienced way back in 2001. It was just post the 911 incident.

Flying back to the US via Dubai-Frankfurt-Cincinnati on an +Emirates flight (was the cheapest ticket at the time) .Personally it was a troubling time for me and I was reading a book on Hindu philosophy titled "The Art of Man Making" for solace. This book is a series of essays on the Bhagvad Gita.

Emirates decided to divert the flight via Jeddah. I continued reading my book on the flight. But when the flight landed in Jeddah an irate co-passenger started yelling and pointing me out to the air hostess. I was puzzled till he started pointing at the saffron covered book in my hand. The well meaning guy sitting next to me quietly advised me to fasten my seat belt and not get off the flight in any circumstances. I did so.

A long ordeal followed.

1. The Arab looking air hostess asked (just)me if I would like to get off the flight. I politely refused. At this point the guy sitting next to me muttered something about the Geneva Convention to her. She went away, only to come back later. At this point i was getting very alarmed!
2. Meanwhile the fasten seat belt sign went off. The hostess  then informed me that the sign was off. I said "OK" and continued to wear my seat belt.
3. After 5 minutes the flight was not getting off the ground and i realised that I was causing the delay! She emerged again and asked (only me) if i wanted something to drink. I politely refused and then added:
4. " You have the right to remain silent, anything you say may be used against you in the court of law in the USA where i am flying to. I request you not to speak to me for the remaining part of this flight." 
5. Following this an armed guard wearing a jet black uniform got on the flight. The hostess pointed me out to him. I continued to wear my seat belt he came over and said " Salam wale kum". "Wale kum asalam" I replied. He asked me what i was reading. I showed him the book. He proceeded  to ask me  if there is anything anti-Muslim in the book. I told him the word "Muslim" does not figure in the book. So how can the book be anti-muslim?
6. He then asked me angrily if "Muslim" does not figure in the book what kind of book is this? I told him "I'm trying to find out myself with a laugh" i told him it is a book about philosphy and not religion.

The guard left the flight and the plane took off. (Phew!) I refused food and drink throughout the flight. When the flight landed, as is customary the flight attendants and the pilots (white and Arab) were at the door to see us off at Frankfurt. The white pilot was asking everyone how was the flight? To which i loudly replied 

" I was rough and bumpy" "Felt like a Camel Ride!" The white pilot tried hard to control his laughter!

Love and Peace to all.

Milind Thombre

(comments welcome)

Death

Yesterday a friend and batchmate +Sunil Ivan Gomes had a massive heart and died. I am deeply shocked that a guy around 39-40 should suffer this untimely a death! Sunil RIP. Today's blog is dedicated to you

Innovation

A lot of people in the software industry who are doing the same thing for years together talk about innovation. "In-novate" is derived from "Novel" which means new. This requires original thought, not copying and repetition. To build skills requires a discipline and rigour, but once you have built the skills, if you keep on doing the same thing with those skills, that is NOT innovation. That is Specialization and "specialization is for insects"

So what exactly is innovation when it comes to the software industry? Let me give you an example from my life.

Years ago i ventured out trying to build India's first Analytics product (Nash Data Miner). We failed but the experience enriched me in many ways. This was not innovation as we were following in the giant footsteps of +SAS, however, I came in touch with several people who wanted to do new things and were all fired up! Needless to say several of them were Fresh graduates and yet un-destroyed by the Indian IT industry's un-innovative regimen! Though the idea was not new to the world, it was new to India and certainly new to me. However, I toyed with several innovations when it came to solving my practical problems. This was the first time i was dealing with 16 odd software engineers at once, all writing code at varying speeds and with varying quality.

I decided to use the Co-operative model for software development! this was an innovation (new to world) I was inspired by Mr. Kurien the milk man of India. he set up +Amul Milk which was based on the co-operative model, and i decided to use something similar for software!

Which meant :

1. Developers would not need to be physically present at one place most of the time
2. They would be evaluated by their work alone. (and paid in proportion)
3. They would bring in their code which would get evaluated by automated tools (similar to Amuls milk quality and quantity evaluation tools)
4. The modular code would then be built with the rest of the engine
5. There would be metrics for code quality as well as quantity (LOC)
6. There would be deductions for bugs, mistakes and such.

This was and still is a fine example of innovation according to me.

Why do most people lack it? And why innovators are often rebels.

People lack innovative thinking because they are programmed by society. They are "beaten into shape" till the programming becomes hard-wired. Wake up, Go to work, lunch, tea, work and so on. Only a die hard rebel is truly able to question this programming, challenge it and rise above and destroy anyone who tries to program him/her. This requires supreme belief in ones own abilities and the ability to swim against the flow. As I like to say "if you go with the flow, you end up down the drain"

How do you spot an innovator in robot-town-hell ?

• Someone who is building new skills all the time (so if you get a guy with the headline "16 years of Java experience" he's not it)
• Someone with a die-hard attitude ( this is required to fight the programming) (team players can leave the room now)
• Someone who has ideas and is willing to work hard to make them happen. (bye bye work life balancers)
• Someone who does not care to be judged by society, leave alone companies and managers.
• Thinker as well as Doer.

That's all for now folks!

Regards

+Milind Thombre

(comments welcome)

Choosing Techies!

Recruiting Talent

My top ten qualities to look for in an individual contributor techie:

1. Evidence of Clarity of Thought and Purpose 
2. Relevant Technical Skills (more is better) Have a hands on test
3. Aptitude test/ Problem solving abilities
4. Evidence of a Die hard Attitude
5. Long attention span
6. Good Written and Oral Communication Skills
7. Individual contribution evidences from work history
8. Evidence of good academics in case work history is absent
9. Evidence of good judgement and character (ask for examples)
10. Good References

Guidelines for Technical Interviews:

1. Ask him/her to list her 3 strongest areas
2. Do a thorough technical first round interview covering the basics of each area
3. Ask to solve several technical problems on the fly
4. Criticize their approach and gauge their reaction
5. Ask what technical challenges were faced
6. Ask what problems were solved and how
7. Ask what they liked and did not like and why?
8. Ask what their favourite author and book is (this separates the intellectuals from the rest)
9. Never ask people who are incompetent in your opinion to interview! These people usually hire their "clones"

Guidelines for HR Interviews:

1. Never delegate short-listing especially based on the resume. People who write good resumes may not be the best techies and vice versa
2. Never judge just by the places they have worked in
3. Look for verbal and visual cues during interviews
4. Learn to spot a liar
5. Ask uncomfortable questions and gauge reaction (anger, withdrawal, resignation, stress etc.)
6. Never offer based on "Current CTC" you may miss out a lot of good talent

Lastly a good interview is a two way process, so :

1. Listen to the candidate, 
2. Ask how they heard about you
3. Ask who else they know in your company
4. Ask for their feedback on your recruitment process
5. Always thank them for their time!

-Milind K Thombre

Comments welcome!