I used to work for a CMM level 5 company. That is to say I have been through hell and more. A lot of people I talk to believe that the off shore model of development survives on the number of people/resources that is at a company's disposal. Though, it is absolutely true when it comes to a lot of big shot service providers in India, I don't think services/consulting software companies are just that, a herding shepherd collecting sheep. It is much more than that. And people have a tough time comprehending why I say "Fuck CMM" because they are made to believe that you get your ISO certification, your CMM & PCMM certification and a business model following the Infosys and you are all game for a software company. Hell, just working at one of these places will make parents of girls virtually drool and ask you to marry their daughters. I don't have a problem with that, however.
By being a CMM level 5 company, a company follows a set of processes. Everything is process-driven and person independent. So, for a big shot IT company in India, more often than not, each person joining in is more of a head count increase rather than a value add. They aren't looking at heroes who can do a lot things on their own, rather people who do what they are told and do it well. So, your ability to do same things repeatedly without thinking is what counts and not, say, your ability to use diophantine equations to make your computer work in parallel universes to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem.
My point is as long as you don't mind the fact that you are just a number in a SAP software, another brick in the wall, just someone who is, by definition, "replaceable" by someone, anyone, else then you can continue what you are doing. Otherwise, its high time you had a good contemplative look at your job and say, "Fuck CMM" and move on.
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let me tell you a story. once, a guy asks a mason:"what are you doing?" he says: "i'm laying bricks and making a wall". then he asks the other, top-level mason what he's doing. that guy says: "i'm building the sisteine chappel". it's all a matter of how you think... the SPAN/size of your thinking.
Well, it doesn't matter if you are building the Sisteine Chappel, if all you are doing is building a wall. And Sisteine Chappel doesn't have just walls. It has far more things than just a wall. But the organizations I am talking about are building 4 walls and a roof. Span your thinking and remove the illusion that you are building a Sisteine Chappel when you are not. If you know you are, then fine. Don't assume since you are good and they are making you do stuff which may not have a meaning now, but in the "long run" it will all be for a reason. You will just end up being a fool after all.
ok.. then again, where do you move on TO? looks like the only solution is to get into business...
with enough training, anyone is replaceable by anyone, right?
Well, for starters, go some place where you can learn things. By learn I mean practically. Everyone can come up with an abstract solution at a high level. But to implement it in a clean way is the toughest thing. Starting your own business is always good. But how do you start a business if you don't know the business yourself!
No one can teach a person how to think. They can streamline thinking. But genius cannot be imbibed, it has to be there. That's what I think.
now i'm confused. there are development projects in CMM companies also..
Yes there are, but what are the chances that a fresher gets to work on a really cool development project? And what are the chances that there are a lot of really cool development projects? And anyway, by implementing, I meant when you pro actively learn stuff, you'll still lack the practical skills which you can only gain by working on an "actual" project. Whether you can cook up the project requirements yourself or its from your company is the question. Of course, one expects the company to provide good problems which makes you think.
oh you're underestimating certifications. sun is great.
This is the one i'm buying next. "real" programming assignment. i also highly recommend this for anyone who isn't getting development jobs@work.
Long time since my 'swear center' has worked.Thanks for giving me a platform for that so that i can throw in my daily S/W Engg frustrations over here.
Speaking bout certifications ,some are really gud and really require talent like RHCE and Sun certifications.But there are some certifications from Bill 'The Fucker' Gates company itself that need no pains at all.Rather, previous years stuff and what you get in the net is more than enuf for scoring a percentile > 90 which makes you more marketable in a certain company called MicroSoft,which gives you huge amount of money to make and market bull shit.(Now,can you c thru the 'WINDOWS'?)
Well we all know that dude. You might wanna comment on the big news http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/.
Btw if you go to the link, you can see a guy with his head of the shape of an Egg. I'm serious, I'm no racist.
well, yeah. sun certifications need a lot of talent.. thankyou aju, whoever you are :)
abt windows...i feel microsoft's just capitalizing on an opportunity. the other OSs aren't for everyone. just recently at work, i came across a situation where i had to write a 250 line java program for doing something that UNIX wud be able to do in one line. it's frikin' brilliant, is UNIX. but only for programmers, and the smarter population. the majority still needs UIs like the ones microsoft makes, and they probably don't even get that..
Having a great name along with lotsa numbers in the fortune magazine looks great...finally did it ?
So howz that gonna help a common man ? Does he get satisfied by sayin' that yeah,he became rich again...again..in the fortune magazine..how ?? My Money .
Naaaa.....things like Unix is very simple...so simple that u requirea genuis to understand the simplicity...but one thing i do feel....if LINUX becomes that a threat to the bullshit...the CEO of bullshit will not bow down...but he will make a version of LINUX and market that...atleast the hacker community will be more happy...cause they can hack LINUX atleast now.....
unix is simple for whom? i mean, consider the vast majority of computer users, aka duds. it's no wonder that microsoft rules the client side.
tats wat i too said pal..its soo simple that u require a genius to understand it.
and there is no point in sayinng that u reuire x number of lines to achieve something in java that requires only 1 line in unix.Thats all assembly code and C...u give it one cmd line and it does things for ya...
[Swaroop] Well, its not just Linux mon. Any command line file transfer program would do that for you. Java is not about the size of the code but the neatness and readability. Well, of course, with proper refactoring even the most diabolical looking code can be made to smell less.
[Aju] Well, I am moving my stand from "Go Linux" to "Hmmm" on this one because I just don't have enough information.
[Aju] A lot Linux is hacky. I am sure its refined like anything. But still has a lot of hacks.
aiyyo! nono, not comparing java and linux now :) i meant, that java program u helped write, i wouldn't need to write that if i was using linux. one line would do ALL that work. talkin abt the 'grep' command. u do remember that little program rite?
yeah..i do...tats wat swaroop....
for doing grep u need to giv a command line..whose program will be written inside in C.God knows how many lines that is... :)
ok... coming back to the blog topic, i feel that as long as you work in any company, you're always a number in some ERP software. or a string. makes very little difference. taking a contemplative look at my job, i feel quite irreplaceable. "development" isn't the only cool thing in software industry, in fact the dev team appears to be doing very very boring things, just following a design spec (also terribly boring, making that spreadseet) and writing loops. tech support people are like the smartest of them all! the bugfixers have to be DAMN smart, they've gotta know the system in and out, plus the technology behind it. for one, i really enjoy my work and it wud take them ages to replace me.
am i an exception?
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